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Frequently Asked Questions
1: Is refractive surgery painful and how long does the procedure take?
Refractive procedures are relatively painless. Patients who choose PRK may experience mild to moderate discomfort for a day or two. LASIK patients have only a slight dry or scratchy feeling on the day of the surgery. Some patients will feel pressure on their eyelids during a portion of the surgery. While a significant amount of time is dedicated to pre-operative evaluation and measurements, and postoperative follow-up, the actual surgery takes only a few minutes per eye.
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2: What restrictions are there after surgery?
Restrictions vary depending upon the procedure. Swimming is prohibited for two weeks after LASIK; water skiing for three months. Normal activities, exercise and work routines can be resumed the day after the procedure. PRK patients usually wait about two days.
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3: What are the risks and side effects?
Temporary haziness occasionally occurs after refractive surgery. Some patients notice halos around lights at night. Five percent of LASIK patients may experience a slight reduction of visual acuity compared to previous vision with glasses or contacts. Sight threatening complications such as infection are very rare. Drs. Parelman and Unterman are available to answer any questions about the benefits of LASIK.
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4: Is the vision result permanent?
Yes. Of course other aging changes, such as cataracts, may develop later. Following surgery, a small percentage of patients are under-corrected, or rarely over-corrected. Additional treatment, or enhancement, can be performed for further vision improvement. (Enhancement procedures may not entail additional fees.)
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5: Is Refractive surgery right for you?
With any medical procedure it is important for patients to have realistic expectations. The goal of refractive energy is to achieve independence from optical devices (glasses or contact lenses). For most people this means uncorrected visual acuity is 20/40 or better- a result achieved over 95% of the time. While the majority of patients see 20/20 after surgery, we advise patients to think more about their visual functioning without glasses or contacts than their actual vision measurement.
Younger people who are mildly nearsighted can read comfortably without glasses. If both eyes undergo laser vision surgery for full distance correction, reading glasses will usually be needed after the early to mid-forties. Some patients benefit by leaving one eye slightly nearsighted so that reading glasses are not necessary. We would be glad to discuss this technique know as monovision.
Many people are content and satisfied with their glasses or contacts and do not feel "dependent." While refractive surgery is safe and effective, even the safest medical procedure involves a very small possibility of side effects or complications.
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