How Does Laser Eye Surgery Affect Contrast Sensitivity?

Laser Eye Surgery has a huge number of implications on your life – the major one being a significant improvement in your visual acuity. For the vast majority of patients, the primary driver behind having Laser Eye Surgery is to finally get rid of their glasses or contact lenses. Thankfully, the procedure is often successful in achieving this – and more!

But what about the other effects of this life-changing procedure? For example, how does Laser Eye Surgery affect contrast sensitivity?

What is Contrast Sensitivity?

Contrast sensitivity is the eye’s ability to differentiate between an object and its background. For example, individuals with normal contrast sensitivity will be able to clearly see the outlines of even very small objects. In other words, this can be referred to as the “crispness” of your vision.

It can also be described as the ability to identify minute differences in the shadings and patterns of an object. If you experience generally poor vision, even though your ‘black on white’ vision is good, you may have reduced contrast sensitivity.

Poor contrast sensitivity can affect your ability to perform certain tasks, particularly in low-light conditions. You may also have trouble clearly distinguishing objects that are not well defined from their background – for example, a light grey object on a white surface.

Contrast sensitivity naturally deteriorates with age and can also be affected by some eye conditions (such as diabetic retinopathy and cataracts). But how could Laser Eye Surgery affect your contrast sensitivity?

Laser Eye Surgery and Contrast Sensitivity

In some cases, Laser Eye Surgery can temporarily reduce your contrast sensitivity – although the reduction is often minimal. These changes are due to the swelling that occurs in the eye following your treatment. While this can be disconcerting, it is a completely normal part of your eyes’ healing process.

In most patients, reduced contrast sensitivity following Laser Eye Surgery resolves itself within a number of weeks as the eye heals. At London Vision Clinic, we take all possible measures to ensure contrast sensitivity is preserved as much as possible following your treatment.

This includes the use of the latest laser technology, such as lasers with aspheric treatment profiles, which allows us to perform extremely precise treatments. Not all aspheric treatment profiles are alike, but in general, lasers using these will be safer concerning night vision. Some systems are so well designed that they can even improve your contrast sensitivity and night vision.

In fact, for some treatments, Laser Eye Surgery has proven more effective than alternative methods of correction. For example, the preservation of both the quality of vision (contrast sensitivity) and stereo acuity (the ability to see in 3D) with PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision is superior to correction with multi-focal lenses, which are known to decrease contrast sensitivity in many patients.

Extensive Pre-Operative Testing

We also conduct extensive pre-operative tests, including contrast-sensitivity testing, to determine your suitability for Laser Eye Surgery. This also allows your surgeon to measure how well you see at night, allowing them to plan your treatment to best avoid post-operative symptoms such as night vision disturbances.

To find out more about how Laser Eye Surgery could help to improve your vision, get in touch with one of our friendly clinic coordinators – we’re always happy to help! Alternatively, Book a Consultation today!