Are you wondering wether or not you are a good candidate for Laser Eye Surgery? Many people are interested in the procedure, but unsure whether it’s a good fit for them.
Here’s a checklist you can review to figure out if you are a good candidate:
Healthy eyes
If you have certain eye conditions, like glaucoma or cataracts, they may negatively affect your candidacy for the procedure. Likewise, some people who suffer from chronic dry eye may not be a great match for laser eye surgery, since it may exacerbate eye dryness. However, if your dry eye is strictly related to contact lens wear, laser eye surgery may eliminate many of your dry eye issues. If you’re not quite sure how healthy your eyes are, schedule an eye exam with your local doctors who can let you know if they’re healthy enough for laser eye surgery.
Overall health
While eye health is extremely important to your laser eye surgery candidacy, your health, in general, is also a key consideration. Any abnormalities in your health, even something exciting like pregnancy or seemingly unrelated impending surgeries, will affect whether or not you should get this surgery. Certain conditions that compromise your body’s immune system and/or inhibit healing will also make some people less suited for the the procedure.
Prescription consistency
In order to be a good candidate for laser eye surgery, your vision prescription should have remained consistent for at least two years. This is one of the biggest prescription requirements, as even minor fluctuations could indicate instability in your vision. Doctors do not want to fix eyesight in such a permanent way, if it may change again shortly after.
Ideal prescription range
Another key consideration is where your eyesight falls on the spectrum. Laser eye surgery can successfully correct mild to moderate to severe amounts of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism but if your prescription is extremely high, your eye surgeon may advise you to pursue an alternative course of action. There is more risk involved when correcting those with high prescriptions, and there may be better options for people in this group. Therefore, laser eye surgery is usually the most ideal for people with mid-range prescriptions.
Optimal age range
While there is not necessarily a best age to get laser eye surgery, there are some general parameters to keep in mind. First, eye surgeons will not perform laser eye surgery for anyone younger than 18 years of age, and some eye clinics will not perform laser eye surgery for anyone younger than 21 years of age. You can get laser eye surgery for years after this, but when people get into their mid to late 40s, their vision generally starts to change again. At that point, there may be better vision correction options for them than laser eye surgery.
So, where do you stack up? Are you a shoo-in for laser eye surgery, or might there be a different form of vision correction that’s better for you? If you’re still not sure, contact our online consultants for all your questions.
