Laser Vision Correction

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Laser vision correction refers to a group of minimally invasive procedures that reshape the cornea with laser energy to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. These procedures are customized to provide the best possible results for each individual patient, allowing your surgeon to correct the very specific refractive errors that obscure your vision.

Laser vision correction procedures help patients eliminate the need for eyeglasses and contact lenses, a costly and bothersome hassle that millions of people deal with everyday. By reshaping the cornea, these procedures change the way that the eye focuses light, allowing you to enjoy clear vision.

There are several different laser vision correction procedures available to help patients achieve clear vision without glasses or contacts. Please contact us to schedule a consultation with Dr. Keamy.

LASIK

Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) is a safe, reliable and painless way to improve vision by changing the way light is bent, or refracted, as it passes through the cornea, so that is properly focuses on the retina and allows objects to be seen clearly.

During the LASIK procedure, Dr. Keamy creates a thin flap in the surface of the cornea with IntraLase™. This procedure is performed under topical anesthesia so that pain is minimized. The corneal flap is then lifted and an excimer laser beam reshapes the cornea's curvature to improve vision. Finally, the flap is put back into place.. The entire procedure takes about 15 minutes per eye.

The ideal LASIK candidate includes someone who is over 18 years old, has stable vision and has a healthy cornea that is thick enough for a flap. After undergoing the procedure, patients experience immediate vision improvement and can often return to work the very next day.

Custom LASIK

Custom LASIK, also known as wavefront LASIK, is quickly becoming the new standard in laser vision correction as it offers the most accurate, individualized results for each patient. This FDA-approved procedure uses three-dimensional measurements of the eye to help guide the laser as it reshapes the cornea and corrects your vision.

Custom LASIK lets patients benefit from a higher chance of achieving 20/20 vision, with many patients achieving vision that is better than 20/20, a feat often unachievable with traditional LASIK or glasses or contacts. Custom LASIK also reduces the risk of poor night vision and glare, side effects that are common with traditional LASIK.

During this procedure, a wavefront device transmits a ray of light into your eye that is received and arranged into a unique pattern to create a 3-D map of your eye, including both lower and higher order aberrations. This information is then transferred to the laser and applied to your eye's position, allowing your doctor to achieve customized vision correction for your individual needs.

Monovision LASIK

Monovision LASIK offers presbyopic and pre-presbyopic patients the ability to retain near and distance vision after LASIK surgery with little or no reliance on glasses or contact lenses. If you are over 40, wear bifocals or need reading glasses, you may want to discuss monovision with Dr. Keamy.

As we age, we lose the ability to focus our eyes on objects at different distances. This ability, called accommodation, becomes impaired as the lenses of our eyes lose their flexibility and begin to harden in a natural aging process called presbyopia. People with presbyopia symptoms often need bifocals or two pairs of glasses for distance and near vision. Even patients who undergo conventional LASIK still need glasses to correct presbyopia after surgery, because LASIK cannot treat presbyopia . It reshapes the cornea, not the lens.

With conventional LASIK, both eyes are corrected for distance vision, leaving some patients in need of glasses for reading and other daily activities that require looking at objects close-up. Monovision LASIK preserves good near and distance vision without this need for corrective eyewear. The procedure optimizes one eye for distance sight and the other eye for near sight. With a little practice, patients learn to adjust their vision to accommodate between different distances.

Alternatives to monovision LASIK include reading glasses and lens replacement surgery.

IntraLase® LASIK (iLASK)

The IntraLase® FS laser is a highly precise tool aiding in corneal flap creation, the first step in laser vision correction surgery. It allows for a completely blade-free laser surgery. During the procedure, the IntraLase laser fires 15,000 pulses per second into the cornea, where the flap can be created at a depth and diameter determined by the surgeon as appropriate for each individual patient. This creates a customized procedure for the patient. In addition to benefiting from this pinpoint (2-3 micron) accuracy, patients who undergo surgery conducted with the IntraLase laser are less likely to need an enhancement (follow-up) procedure than with other technologies.

Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK)

Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) uses an excimer laser to remove a small amount (about 5 to 30 percent) of the top of the cornea. Instead of cutting a flap into the cornea with a blade, this method preserves the strength of the cornea and avoids the risk of perforation and other flap errors commonly associated with the blade method. During the PRK procedure, Dr. Keamy also has greater control in the location and amount of tissue being removed, allowing patients to enjoy a much more accurate treatment.

The PRK method involves gently sculpting the cornea rather than cutting, allowing Dr. Keamy to treat greater degrees of nearsightedness, as well as farsightedness and astigmatism.

Before LASIK was available, PRK was the most commonly performed refractive surgery procedure. LASIK brought about several advantages over PRK, including less discomfort and faster results, but PRK is still preferred for patients with large pupils or thin corneas. The PRK procedure takes less than a minute to complete, and is performed with only anesthetic eye drops.