Speaking from personal experience of having undergone LASIK surgery one eye at a time (sequential surgery), the main drawback of sequential surgery is the downtime. I had LASIK surgery while I was a medical student. So far, the results are good. Looking back, I would have opted for bilateral LASIK surgery (both eyes at the same time). Hope that this helps!

Embarking on the journey towards laser vision correction can be one fraught with conflicting information and differences of opinion even amongst eye surgeons. The criteria used to consider when a patient is suitable for LASIK are many. As with all forms of risk analysis, often the conclusion is made only when a multitude of factors converge to inform the surgeon if the patient sitting in front of him or her is a suitable candidate for LASIK.

Current options available for laser vision correction include corneal flap-based procedures like LASIK, and also no flap, Advanced Surface Ablation (ASA) methods like TransPRK. During LASIK, the doctor will have to cut your cornea to create an external flap using either a blade or a Femtosecond laser (bladeless LASIK). Whether using a blade or the laser, there will still be a cut corneal flap and this will result in cut corneal nerve endings, increasing the risk of procedure-induced dry eyes. This, together with flap complications, are the main disadvantages of LASIK.

In short, yes definitely! Your eye pressure will affect whether or not you are suitable for LASIK. Long answer: Your eye pressure is an indication of your glaucoma risk. Although everyone’s eye pressure fluctuates on a daily basis (it even varies depending on the time of day), a normal person’s eye pressure should be consistently within the range of 8 to 21. If your eye pressure is ever recorded as higher than 21, you may need further tests to evaluate the possibility of glaucoma.

Suitability for Lasik / Refractive Surgery is a common concern of patients with dry eyes. It is well established that post-Lasik, patients experience longer periods of reduced cornea sensitivity and symptomatic dry eyes. This is thought to be related to the cornea nerves being severed at the nasal and temporal limbus during creation of the flap. However dry eyes per se doesn’t automatically disqualify you from having Lasik performed. This is because most patients with symptomatic dry eyes can be optimised before surgery so that they may get better results after surgery.

Thanks for this interesting questions! The use of collagen cross-linking to enhance Lasik procedures has been performed increasingly commonly in the last 15 years. This is due to more evidence emerging that at-risk patients show increased refractive stability over time. The patients who seem to show the most benefit are: Hyperopic, high-dioptre myopic corrections Patients with significant astigmatism or Patients with borderline thin residual corneal thicknesses.

Hi, The term ‘perfect eyesight’ can be somewhat misleading as it could mean different things. When we check eyesight (visual acuity), we are asked to read a chart with smaller and smaller letters. One of the line of small letters near the bottom is called the 6/6 line, and if a person can read the letters on that line, some people would call that ‘perfect eyesight’. But being able to read or make out the letters does not necessarily mean that those letters are perfectly clear.

Lasik is very safe and has an excellent record, however up to 6% of patients may require an enhancement procedure within 10 years of the original surgery. Some minor changes in spectacle refraction does occur over time, occurring most significantly in patients who were of a younger age at the time of surgery, higher degrees of myopia, and of the female sex. For the majority of patients, the spectacle refraction is minor and do not require any visual aids or surgery.

Hi Jayden There is some variation in practice here, but I do not recommend assessment and LASIK surgery on the same day too. In terms of risks and benefits, the major downside (to doing everything on the same day) is that pre-LASIK assessment requires dilation of the pupils of your eye.

Great question on the impact of LASIK on night time vision and the practice of performing LASIK on the same day as the assessment. Generally speaking, most patients recover well after LASIK surgery with good night time vision. Occasionally, patients may experience seeing haloes and glare which tends to be more obvious in the immediate post-operative period. The effects improves gradually over several weeks after the procedure. Haloes and glare may become a permanent effect following LASIK for some patients. This can occur to varying degrees in different individuals.

Lasik surgery is not eligible for Medisave, UNLESS: There’s a difference of more than 3 diopters (or 300 degrees) of refractive errors between your eyes AND you are intolerant to contact lens and spectables. If you satisfy both criteria, you’ll be able to use Medisave to pay up to $1200 of your bill. MOH’s rationale for this is that Medisave is intended only for medical uses, and Lasik is not technically a medical necessity (as one can use contacts/glasses to compensate for myopia).

Thanks very much for your enquiry. Generally speaking, I would advise LASIK before any squint/strabismus surgery. This is because there is a risk that changing the spectacle power of the eye (via LASIK) may make the intermittent exotropia more obvious if a patient finds it harder to ‘fuse ‘ the images from each eye after LASIK. If so, the strabismus surgery can then address the full effect and magnitude of the squint. Ideally, if strabismus surgery is required, it would be performed at least a month after LASIK surgery when the vision and spectacle power has usually stabilized.

I usually advise my patients to stay off visually demanding tasks (i. e. computer work, reading etc) right after the procedure (first 12 hours) and to get some good rest. While most patients are able to recover about 75% of their vision the next day after LASIK, I would usually recommend to take things easy for the first 3 days and return to work on the 3rd or 4th day after surgery. While engaging in prolong tasks that are visually demanding does not affect the LASIK results directly, such tasks do cause dryness of the eyes and this may slow down the rate of recovery.

Most patients are able to continue wearing contact lens after LASIK. Due to changes in cornea shape following LASIK surgery, the optometrist can adjust the shape of the contact lens to permit a good fit between the contact lens and cornea. Do remember though that the same precautions to prevent contact lens related complications like infections and allergies still apply. Maintain good hygiene practice and moderate the duration of use. It is generally a misconception that patients undergoing LASIK have to sacrifice the option of wearing contact lens altogether.

Wearing contact lenses for an extended period of time will result in changes to the front part of the eye (cornea). Before the pre-LASIK assessment, patients are advised to lay off contact lens wear for a period of 3 days to 1 month depending on the type of contact lens they are using. This difference is due to the rigidity of the contact lens material. At my practice, I will advise my patients to stop soft contact lenses (toric/non-toric) for at least 3 days and hard lenses (RGP) for at least 14 days.