Laser Eye Surgery: Alex’s Patient Experience At London Vision Clinic
One extraordinary use of ultraviolet light is in Laser Eye Surgery where the cornea is reshaped painlessly to improve eyesight.
Dan Reinstein Talks About The Laser Process
The amazing thing about ultraviolet light at 193 nanometers, which is the specific frequency that we use, is that it is completely absorbed by corneal tissue. The cornea is the window at the front of the eye – the watch glass, if you like, through which light passes. The advantage of all this energy being absorbed into this very small area of the surface is that the laser, every time it pulses, that energy is absorbed and only in the order of a quarter of a 1000th of a millimeter of the tissue is removed per pulse.
To learn more about the process at the London Vision Clinic, click here.
Alex Hopes This Procedure Will Mean That He Can Throw Away His Glasses
Alex: “I have been wearing glasses since I was about ten or eleven, wearing contact lenses was a temporary solution, but I couldn’t go swimming with them and it was obviously quite fiddly when you’re younger getting infections in your eyes and things, which obviously is not too good. The main advantages I can think of having corrective surgery would be that it frees me up; I don’t have to wear glasses or contact lenses anymore.”
Dan Reinstein: OK and looking at the O, a few lines up, a sharper one or two?
Alex: Two is much clearer.
Dan Reinstein: Alex has a prescription of -5. That means he is focused at 1/5th of a meter away. So at 20 centimeters, everything is clear for Alex. We’re going to need to remove something like 80/1000s of a millimeter from the center of his cornea. The procedure itself takes three minutes or so. The way it works is we take the cornea and we make a very, very thin shaving. That shaving is brought back. The laser is then used to reshape the bed and then the flap is put back.
A red light is used to track the eye.
Considering The Risk Benefit Balance In Laser Eye Surgery
All surgery, and particularly surgery which you choose to have, that means you don’t have to have, it’s very important to consider the risk and benefit balance. The risk therefore, has to be relatively low, because glasses work very well and they’re very low risk. The modern alternative is to have it corrected permanently by one procedure. The risk of a little bit of damage to the vision, the chances are probably one in ten to twenty thousand.
Dan Reinstein: OK, Alex you’ve had perfect LASIK and it will be healed in three hours.
It’s over before you know it. The refocusing of the eye is practically instantaneous and so you get what is called the ‘wow’ effect.
The “Wow” Effect Experienced By Alex After The Laser Eye Surgery
Dan Reinstein: All right, so remember what it looked like before you lay down ten minutes ago? Yeah? Well, a blur. Well open your eyes and check your vision now.
Alex: Yeah, it’s amazing.
Read more patient reviews after laser eye surgery.