If you wear glasses now and then you must have thought or someone you know has suggested, you get the surgery to remove your specs from your life.
Well, getting surgery is not as easy as it sounds, there will be lots of thoughts that come to your mind but don't worry we are here to remove all the uneasiness.
What is Refractive Surgery?
Refractive surgeries are surgical procedures performed to correct refractive errors (spectacle powers). The person usually does it to reduce or completely get rid of the spectacle-wearing facade.
Types of Refractive Error:
- Myopia or Near-sightedness: the patient is able to see the near object clearly but the objects which are far away appear to blur. Light focuses in front of the retina.
- Hypermetropia or Far-sightedness: The patient sees the near object as a blur while close objects are sharp.
- Astigmatism: it is the imperfection of curvature of the eye or lens, which causes an image to appear as blurred, irrelative to distance.
- Presbyopia: It is not exactly a refractive error but a natural degenerating process. It usually starts developing after 40 years. The patient is unable to focus his eyes on light rays coming from nearby objects, which results in blurry near vision.
Types of Refractive surgery
We can classify current refractive surgeries into 2 groups, mainly corneal surgeries, and lens-based surgeries.
Corneal based surgeries
- LASIK (Laser-assisted in-situ keratomileusis)
- PRK (Photorefractive keratometry)
- SMILE (Small incision lenticule extraction)
LASIK
It is the most common type of refractive surgery. It is used to treat hypermetropia, myopia, and astigmatism.
LASIK has replaced many of the other eye refractive surgical methods. It uses a computer-controlled excimer laser.
It also uses a small blade called a microkeratome of the femtosecond laser to dissect the central cornea and create a corneal flap of the desired depth.
After creating and removing the flap, the cornea is reshaped according to the desired result outcome.
LASIK surgeries require certain parameters, here are some of them:
- You need to be at least 18 years or older.
- Your eye prescription should not have changed in the last few years.
- Your cornea needs to be thick enough.
- The overall health of the eye should be in good condition.
- You need to be motivated for surgery.
PRK
It is done with the same excimer laser used for LASIK surgery. PRK is done to reshape the cornea and treat mild-to-moderate myopia.
Excimer lasers reshape the cornea by removing the tiny amount of epithelial tissue layers and then the cornea is reshaped with the help of computerized eye surface maps.
Surgery is completed in a few mins, but it takes a few weeks to completely heal the cornea. Bandage contact lenses are given to help in healing.
SMILE
SMILE is the latest advancement in laser vision correction. SMILE is a type of surgery used to correct refractive error such as myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and even presbyopia.
It is a bladeless, minimally invasive procedure that uses a femtosecond laser to create a lenticule of predetermined size and thickness within the corneal layer.
The tiny lenticule was removed and reshaped according to vision correction.
Lens Based Surgeries
ICL (Implantable Collamer Lens)
It is an artificial contact lens placed in between the iris and the crystalline lens. It is made of a combination of collagen and polymer (Collamer), a biocompatible material.
This material differs from the materials of contact lenses available in the market.
IOL (Intraocular Lens)
This is the artificial crystalline lens that replaces your natural crystalline lens completely.
With the help of Phacoemulsification technology, the whole crystalline lens is removed and changed with artificial lens IOL.