Lasik Eye Surgery 

What Are The Risks?

While lasik eye surgery is the preferred form of eye surgery, there are risks involved.  Knowing these laser eye surgery risks before having the surgery is essential.  You need to understand what you are getting yourself into before you do it.  Knowing the risks will help you make an informed and educated decision about having surgery done on your eyes.

An investigation by “Health Which?” in the United Kingdom, has learned that most doctors can perform the procedure after only a couple days of training.  They don’t even need any kind of certification. Given this information, you would think that there would be bigger risks and side effects involved. 

One side effect is corneal ectasia.  This is when fluid pressure builds up on the eye.  The only fix for this is to have a corneal transplant.  Imagine that, you go in to the doctor to have him simply reshape your eye so you can see better, and then you end up having to have a transplant.  However, most doctors forget to mention this possible outcome when talking with you about lasik.  

Some people go through all the pain and suffering and costs of surgery to have another complication.  Some people come out of surgery losing their sight completely.  Imagine going to a doctor to fix a minor problem and ending up with a worse problem.  This is another thing they fail to mention when consulting you.

Some patients also experience some other minor complications. Some people develop a glare in their vision. There also have been cases of seeing halos.  There is also the risk of developing double vision as a result of surgery.  All these effects can seriously impair your ability to function normally.  You went to the doctor to repair the natural damage to your eyes, and now the problem is worse.  Most of these complications can not be fixed with glasses, contact lenses, or more surgery.  Consider this before trusting someone who only took a class for a few days to shine a laser in your eye.

Another thing to consider is that one major and common side effect of lasik eye surgery is severe dry eye syndrome.  One of the effects of the surgery is that you may not be able to produce enough tears to keep the eyes moist and comfortable.  This causes major discomfort and is not healthy for the eye. It can also caused diminished vision or reduce vision quality due to blurriness.  This may be treated with eye drops and plugs.  For some the effect is permanent. 

One last thing to think of when getting this surgery:  It does not work for everyone.  Although everyone wants to come out of surgery with 20/20 vision, the truth is that not everyone will walk away with perfect vision.  In fact there is a risk that the surgery will have little to no effect on your vision.  It may only make a slight improvement.  You may still have to wear glasses even if you had a weak prescription to begin with.

Also, please remember that if you are farsighted, there is a big chance that the surgery may diminish with age.  So if you are getting this done at a young age, you may have to get glasses again in the future.  You may be able to get the surgery in the future, but that is an expensive thing to have done every couple years.

Lasik is a fairly new procedure.  It was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use until 1998.  Experts are still not sure of the long term effects of this surgery or its side effects.  Keep all this in mind when considering Lasik surgery.  Do your homework.  Look for doctors who have done a lot of lasik procedures.  Check their track record.  Ask them if they have any patients you can contact to ask them questions the doctor won’t answer.  Don’t base your decision on the cost, base it on experience.  These are your eyes they will be cutting on.  Keep that in mind when choosing a doctor.  Also beware of any place that offers perfect vision or your money back.  This is medicine not business-there are no guarantees.  If a doctor tells you otherwise, it’s time to find another doctor.