LASIK has been the popular choice for refractive eye surgery for as long as many of us can remember. It has become a common term that everyone is familiar with. We get asked all the time about any new updates or options for LASIK.
Although there are only a small number of options, there is FINALLY…….a long awaited UPDATE!
The FDA has fully approved what is known as Topography-Guided LASIK. This approval came after the FDA clinical study yielded the best results of any FDA LASIK trial ever conducted to date!
The trial tested over 400 eyes of normal, every day patients like you and me.
Other than being the primary, principal investigator for the trial, our own Dr. Slade has been involved in topography-guided LASIK through another prior trial on a different platform. This means he has officially had the most extensive experience in topography-guided LASIK treatment in the US.
Brag moment: Although this is beyond impressive to mostly everyone, it is not extremely surprising to us in this office as Dr. Slade was the first surgeon in the US to perform LASIK in the United States!
Okay, so some necessary medical talk: Corneal topography utilizes topographic measurements based on a patient’s corneal irregularity, unlike wavefront techniques that address aberrations in the entire optical path. The Topography-Guided treatment incorporates refractive error of the eye and corneal irregularities into a customized laser ablation pattern for myopia and myopic astigmatism. This provides a more personalized treatment than with conventional LASIK systems.
Let’s dumb that down for real people talk that WE can understand: The accuracy and the precision of the way this treatment works distinguishes it from what we currently know of LASIK and it has officially CHANGED LASIK.
So just picture a custom, tailored suit versus a regular, off the rack, men’s suit at a typical “suit store.”
Wavefront, which is the current “custom” LASIK technique out there, measures the optics of the whole eye and provides a custom treatment that treats the cornea, but many times disregards other optics in the eye like the lens. This is the regular suit at the regular men’s suit store. It may look a little baggy on your waist, or tight on your shoulders, or vice versa.
Normal, current-day LASIK utilizes highly extensive corneal testing/mapping and uses complex devices and lasers. However, the actual info fed into the laser system is like a 1 word instruction or handover from all we gather during the extensive testing. The laser fires tens of thousands of bits of information into the cornea. To make this short, if you have had regular LASIK, this leads to potential issues in future eye surgeries that occur, like cataract surgery, and will affect what intraocular lens you will be able to wear or choose from at that point in time. When you need cataract surgery, you may not have the option of being able to choose from certain multifocal lenses.
Many of us have had LASIK and may be precluded from one day being able to choose from all the lenses out there. However, ALL of us are happy to know that moving forward, there is a LASIK option that won’t get in the way of your IOL choices in the future.
Fortunately, technology changes, so now with these topography-based ablations, unique information is put into the laser and the regular size 10 suit becomes a custom suit that may be wider in the shoulders, and more narrow in the waist.
Every single cornea (including the both of yours) is unlike any other. Think of Corneas like fingerprints. Why would you want the “kind-of” fitting suit when you can have the one that is tailored to your frame?
We are so happy to be involved in the most up to date leaps in ophthalmology here. We understand eye surgery is a big step so we share this info with you in hopes that you trust us enough to ask us all your questions.
If you have any questions about Topography-Guided LASIK or LASIK in general, please call our office at
today and ask us or schedule a free LASIK evaluation with our doctors. You can always visit our website for more info on all surgery options and on Dr. Slade’s experience in LASIK.
