LASIK Surgery

LASIK is an irreversible medical procedure to reshape the cornea. Irreversible means that it will bring a permanent and uncorrectable result to the reshaped cornea. Considering the risks of LASIK surgery such as losing vision that cannot be corrected anymore with glasess, contact lenses or eye surgery, you can minimize the risks by choosing the right and skilled LASIK surgeon. A skilled LASIK surgeon is the one that has sufficient experiences in examining your eye health and performing other pre-operative tests and exams and also skilled in procedure before, during and after surgery. Not only has a bunch of experiences, it is important that he or she should be communicative and not leave the patient if the surgery does not go well.

How to Find the Right LASIK Surgeon

One of the easisest way to find a LASIK surgeon is by searching over the internet or local yellow pages. The internet is a great resource for searching LASIK patients’ testimonials, doctor recommendations and list of LASIK surgeons. You can also serch directly to a surgeon website to learn their services and specialities. You may also look for advertisements in local newspapers, on the radio and TV. Some ads are very informative and some may boast a too good to be true pricing and promises. Although they can be a good starting point in finding a good LASIK surgeon, remember that you must be careful with those advertisements.

It is better when you have any family members, friends or relatives that have had LASIK eye surgery before and are happy with the results. You can ask for their recommendations and take their LASIK surgeons in your consideration list. Another way is to ask your regular eyecare doctor, whether an optometrist or ophthalmologist to recommend a reputable and professional LASIK surgeon.

When choosing a LASIK surgeon, you must remember that not all eye doctors can perform LASIK or other refractive eye surgeries. You must find ophthalmologists, not an optometrists or opticians. Moreover, some ophthalmologists limit the range of their services and some only perform certain surgical procedures. So, make sure you find ophthalmologists that have LASIK surgery in their services.

Ophthalmologists (Eye M.D.s) are medical doctors, designated by an M.D. after their names, who provide full eye care, such as giving you a complete eye exam, prescribing corrective lenses, diagnosing and treating complex and serious eye diseases and performing eye surgery.
The M.D. degree they have is bestowed after four years of college, four years of medical school and four years of training as an intern or resident in a medical facility.

Optometrists are eye doctor that can provide many of the same services as ophthalmologists, such as evaluating your vision, prescribing corrective lenses and diagnosing common eye diseases. Depending on states regulation they are located, optometrists may aslo treat selected common eye diseases with drugs. Optometrists also have the right to refer patients to an ophthalmologist for complex eye diseases or conditions that need surgery. Optometrists have the designation of O.D. (doctor of optometry) after their names. The degree is received after four years of college pre-med courses and four years in an accredited optometry college.

Opticians are eye specialists who provide corrective lenses - assembling, fitting and selling them - based on prescriptions issued by optometrists or ophthalmologists.

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