Is Laser Eye Surgery Permanent?

Laser refractive surgery is intended to be a once-only permanent correction for focusing errors. The laser changes the shape of the cornea adjusting your focus in the same way as wearing contact lenses or glasses. During the surgery, the laser removes a pre-determined amount of tissue and once the tissue is removed, it cannot grow back. When your eyes have fully recovered, the changes made to your cornea are permanent and completely stable.

All surgery stimulates the body’s natural healing response and is different for everyone as our bodies heal at their own rate. Your recovery time may vary from a few hours to several weeks or a couple of months before your vision completely stabilises. Patient differences in healing can affect both the visual recovery process and the final visual outcome. After the initial procedure and the recovery period if there is some remaining farsightedness or nearsightedness, you may be offered an enhancement procedure. About 3% of people either over or under heal and require an enhancement. This is a repeat of the laser eye surgery to correct the remaining refractive error, is normally done at 3-6 months and is included in the cost of your original procedure.

Will I need glasses in the future after laser eye surgery?

Your eye is a living organ and will age over time, just like the rest of your body. Laser eye surgery will not prevent you from developing age-related changes such as cataracts or presbyopia.

Around the age of 45 years, the lens of the eye becomes more stiff and less elastic and the muscles around it can longer change its shape, resulting in a loss of focus on objects in the near vision. You may have found yourself stretching your arm to read your smart phone, or requiring brighter light to read a book in the evening.  This anatomical change is in the lens and muscles of the eye - not the cornea which is the part of the eye corrected by the laser eye surgery.

The good news is that there are procedures to correct presbyopia as well including; an enhancement if you have already had laser eye surgery when you were younger, laser blended vision if you are thinking about having laser eye surgery and do not wish to show your age by starting to wear reading glasses, or a lens replacement.

Call 0800 692020 or email info@boweneye.co.nz to book a free suitability assessment for laser eye surgery with Dr Reece Hall.

Glossary

Cataract when the natural lens gets cloudy enough to make vision hazy it is called a cataract.

Cornea the clear part of the eye wall at the front of the eye. Two thirds of the focusing power of the eye is from the cornea. The cornea is reshaped in laser eye surgery.

Enhancement or re-treatment surgeries are performed when a full correction from the LASIK procedure has not been achieved due to the body’s natural healing response. Enhancement surgery can be performed no sooner than three months after surgery and for up to one year. Around 3% of people who have LASIK have an enhancement procedure.

Laser blended vision is laser refractive surgery using the same femtosecond and excimer laser machines as in LASIK. It corrects the dominant eye mainly for distance vision and the non-dominant eye mainly for near vision, with the depth of field of each eye being increased.  By increasing the depth of your visual field, the brain merges the two images which creates a “blend zone”. This zone is a focus for both eyes overlapping and working together, which allow you to see near, middle and distance vision removing the need for glasses altogether.

Laser eye surgery correction of sight using excimer and/or femtosecond lasers to alter the curvature and focusing power of the cornea.

Laser refractive surgery this is another name for laser eye surgery or laser vision correction surgery; surgery to reduce the need for glasses or contact lenses.

Lens is made of transparent, flexible protein tissue and is located directly behind the iris and the pupil. It is the second part of your eye, after the cornea, that helps to focus light and images on your retina. Because the lens is flexible and elastic when young, it can change its curved shape to focus on objects nearby or at a distance.

Presbyopia age related stiffening of the lens causing a loss of reading vision and the ability to focus on a near object without the help from glasses.

Refractive surgery this is another name for vision correction surgery to reduce the need for glasses and contact lenses.