Eye laser thingy

[MrRalphMan]

Seriously thinking of getting this done.

 

Any one used Accuvision? £1100 both eyes for Wavefront.

£500 up front and 10 * £60 interest free payments..

[Charlotte]

Ro the resident optician will be along shortly to tell you not to.

[Rob]

I've heard it hurts about as much as being shot in the eye with a powerful laser.

[SteveR]

I've thought about this a few times but never seriously, figured laser eye stuff isn't realy mature enough to know for sure that it's 100% ok in the long term. Plus someone I know had it done and two things he said put me off;

1 - you have to stay verrrry still (with your eyes open of course, watching it all happen) if you don't you risk monging it up. Knowing my luck.....

2 - you can smell your own eye burning.

[Pete]

I know a few people that have done it and are very happy with the results.

Not sure I'd risk it though, but I'm ok with contacts if I want to not wear glasses.

[Max Headroom]

You still have to wear glasses though, and you cant do stuff like deep sea diving because they have taken a layer off your eyeball and they will EXPLODE.

[Mike]

I have to say I've heard nothing but good things about this... a girl I work with had it done and swears by it.... I think my eyesight isn't really bad enough yet... does it only last ten years or something? I'll wait till I'm blind I think...

[Andy-No-Knee]

You still have to wear glasses though, and you cant do stuff like deep sea diving because they have taken a layer off your eyeball and they will EXPLODE.

 

That is complete cock.

 

I had it done in '95. I had PRK - PhotoRefractive Caterotmy (Spellink) which is they laser the front of your eye off. So if you go up a mountain like Everest then the lower atmouspheric pressure will mean that your perscription will deteriorate back to what it was, and when you come back down it will return to post op state.

 

When you dive the pressure increasses and nothing happens, I know as I am a diver. I climb mountains too, the Alps and never had a problem, you need to go into some serious altitude for it to happen.

 

The type they do nowdays is called Lasic, where they cut a semi-curcular flap in your pupil, peel it back and then zap it. It takes a week to heal.

 

There is a new one which pilots use (and the US Air Force gives thier pilots) that makes your eye sight better than 20/20. (Basically you can still read near stuff so your not long sighted, but you get extra distant vision as well.)

 

There can be problems if you have a stigmatism, but on the whole there are good results.

 

I do not regret my descision to have it done. My perscription was -7 and -6.5, I am now 20/20 each eye. I have a slight haze in the left eye at night, but it is so slight it isnt worth noticing.

[Mike]

There can be problems if you have a stigmatism

 

dam, I have stigmatisms (stigmata?) in both eyes...

 

and for that reason I'm out..

[Ewen]

I've heard that your wife / gf looks wrinklier after youve had the treatment.

[Kranz]

I had both done & now eyesight is puuuurrrrfect. Can see a sparrow's cock at 1/2 a mile

 

Wavefront is now the one to go for as it doesn't just burn a flat layer off the surface of the eye like Lasik/Lasek, but maps the entire surface and then shapes it to suit, leaving a much better result.

 

Drawbacks were dry left eye for about 6 months. Not very dry, but felt a bit sticky when tired.

 

Would recommend it if you can't get on with glasses or contacts. Simple as that.

[Max Headroom]

That is complete cock.

 

 

Not complete cock, in later life with muscles in your eye not working so well you may find the need to wear glasses to read, the bit about your eye exploding was cock though:tongue:

[Kranz]

I've heard that your wife / gf looks wrinklier after youve had the treatment.

 

Yeah, got divorced very soon after. Upgraded to a newer model with less milage

[RedM]

I won't be having it done after seeing this!!!!111

 

http://www.stickfigureninja.com/images/laserburnear.jpg

[Andy-No-Knee]

[quote=Max Headroom;

Not complete cock, in later life with muscles in your eye not working so well you may find the need to wear glasses to read, the bit about your eye exploding was cock though:tongue:

 

But the same could be said if you have good eye sight now, you may need reading glasses when you get older.

 

When I had mine done they reconed I may need reading glasses 10 years earlier than I would have without the op.

 

10 years + so far of perfect vision, with the possibility of needing reading glasses when I'm 45+? Sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[Ewen]

44, 20-20 vision....45, needed reading glasses. I should have seen it coming.

[Rob]

I know as I am a diver. I climb mountains too.

 

Lifes full of ups and downs.

[Mike]

Lifes full of ups and downs.

