How do you know if you are a LASIK candidate?

A thorough examination by a LASIK surgeon is required to identify a good LASIK candidate. Dr. William Boothe and his staff at Boothe Eyecare will check the eyes health, overall health, thickness of cornea, curvature of cornea and refractive error of the candidate before suggesting a LASIK surgery. If he does not think that the results of the tests are good enough for a LASIK eye procedure, he will suggest to undergo other procedures for correcting your refractive errors. It is necessary to get an appointment with Dr. Boothe and his assistants to know more about your condition and whether you are the right candidate for the LASIK procedure.

To be considered a candidate for LASIK, there are some requirements you have to meet with. Around 15% of the people coming for this eye procedure are not good candidates because of differences in corneal size and shape. The patient should be of 18 years of age or more to be considered as suitable for this procedure. In case of a female patient, she must not be pregnant or breast-feed a child because it may lead to complications for both mother and the baby.

The amount and quality of the tears produced is measured to know whether your eyes are too dry. If your eyes are dry, then you have to get treated for dry eyes prior to surgery. The thickness of the cornea will be measured by the doctor and his assistants. Cornea’s surface characteristics are also determined by the doctor to find out whether the eyes have to be treated using a LASIK procedure. Majority of the patients who are having refractive errors can ask for LASIK eye procedure because of the advanced technology and techniques, but there are exceptions.

If you are a glaucoma patient, you cannot undergo this procedure because this condition raises intraocular pressure to more than 21mm Hg. This measurement is just like high BP as the pressure of the eyeball is increased in the case of glaucoma. LASIK eye procedure is performed only when the pressure inside the eyes is controlled. Diabetes patients are not eligible for LASIK eye surgery, when the patient does not have leveled blood sugar. The procedure should be done only after reducing the blood sugar and keeping the blood sugar within the normal limits. If your immunity system is weak, the doctor will not perform the LASIK procedure.

Certain conditions will adversely affect the results of a LASIK eye procedure. Poor eye vision cannot be corrected using LASIK eye surgery and patients with hyperopia of more than +6.00 diopters, astigmatism of over 6.00 diopters and myopia of -14.00 diopters are not advised, in general, to get a correction using the LASIK eye procedure. The anterior and posterior portion of the eyes will be examined by Dr. William Boothe using a slit-lamp for finding abnormalities that may affect the result of the procedure.

Boothe Laser Center will also compare the history of your eye conditions and the results of the current eye examination to find out whether the prescription of your eyes is stable or not. This is usually done to prevent your eyes from being operated again, if they are in a maturing process. For eyes that are in the growing process, Lasik corrections will most likely be reversed later because of continuous changes happening inside the eyes. If you have abnormally large pupils, your eyes cannot be treated with LASIK procedure. Normally, only a small corneal portion is treated using the laser procedure and when you have larger pupils than normal ones, the circumference area treated will be too small, creating visual problems like halos, ghosting and starburst.

As a thumb rule, irregular corneas cannot be operated. Our doctor will examine the cornea, meaure the corneal topography and use it to create a corneal map. Using this map, the doctor will determine whether to perform a surgery or not. Corneal thickness also affects the outcome of the surgery as some patients have thinner corneas. It is difficult for the doctor to create a flap out of a thin cornea because there will not be enough tissue to make a flap. Dr. Boothe will measure the thickness of the cornea using the corneal pachometer and decide whether the cornea is thick enough to perform LASIK eye procedure. The normal thickness required is 6.0 -6.5 mm and pupils with more than 7mm thickness usually cannot undergo LASIK eye surgery.

If you have active ocular herpes, you have to wait at least one year to undergo LASIK eye procedure. After one year and if you and your doctor are sure that the disease is completely cured, then Dr. Boothe may consider you for a surgery. Usage of contact lenses also change corneal shape and can make it difficult for an ophthalmologist to determine the correct prescription of the candidate. Most ophthalmologists ask their patients to discontinue soft contact lenses at least for three days and strong lenses for two to three weeks before the evaluation procedure. Sometimes patients have to discontinue the contact lenses for several months in order get the cornea to return to its natural shape and size.

Patients with history of having eye injury and ocular problems like strabismus, lazy eyes and double vision should avoid the surgical procedure. Autoimmune disorders such as lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes affect the healing of the corneal flap created after the surgery. So it is important to cure these diseases, if possible, in order to become the right candidate of LASIK surgery. Eye disorders like cataracts, keratoconus, diabetic retinopathy and retinal detachment also pose additional complications to laser eye surgery. Right candidate should not have any kind of eye disease for one year or more. The candidate should understand the risks and complications involved in the surgical procedure.

The technology of LASIK keeps on improving and changing. The preciseness and safety has been increased eyery year and post-operative risks are largely reduced. The accuracy of the LASIK procedures is improved because of new technologies such as Wavefront technology, IntraLase, IOLs etc. Boothe Eyecare uses all the latest technologies to determine whether the patient is a right candidate for performing LASIK eye surgery or not.