Wavefront Lasik

In the world of vision correction, the most popular medical procedure, by far, is Lasik eye surgery. With an established track record (it has been around since 1989), it is not difficult to see why. However, a new variation of this procedure, created around 2002, is on the way to revolutionize this procedure. This new variation is called Wavefront Lasik.

While the traditional Lasik technique has been popular due to its quick healing and relatively painless properties, it is far from perfect. To reinforce this point, the statistics show that someone who is undergoing Lasik has between a 75% and 80% chance of obtaining 20/20 vision. While this probability isn’t bad, the fact is, it could be much better.

Fortunately, this is where wavefront Lasik comes into the picture. With this procedure, the odds of the surgery providing 20/20 vision are between 90% and 95%. Obviously, this is a much better success rate when compared with the traditional Lasik surgery.

Now that we know that wavefront Lasik produces much better results, what exactly is wavefront Lasik?

Wavefront Lasik is a relatively new eye surgery procedure. During this procedure, the eye surgeon uses a laser to bounce light off the surface of your eye. When the light returns to the machine, it constructs a 3 dimensional map of your eye. The really neat thing about this map is that it shows your eye in such detail, that it reveals every possible irregularity and aberration that exists.

One of the advantages of using wavefront Lasik is the fact that the map will show many things that an experienced eye surgeon would miss. As a result, the eye surgeon can truly construct an individualized vision correction plan for the Lasik patient.

After reviewing the map, the surgeon enters some information into the computer via some formulas. These formulas will tell the laser which areas to resurface, resulting in a precision unattainable until now.

While both of these methods use lasers to reshape the eye, there are differences. The one real aspect that differentiates traditional Lasik from wavefront Lasik is that in the traditional technique, the eye surgeon uses a metal blade to make a flap in the cornea. With wavefront Lasik, there is no use of a metal blade.

Another difference is that those patients who have wavefront Lasik not only see more, but they can actually see better than those patients who have had normal Lasik.

As with any medical procedure, there will always be pros and cons. Fortunately, with wavefront Lasik, the pros seem to be much greater than the cons.

Since the wavefront Lasik procedure is able to precisely map out a patient’s eyes, it often discovers eye problems that an eye doctor was unaware of. As a result, the wavefront Lasik machine can actually help diagnose certain type of vision issues.

Also, some people are now beginning to claim that wavefront Lasik actually reduces the probability of complications. With that said, we are still waiting for a governmental agency to collaborate these assertions.

The only real negative of wavefront Lasik is its price. Due to three main factors, you will pay significantly more for wavefront Lasik than you would for traditional Lasik.

In case you are wondering what the three factors are that drive up the price of wavefront Lasik, let’s quickly cover them. The first is the eye surgeon’s time. Since the eye surgeon must take more time to map out your eye, he or she will end up billing you more.

The second factor is the technology. Since this is a relatively new technology, your eye surgeon had to buy all new equipment. As you would suspect, the doctor is going to pass that cost onto the patient.

The third factor is the surgeon must pay a royalty fee. In order for the manufacture to recover his research and development costs, the eye surgeon is mandated to pay a fee each time he or she uses the wavefront Lasik machine.

As we have demonstrated above, wavefront Lasik really is the next iteration of Lasik Eye Surgery. Due to its numerous advantages over current vision correction therapies, there are no contenders in site. Therefore, if you are having vision problems, we highly recommend you contact a wavefront Lasik doctor today for a consultation.