4 ms·

As a former contact lens wearer, infections like these, amongst a lot of other reasons, are why I chose PRK (laser eye surgery). Statistically, there's a higher

by jameslk 10y ago

As a former contact lens wearer, infections like these, amongst a lot of other reasons, are why I chose PRK (laser eye surgery). Statistically, there's a higher chance of infection with wearing contacts than there is with receiving laser eye surgery[0]. I paid about $3k and came out with better vision than I had with glasses/contacts. The only negative side effects I've noticed are slight starbursts around lights at night, but its never been a problem and now I rarely notice it. I would also recommend PRK over LASIK because LASIK requires permanent flaps to be cut on the surface of your eyes. This can sometimes lead to some nasty accidents with the flap being damaged in certain cases. PRK has been around a lot longer and requires wearing bandages over the eyes for a couple of weeks, which is why LASIK became more popular for a while (i.e. the flaps act as bandages). But now they can provide contact bandages for PRK where you aren't blind and useless for weeks making LASIK less desirable. 0. http://www.webmd.com/content/article/128/117072.htm http://www.webmd.com/content/article/128/117072.htm

dao- 10y ago
> I would also recommend PRK over LASIK because LASIK requires permanent flaps to be cut on the surface of your eyes. The newer SMILE procedure does not require a flap: http://eyewiki.aao.org/Small_Incision_Lenticule_Extraction_(SMILE) http://eyewiki.aao.org/Small_Incision_Lenticule_Extraction_(...
- dood 10y ago
  I'm interested in getting this, but am concerned that it is much less battle-tested than PRK. I'm currently leaning toward PRK since it is so tried-and-tested.
  - hatsunearu 10y ago
    Go for PRK if you have low correction. I had -4.50 on both eyes and LASIK was kind of dicey. Just know that for a month or 1.5 months you're blind, guaranteed. Don't freak out like I did. I also got weird stuff like my own blood plasma that has been centrifuged and filtered to put in my eye, as well as Mitomycin-C. Your doctor may offer those, and both of those seemed to have clinical trials to reduce the chance of hazing. Just think whether or not glasses bother you so much that you need it though, I never really got bothered by glasses a lot, and laser ablated vision is a little wonky for me because my pupils dilate a lot and that causes lots of starbursting at low light which I think I didn't see with glasses.
- hatsunearu 10y ago
  (Not a doctor, just read some papers before doing my PRK) SMILE is new but insanely expensive, though it's the only procedure you can do if you need high correction. LASIK you flap up the epithelial cells and part of your cornea, and then the laser comes in and ablates the inside of your cornea and you put it back on. If you need high correction, you need more depth of ablation. Since you "lost" some of your cornea because of the flap in terms of depth that can be ablated, for medium to high correction, it is not possible. I think if you have -5 or so it starts getting dicey. PRK you don't have the flap, they just rub off the epithelial cells so you have the entire cornea to ablate if you want. I think this also starts getting dicey with really high ablation depth, obviously. If you have like -12, the doctor will not even think about PRK. SMILE you actually pop in a high diffraction, engineered lens in, which can be used to achieve a ludicrously high correction, at the cost of well, cost, and maybe more uncertain long term prognosis?
berberous 10y ago
Infections are rare. I get the impression that people with adverse reactions to LASIK and tested procedures, while also rare, are relatively more common. I'd hate to get LASIK and be one of the minority that has annoyingly dry eyes, or can't even drive at night or enjoy a movie in the dark due to halos. Am I wrong on the data?
- zaneyard 10y ago
  I had dry eyes (although I never noticed it) going into the procedure, and while I'm healing I put artificial tears in at night and a couple times during the day. It's well worth it to be able to not have to mess with glasses to put my motorcycle helmet on. If one had really bad dry eyes after correction one could get tear wells put in. If one had too dry of eyes before the doctor would recommend against the procedure.
kgabis 10y ago
I'm currently recovering from a PRK surgery (Epi-Bowman Keratectomy specifically). I had the procedure last Thursday and for the first 2 days my eyes felt like they were on fire but then it suddenly stopped and now my eyesight is slowly improving (I can use a computer but I have trouble with focusing my sight on distant objects so driving a car is out of question for now). It's interesting how people are scared of laser eye surgeries but at the same time they don't mind using contact lenses that greatly increase risk of infections.

by jameslk 10y ago

dao- 10y ago

> I would also recommend PRK over LASIK because LASIK requires permanent flaps to be cut on the surface of your eyes. The newer SMILE procedure does not require a flap: http://eyewiki.aao.org/Small_Incision_Lenticule_Extraction_(SMILE) http://eyewiki.aao.org/Small_Incision_Lenticule_Extraction_(...

dood 10y ago
I'm interested in getting this, but am concerned that it is much less battle-tested than PRK. I'm currently leaning toward PRK since it is so tried-and-tested.
- hatsunearu 10y ago
  Go for PRK if you have low correction. I had -4.50 on both eyes and LASIK was kind of dicey. Just know that for a month or 1.5 months you're blind, guaranteed. Don't freak out like I did. I also got weird stuff like my own blood plasma that has been centrifuged and filtered to put in my eye, as well as Mitomycin-C. Your doctor may offer those, and both of those seemed to have clinical trials to reduce the chance of hazing. Just think whether or not glasses bother you so much that you need it though, I never really got bothered by glasses a lot, and laser ablated vision is a little wonky for me because my pupils dilate a lot and that causes lots of starbursting at low light which I think I didn't see with glasses.
hatsunearu 10y ago
(Not a doctor, just read some papers before doing my PRK) SMILE is new but insanely expensive, though it's the only procedure you can do if you need high correction. LASIK you flap up the epithelial cells and part of your cornea, and then the laser comes in and ablates the inside of your cornea and you put it back on. If you need high correction, you need more depth of ablation. Since you "lost" some of your cornea because of the flap in terms of depth that can be ablated, for medium to high correction, it is not possible. I think if you have -5 or so it starts getting dicey. PRK you don't have the flap, they just rub off the epithelial cells so you have the entire cornea to ablate if you want. I think this also starts getting dicey with really high ablation depth, obviously. If you have like -12, the doctor will not even think about PRK. SMILE you actually pop in a high diffraction, engineered lens in, which can be used to achieve a ludicrously high correction, at the cost of well, cost, and maybe more uncertain long term prognosis?

berberous 10y ago

Infections are rare. I get the impression that people with adverse reactions to LASIK and tested procedures, while also rare, are relatively more common. I'd hate to get LASIK and be one of the minority that has annoyingly dry eyes, or can't even drive at night or enjoy a movie in the dark due to halos. Am I wrong on the data?

zaneyard 10y ago
I had dry eyes (although I never noticed it) going into the procedure, and while I'm healing I put artificial tears in at night and a couple times during the day. It's well worth it to be able to not have to mess with glasses to put my motorcycle helmet on. If one had really bad dry eyes after correction one could get tear wells put in. If one had too dry of eyes before the doctor would recommend against the procedure.

kgabis 10y ago

I'm currently recovering from a PRK surgery (Epi-Bowman Keratectomy specifically). I had the procedure last Thursday and for the first 2 days my eyes felt like they were on fire but then it suddenly stopped and now my eyesight is slowly improving (I can use a computer but I have trouble with focusing my sight on distant objects so driving a car is out of question for now). It's interesting how people are scared of laser eye surgeries but at the same time they don't mind using contact lenses that greatly increase risk of infections.