 

[Kopite]

Can be a great thing but can also be one of the worst things people do. We've got a new optician in our place who used to do the pre-screen testing for Optical Express' Laser division - he said he'd never ever consider doing it to his own eyes after working in the field.

Corneal dryness is the most common and biggest cause of discomfort people suffer from. Dryness is underrated, it doesn't sound that bad but a lot of people cannot open their eyes as they just sting and water, then they're putting drops in every few minutes to lubricate their eyes and they're doing that for life. Corneal haze and haloes at night is another thing that pisses people off. Only part of the cornea is lasered, when you're pupil gets bigger then you get light from the untreated cornea entering your eye which gives different foci. People's eyes will also change over the years too. People can get more and more short sighted up until they're 30 (even if it's just by -0.50DS, this can be enough to make people consider glasses again for driving at night as you're more short sighted at night due to pupil size, so again you'd be needing glasses). On the other end of the scale, once you hit 40, you'll be needing reading glasses again when Presbyopia sets in. Also, after needing reading glasses due to Presbyopia, people tend to get more longsighted in their 40s (other way to think of it is that your eyes get weaker which is what being longsighted is about) so again you're gonna need glasses for distance again. Having laser eye surgery also means that with spec/CLs when needed, your final acuity isn't as good as it was pre-op as your cornea is more irregular due to the way it's lasered. If your eyes are slightly dry too then it would be specs only that you'd be eligible for as CLs would be off the menu.

There's other daft things that can annoy patients too - choosing the actual right surgeon (not company) is a biggie. Where i work, a lot of the surgeons come from Manchester to do the op... but if you have any trouble, you have to go and see them in Manchester which is a good 130 miles or so, not exactly convenient. Another stupid thing is with LASIK, when the corneal flaps lifted up after being cut with a microkeratome, the environment isn't completely clean so you can get speckles of dust under the flap when it goes back down - you'd be constantly aware of seeing this dust if it's in your visual direction which it most likely will be as it's the central cornea that's worked on.

 

All of the above are deemed minor side effects. A lot of clinics call the operation a success even if the patient experiences these side effects as the vision is better than without glasses or CLs, doesn't mean the patient is happy though. Don't get me wrong, loads of people are made up with their eyes after surgery. Opticians don't generally care if people get their eyes lasered for profit reasons - they're still gonna need regular eye tests and most of the time, they need specs or lenses still. The thing that bothers me is trying to explain to someone that the excessive pain from dryness they're experiencing won't go away and that the clinic should of made them more aware of the risk - can't do anything to heal it apart from possibly punctal plugs from the hospital but that hardly works.

 

General thing i say is - go to at least 3 seperate free consultaions and weigh up the advice from all of them and make sure it's consistent. Before you consider LASIK, Wavefront and the like, try the Continous Wear contacts that you sleep in for a month, it's practically the same as laser surgery but it's not permanent. As your eyes change, the lens power is changed to keep up. Then with presbyopia hits in your 40s, you can get one eye as a reading eye (called Monovision) and you still wouldn't need glasses at all. Contacts are the only way of ditching specs for good!

[vvteye]

I had it done about 10 yrs ago and it went a bit pear. I was 6.25 out and had 40 blasts of the laser. They gave extra blasts to the stigmatism area and a couple of days after i could see perfectly... over the next month my eye healed (cornea thickened up and I drifted out to 3.50. They offered to do it again but...

 

The smell of burning flesh and the watching little puffs of smoke rising up is a tad off putting... Nowhere near the felling of having shampoo dripped in your eye for a couple of weeks though. And when thats over any irritation or a sleepie in my eye drove me frickin crackers. The irritation didn't really totally clear for about 2 years and honestly, I'm no Woos.

 

I would say if your sight is between 1 and 4 diopters out and you're in your twnties or below... get it done. Any more and the crater just gets deeper and you are in big pain country. Also if your aim is not to wear glasses in the nend it's a bit hit and miss if you end up perfectly 0

 

This isn't a wink... this is me with my bad eye!!!

[Chiefgroover]

I had it done cost me £3K for both. The guy who did it helped pioneer the science in the 80's. One eye had no pain the other had some for 10 seconds, but that was it. I got it @ 3:40pm and was wandering about the back garden @ 7:30pm.

I know some people who get a cheap and cheerful £500 and eye surgery, and had festering eyes for 2 weeks.

