Can I Have Laser Eye Surgery If I Have Large Pupils?
Most prospective patients understandably have a lot of questions when it comes to the possibility of having Laser Eye Surgery. Thankfully, most of these questions are fairly straightforward to answer. In fact, at London Vision Clinic, we strive to provide as much insight into Laser Eye Surgery and our other treatments as possible (just take a look at the rest of our blog!). But there are some questions that many patients will likely not have even thought of asking. For example, “Can I have Laser Eye Surgery if I have large pupils?”.
If you’ve been considering Laser Eye Surgery for a while, you have probably thought about everything that could affect your suitability for treatment, from existing health conditions to the health of your eyes. However, it is unlikely that you have thought about the size of your pupils; and yet, at many clinics, this consideration could significantly affect your suitability for Laser Eye Surgery. But why is this?
How Do Your Pupils Work?
Our eyes are incredibly complex organs with a vast number of parts that work together to provide us with vision. One of the most obvious of these parts is the pupil. The pupils are essentially the windows to the eye, allowing light to enter. But they are much more complicated than many people realise.
You may have noticed that your pupils become smaller in bright light conditions and larger in low light conditions. These adjustments are your eyes controlling how much light is allowed to enter in order to provide optimum vision. This is known as pupil dilation – an action controlled by muscles in your eyes. When the dilator muscles contract, they pull the interior of the iris outward, thus increasing the size of the pupil.
But while the size of our pupils is constantly changing depending on the levels of light, some people have naturally larger pupils than others. Usually, this doesn’t noticeably affect their vision; however, when it comes to Laser Eye Surgery, it could be a problem.
Your Pupils and Laser Eye Surgery
Average pupil size in adults ranges from approximately 2-4mm wide in bright light and around 4-8mm wide in darkness. Standard Laser Eye Surgery treatment is designed to treat pupils within this range. If standard treatment is applied to pupils outside of this range, complications can occur when the pupils dilate outside of the treatment zone post-surgery.
Such complications can include night vision disturbances (such as halos and starbursts), reductions in clarity of vision, and problems with colour recognition.
To prevent these types of complications, your pupil size will be measured thoroughly during your screening appointment at London Vision Clinic. Furthermore, while at some clinics, having larger pupils may restrict you from having Laser Eye Surgery treatment altogether, we are often still able to perform the procedure.
Our expert Laser Eye surgeon, Mr.Glenn Carp, explains more in the video below.
At London Vision Clinic, we are known for specialising in higher refractive areas, meaning we are able to treat higher prescriptions than the norm. But we are also often able to treat patients with larger-than-average-sized pupils. This is thanks to custom-programmed treatments that allow us to ensure the treatment zone extends to the full area of the dilated pupil.
If you have any further questions about your suitability for Laser Eye Surgery at London Vision Clinic, don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our friendly clinic coordinators or Book a Consultation today.