By Lily Liu
Glasses and contacts provide people with vision problems a new life, but they also come with great limitations. There are often times when it is very inconvenient to wear glasses, such as while doing sports or while simply having an intimate evening with a loved one. It is possible to wear contacts, of course, but wearing them costs more than one may think. They require a lot of time, maintenance, and money. Furthermore, contact lens wearers may develop an intolerance and this can produce long-term damage. But thanks to advanced technology, opticians can now modify the shape of the cornea to improve patients’ vision. The cornea is the clear dome on the front of the eye. Reshaping this can produce a great impact on the improvement of vision problems. Radical keratotomy (RK), a surgical operation that flattens out the central cornea to correct nearsightedness, otherwise known as myopia, is where surgeons make several deep incisions in the cornea to change the curve of it over the pupil. However, RK can be very risky. When performing RK, the cornea is seriously weakened and could thereafter change shape over time. Lately, RK has been out of fashion and PRK is now in place. A more recent development, photorefractive keratectomy (PRK), is similar to RK. However, rather than making cuts into the cornea, PRK uses lasers to sculpt an area (5~9 millimeters) in the diameter on the surface of the eye, producing an effect better than RK because the integrity and the strength of the corneal dome are retained. Needless to say however, no outcome can be 100% guaranteed. Patients are now offered a third type of surgery, LASIK, known for its rapid vision recovery and minimal postoperative care. LASIK is done by re-sculpting the cornea. A portion of the corneal flap remains on your eyes, but is only lifted up in the surgery and put back afterwards. For this kind of operation, no stitches are required, but one needs to use eye drop medication for about a week. The disadvantage with LASIK is the difficulty of replacing and lifting the flap. The LASIK operation takes less than a minute to complete; however, it does incur a greater risk than PRK. On the other hand, PRK takes more time to heal and patients usually need to pain relief medication for one to two days. Neither of the two surgeries is more advantageous, and neither causes pain during the operation, but the benefits can only measured by the improvement of your vision. Not everyone should undergo this kind of corrective surgery. It is not recommended for people who are pregnant, have unstable refractive error, have collagen/vascular/active ocular disease, are under twenty years old, or use pacemakers. Until now no one has lost their sight during or after performing the surgery, and the success rate is 99%. Even if during the operation something goes wrong with the laser machine, the procedure can always be stopped and the patient can still have surgery again after three months. Overall, the side-effects are minimal, like the feeling of dizziness and blurred vision. Once the surgery is completed, after several months of total recovery, most patients can continue to drive, exercise, read, and use the computer without the use of any glasses or contacts. For more information, visit: http://www.prk.com/whatisPRK.html#Introduction http://www.lasik1.com/index.html a
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May 2024
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