Choose Custom LASIK for Precision Vision Correction

If you are considering LASIK, you might wonder whether all LASIK procedures are the same. The answer is they are not. Custom LASIK is a newer, more accurate form of the procedure that uses detailed analysis of your eyes to design a treatment plan that is significantly more accurate than traditional LASIK and far more accurate than prescriptions for glasses and contact lenses.

What is Custom LASIK?

Custom LASIK is a LASIK treatment designed not only to give you better vision, but to give you the vision that suits you best. This means that it gives you not only optically improved vision, but vision suited to your eyes and to your lifestyle. It is functionally better vision designed specifically for you.

Optical Defects in Vision

The defects in vision that we most often think of, like nearsightedness and farsightedness, are optical defects. In an ideal eye, the cornea focuses light from objects directly on the retina so we see a clear image. However, in eyes with nearsightedness, farsightedness, or other optical defects, the image either focuses in front of, behind, or with distortion on the retina. This affects not only your ability to see sharp images like letters on an eye chart, but your perception of contrast, color, and other aspects of the world around you.

Custom LASIK is able to identify and correct more different types of optical defects than regular LASIK, giving you better vision from an objective standpoint.

Functional Customization

In addition, custom LASIK can take into account lifestyle factors in designing a vision solution for you. We noted above that vision defects can not only reduce the sharpness of your vision, but reduce your sensitivity to contrast and color. If your job or hobbies depend on your ability to see color or contrast, custom LASIK will improve your vision for those purposes.

In addition, custom LASIK has the ability to address some of the artifacts of regular LASIK, namely the incidence of glare or halos seen when driving at night. Because these are caused by what are known as higher-order aberrations that cannot be treated and are sometimes caused by regular LASIK, only custom LASIK has the potential to reduce glare or halos seen by all people, potentially even those with large pupils, although this cannot be guaranteed.

Anatomical Customization

Anatomical customization means that your treatment is designed for your eye. The size and shape of all the parts of your eye are assessed and used when designing your vision solution. This is done not only in the reshaping of the cornea, but in the creation of the LASIK flap. Since LASIK flaps can be created at several thicknesses, this can also be customized to match your eye, as can the diameter of the flap, which is determined not only based on the optical correction necessary, but also on the size of your pupil.

Summary

You may not understand exactly how LASIK works or how all these customizations change the way your procedure is performed. But what you should understand is that custom LASIK gives better results for you. It gives better results than are possible with contact lenses or glasses. There is also much evidence that it gives better results than possible for people with uncorrected vision.