Understanding LASIK Alternatives
LASIK surgery is not appropriate for everyone. During the extensive, two-hour eye exam Eye Surgeons provides for all patients considering LASIK, our doctors may discover issues, such as very thin corneas or extremely high prescription errors, that may make LASIK surgery the wrong treatment for you. Luckily, there are some other procedures our doctors can recommend that can help give you the vision you’ve always dreamed of, without relying on glasses and contact lenses.
Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK)
Photorefractive keratectomy, or PRK, is often used as an alternative to LASIK when a patient’s cornea, or clear, front part of the eye, is too thin. During PRK, our surgeons use the VISX CustomVue™ Wavefront Laser to sculpt the cornea, just as they would do for a LASIK patient. The primary difference between PRK and LASIK is that no flap is created during PRK, because of corneal thinness. For more information on PRK, please view the following video:
What is PRK?
While LASIK patients often report clear, improved vision as early as the day after surgery, it may be a few days before vision stabilizes for PRK patients, due to a longer healing time. Once the cornea is healed, however, PRK patients are as happy with their new vision as LASIK patients.
