Eye News & Education,LASIK Education & News
Glasses are one of the easiest ways to improve your eyesight, making it a common sight-related medical treatment. While both LASIK and glasses improve vision, glasses do not prevent vision from getting worse. If you can see well enough that you need contacts or glasses only some of the time, then improvements with LASIK may not be worth the risk.
Most people who get LASIK will see well to excellent vision most of the time, for years to decades. Many people considering eye LASIK surgery wonder whether they can have better vision from the procedure compared with just their corrective lenses.
When considering solutions for eye care, most will look at glasses, contact lenses, or LASIK surgery. LASIK surgery makes it possible to enjoy clearer vision without needing glasses or contacts, making it a highly popular treatment. LASIK makes it possible to enjoy everyday activities without worrying that your glasses will fall out of place or become dirty.
Patients who undergo LASIK surgical procedures no longer have to worry about ordering and paying for expensive contacts, working around insurance limits for eyewear, or replacing glasses. Although it is more expensive, many who undergo LASIK surgery believe that the enhanced vision is worth the expense. After LASIK, most patients experience dramatic improvements in their vision, with many having 20/20 vision or better.
Most will enjoy a lifetime of improvement in vision, though some patients may require touch-up LASIK at some point in the future. Glasses and contacts fix a vision issue temporarily, but LASIK changes your eyes by improving how they function. LASIK corrects vision by changing the shape of your corneas using a special laser, which allows the corneas to better concentrate light.
It takes only about 20-50 seconds to change the shape of your cornea using a laser, and most surgeries are completed in under 10 minutes. During laser eye surgery, a low-temperature laser is used to remove a precise amount of tissue to create a cornea that is just right for the rest of your eyes, leading to sharp, clear vision. Epilasik surgery changes the shape of your cornea, using lasers to create a lens-shaped piece of tissue (a lenticule) beneath the surface of your cornea.
Now, the most widely performed type of laser eye surgery, LASIK involves creating a partial-thickness corneal flap and using an excimer laser to ablate the bed of the cornea. Laser vision correction, on the other hand, and LASIK, effectively corrects the astigmatism by changing the shape of the cornea, eliminating two different curvatures, thus creating a proper, spherical shape for the cornea. Glasses and contacts correct blurred vision due to astigmatism, using lenses that are shaped in opposite directions of their corrected lenses, canceling out the aberrant shapes of the eyes.
Another reason why contacts may seem to offer better visual results than glasses is that glass is exposed to elements. Both contacts and glasses may hinder your performance, especially if you are working in a high-impact location. If you are sick and tired of dealing with daily contacts or glasses issues, there is another solution.
There are plenty of options to improve near, medium, and distant vision, including both LASIK eye surgery and contacts or glasses. Many LASIK Vision centers accept vision plans, which may give you an even greater discount on your laser vision correction costs. Many people are wondering how the one-time cost of laser vision correction compares with the lifelong costs of eyeglasses, contacts, and accessories like eye solutions and supplies.
It works out that glasses generally cost slightly less than contacts, but they generally cost more than laser eye surgery, since this is a one-time expense for a treatment that provides a permanent change in vision. In calculating, eye exam costs are not included, since you need one every couple years regardless if you are wearing contacts, glasses, or getting Laser Eye Surgery. The real dollar cost of having LASIK is compared to the continued costs of wearing glasses or contacts in a long-term perspective.
Now, on the surface, it might appear LASIK is worth a ton of money, but when the average cost of contacts or eyeglasses is taken into account, you can see these costs are likely higher in reality than the amount that you will need to spend on getting your eyes LASIK. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Americans spend $15 billion per year on eyewear, which would be much higher than the price of a procedure at a LASIK Vision Center.
Contact lenses and glasses might cost less upfront than LASIK, but their continuing costs eventually add up. Higher prescriptions typically call for special, thinner, lighter lenses, which can cost hundreds more.
Eyeglasses with different prescriptions for each eye may present vision problems to people who wear glasses. This is generally not a concern, but do know you will need to completely stop wearing contacts and transition to glasses at least several weeks prior to surgery. Overall, glasses are also the most secure form of vision correction; they do not touch or alter your eyes in any way, which means that you do not need to visit the lab for surgery such as laser eye surgery, nor will they expose you to infection as you would with contact lenses.
This is because people who are considered to be not suitable can suffer from presbyopia, which is when your eyes lenses get hard and prevent your ability to see up close (the procedure changes your cornea, not the lens). Certain health conditions, not related to the eyes, can add risk associated with LASIK surgery, or make results less predictable.
LASIK treats underlying conditions that make straining eyes more likely, leaving you with the freedom to live without the discomfort. In fact, thanks to the latest laser software, LASIK is often capable of resolving larger sizes of astigmatism than what is possible with glasses, even with contacts. Along with better lenses and an extensive selection of fashionable glass frames, laser eye surgery can give you a clearer view.
