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By
Carrie Hooks
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Many
wearers of glasses and contact lenses are doing something
about their less-than-perfect vision—they are having
surgery to correct it.
The
most common type of laser eye surgery used is LASIK, a procedure
that is only a decade old. Still, an estimated 2.3 million
eyes will undergo LASIK surgery this year, according to the
Federal Consumer Information Center website.
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LASIK,
or Laser Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis, is the newest of several
surgeries used to treat nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.
It
is quickly replacing older techniques, becoming the laser eye surgery
of choice. The LASIK procedure, as described at www.lasik.md,
uses a laser to cut and lift a flap off the cornea. It then flattens
certain areas of the cornea, depending on the problem, and the flap
is replaced on the eye.
Patients
remain awake throughout the surgery and go home the same day.
Despite
the popularity of LASIK, long-term effects of the surgery are still
unknown. “[It] is still too new to know if there are any long
term ill effects beyond five years after surgery,” according
to the American Academy of Ophthalmology website.
And
because of its short history, it has yet to be regulated by the
FDA. Although the FDA can approve the sale of the lasers used in
LASIK, it can’t sanction how doctors use them or keep a list
of practicing surgeons.
Most
insurance companies do not cover it because it is often categorized
as an unnecessary cosmetic surgery, said Dr. Cheryl Archer, an optometrist
who practices in Bowling Green. As a result, patients are required
to pay between $2,000 and $4,000 to have it done on both eyes.
The
high price and potential side effects are the main reasons senior
Wayne Slade said he isn’t considering LASIK any time soon.
“You always think about something going wrong—it’s
your eyes,” he said.
Denise
Twiggs of Reed Vision in Toledo said the success rate of the procedure
is very high. Twiggs is an office manager at the facility, where
LASIK is performed. “Actually, the procedure is very, very
safe,” she said.
Those
who do have negative reactions to the surgery, Twiggs said, usually
experience them temporarily.
Archer
also said she doesn’t foresee any problems in the future with
patients who have already had LASIK surgery. Many of the initial
problems with LASIK, she said, such as the need for follow-up surgeries
and the continuation of wearing prescription glasses, have largely
been worked out over time.
Potential
side effects of the LASIK procedure include dry eyes and starbursts
or haloes, which are blurry rings of light around headlights and
street lamps, Archer said. Still, these side effects are not as
common as they were with older eye surgeries, she said. “I
think most people are getting excellent results out of it.”
Jennifer
Goodmote, a secretary for the Ohio Department of Transportation,
had the surgery a year ago to correct her myopia and astigmatism.
She said while she was a little scared during the actual surgery,
she wasn’t worried about long-term effects afterwards.
She
was told it was possible to be blinded during the surgery, although
it had never happened in the history of LASIK procedures. The only
side effect Goodmote experiences are haloes, but now she is used
to them.
Johnna
McDonald, a veterinary bookkeeper from Medina, Ohio, had LASIK surgery
five years ago to correct her nearsightedness and astigmatism; she
had worn contact lenses for 15 years. But she had to travel to Windsor,
Canada, to have the surgery because it wasn’t being done yet
near her home in northeast Ohio. “Since my eyes were so bad
and the procedure was so new, they would only do one eye at a time
in case something went wrong,” she said.
Like
Goodmote, McDonald said she wasn’t very concerned about the
long-term effects of the surgery. The medical center gave her a
promise to fix anything that may have happened to her eyes as a
result of the surgery. “I have to go back every year, and as
long as I go back every year it’s guaranteed for life,”
McDonald said, adding that she feels this proves how confident they
are with its success.
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Finding
a LASIK doctor for your eyes
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1)
Compare doctors. Levels of risks and benefits vary from
surgeon to surgeon as well as from procedure to procedure.
2)
Beware of false promises. In medicine, there are never
any guarantees.
3)
Read. Your doctor should provide you with a patient
handbook about the procedure. S/he should also be willing
to discuss its contents with you.
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4)
Don’t base your decision solely on prices. Decisions
you make about who does your eye surgery will affect you for
the rest of your life.
Source:
U.S. Food & Drug Administration website www.fda.gov
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