Laser eye surgery has an admirable safety history and a high success rate. Since LASIK’s inception, millions of procedures have been safely performed. However, as with any surgery, LASIK carries risks. Though complications rarely occur, it is your responsibility as an informed patient to understand and accept the risks.
Here, the Will Vision & Laser Centers team reviews the risks of LASIK and explains how we personally minimize the chances of something going awry. If you have any questions, we encourage you to schedule a consultation with our knowledgeable LASIK surgeon, Dr. Brian Will.
LASIK patients from many years ago would periodically experience trouble with night vision, such as glares or haloes around lights. Fortunately, the occurrence of halos or glare has significantly decreased since we started performing wavefront-guided custom LASIK, which corrects very subtle vision imperfections.
Dry Eye
LASIK is known to cause a temporary decrease in tear production, which can lead to eye discomfort and blurred vision. Dry eye symptoms may persist as the eyes heal from surgery. Eye drops can be used to lubricate the eyes and reduce discomfort after LASIK.
In some cases, the corneal flap can fail to adhere properly to the surface of the eye; or, a flap may develop microscopic wrinkles that cause distorted vision. Most serious flap-related complications occur because they were created with a handheld blade.
Because we have always been cautious of using a blade for corneal creation, we started offering “bladeless” LASIK in 2002. The bladeless LASIK alternative uses a laser to create a more precise flap. We have found bladeless LASIK to be safer and lead to more predictable outcomes than traditional LASIK.
It is possible that the laser can remove too much or too little corneal tissue, thereby overcorrecting or undercorrecting the refractive error, respectively. In these cases, an additional surgery may be needed to produce the desired vision results. However, the margin of error is small with a team as experienced and technologically adept as ours. Rest assured that you are in good hands.
The best way to minimize the risks of LASIK is to choose the right team. Schedule a consultation with our LASIK surgeon, Dr. Brian Will and find out why hundreds of patients have trusted him with their surgery. You can reach our Vancouver office at (877) 542-EYES (3937), our Beaverton office at (877) 542-3937 or our Salem office at (877) 542-3937.