Wavefront-Guided LASIK - The New Frontier


by Tara Pingle - Date: 2007-04-10 - Word Count: 477 Share This!

Wavefront-guided LASIK uses Wavefront technology to customize the surgery precisely to your eyes. Traditional LASIK and corrective lenses can correct common vision problems including nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism, but cannot address other problems with quality of vision. Higher order aberrations can cause vision problems such as halos, glare, decreased contrast sensitivity, and shadows. These problems normally do not affect visual acuity (how you test on the eye chart) but affect the quality of what you see in real life. Higher order aberrations can actually be exacerbated by traditional LASIK surgery.

So what are higher order aberrations? As they relate to your vision, they are infinitesimal imperfections that create minute changes in the light rays that pass through your eye. These minute changes in the light rays affect the quality of your vision (even with glasses or contact lenses) although you are probably not even aware of the difference. In fact, the impact on your vision may be so minor that it doesn't even show up in an eye exam.

Even though these imperfections are minute, eliminating them through Wavefront-guided LASIK will make your post LASIK vision so clear and crisp that you will be amazed at the difference. Many people who have Wavefront-guided LASIK can see even better after the procedure than they could with glasses or contacts before the procedure.

Wavefront-guided ablation uses the same technology that has been used to adjust high-powered telescopes for years. During a Wave Scan light is sent into the eye and then measured after it has passed through the visual system. The result is a 3-D map, called a wave print, which pinpoints aberrations and is accurate up to hundredths of a diopter. The map is then used to precisely guide the surgery. Previous methods were only accurate to 0.25 diopter steps.

Higher order aberrations can only be detected during a Wavefront evaluation. Myopia and hyperopia (sphere aberrations) and astigmatism (cylinder aberration) are low order aberrations. They can be safely corrected with traditional refractive surgery.

Not all patients are good candidates for Wavefront. In some cases Wavefront ablations are deeper than traditional refractive surgery, so those with thin corneas may not be eligible. Any type of refractive surgery can increase higher order aberrations. This is why some patients see halos or lose contrast sensitivity after refractive surgery. Wavefront-guided LASIK carries a much lower risk of creating higher order aberrations. In fact, the main advantage of Wavefront-guided LASIK is

Wavefront-guided refractive surgery is more expensive than traditional refractive surgery, but it has many benefits including:

· More likely to achieve 20/20 vision or better (in fact, many patients who have Wavefront-guided LASIK end up with better than 20/20 vision)
· Less likely to lose best-corrected vision
· Less likely to lose vision quality

At the very least you should have Wavefront diagnostics before undergoing any type of refractive surgery, so you know what the risks are and what to expect.


Related Tags: custom lasik, wavefront-guided lasik, wavefront guided lasik

If you are considering LASIK, talk to your ophthalmologist about Wavefront-guided LASIK today by clicking here.

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