The one thing you DO need, is the blackest pair of sunglasses, wrap around style for the journey home as any light is painful for a couple of hours. Dark winter days are best for this, not like me in summer.

Great job it is, but i'd be very careful who i trusted to do it.

[MarkTheBoy]

My cousin is 26 had it done 3 or 4 years ago and she still says that it was the best thing she had ever done. It was about £3k I think and she had it done in a london clinic somewhere.

 

I've noticed my vision isn't as good as it used to be, im 26 too, and ive thought about getting it done.

 

Helluva big decision though, you only get the one pair of eyes and I can't imagine life without them.

[Kittyclaws]

Can be a great thing but can also be one of the worst things people do. We've got a new optician in our place who used to do the pre-screen testing for Optical Express' Laser division - he said he'd never ever consider doing it to his own eyes after working in the field.

Corneal dryness is the most common and biggest cause of discomfort people suffer from. Dryness is underrated, it doesn't sound that bad but a lot of people cannot open their eyes as they just sting and water, then they're putting drops in every few minutes to lubricate their eyes and they're doing that for life. Corneal haze and haloes at night is another thing that pisses people off. Only part of the cornea is lasered, when you're pupil gets bigger then you get light from the untreated cornea entering your eye which gives different foci. People's eyes will also change over the years too. People can get more and more short sighted up until they're 30 (even if it's just by -0.50DS, this can be enough to make people consider glasses again for driving at night as you're more short sighted at night due to pupil size, so again you'd be needing glasses). On the other end of the scale, once you hit 40, you'll be needing reading glasses again when Presbyopia sets in. Also, after needing reading glasses due to Presbyopia, people tend to get more longsighted in their 40s (other way to think of it is that your eyes get weaker which is what being longsighted is about) so again you're gonna need glasses for distance again. Having laser eye surgery also means that with spec/CLs when needed, your final acuity isn't as good as it was pre-op as your cornea is more irregular due to the way it's lasered. If your eyes are slightly dry too then it would be specs only that you'd be eligible for as CLs would be off the menu.

There's other daft things that can annoy patients too - choosing the actual right surgeon (not company) is a biggie. Where i work, a lot of the surgeons come from Manchester to do the op... but if you have any trouble, you have to go and see them in Manchester which is a good 130 miles or so, not exactly convenient. Another stupid thing is with LASIK, when the corneal flaps lifted up after being cut with a microkeratome, the environment isn't completely clean so you can get speckles of dust under the flap when it goes back down - you'd be constantly aware of seeing this dust if it's in your visual direction which it most likely will be as it's the central cornea that's worked on.

 

All of the above are deemed minor side effects. A lot of clinics call the operation a success even if the patient experiences these side effects as the vision is better than without glasses or CLs, doesn't mean the patient is happy though. Don't get me wrong, loads of people are made up with their eyes after surgery. Opticians don't generally care if people get their eyes lasered for profit reasons - they're still gonna need regular eye tests and most of the time, they need specs or lenses still. The thing that bothers me is trying to explain to someone that the excessive pain from dryness they're experiencing won't go away and that the clinic should of made them more aware of the risk - can't do anything to heal it apart from possibly punctal plugs from the hospital but that hardly works.

 

General thing i say is - go to at least 3 seperate free consultaions and weigh up the advice from all of them and make sure it's consistent. Before you consider LASIK, Wavefront and the like, try the Continous Wear contacts that you sleep in for a month, it's practically the same as laser surgery but it's not permanent. As your eyes change, the lens power is changed to keep up. Then with presbyopia hits in your 40s, you can get one eye as a reading eye (called Monovision) and you still wouldn't need glasses at all. Contacts are the only way of ditching specs for good!

 

This is why Train drivers are not allowed to have this done, i also believe that pilots over here are not allowed either ,only pilots in the usa can have it done. May be wrong on that bit

[Supragal]

I am pretty blind. -6.5 and -6.75 IIRC.

 

I won't have it done, there's just too many if's and but's and THEY BURN YOUR EYES FFS.

 

Plus I suffer from eyball dryness (that stops me wearing CLs much) and night halos and reduced after dark vision already so if theres a chance that it could get worse then nooo sireeee not for me thank you.

 

I'd rather spend £500 on a pair of glasses and the other 2.5k on the supra!!!!!!!!

 

remember kids THEY BURN YOUR EYES.