Lasek Not Lasik

For those who thought that was a typo, lasik is not the only surgery available for your eyes. Lasek is another possibility to consider and it is not a mistake from lasik. Also known as E-lasik or epithelial lasik, this altered surgery is not for everybody and you'll see that there is no big difference with a lasik procedure but if your surgeon suggests lasek for your eyes, you should seriously consider it. We will look over the differences of the surgery and the advantages or disadvantages you can gain from it. Unlike wavefront surgeries, this is a completely different process.

One of the latest surgeries, lasek is known to be a new surgery but it is really in fact a variation of the PRK surgery. Just so you know, PRK is also part of the lasik procedure but if you only use the PRK surgery it will be more painful and it will take longer for you to recover. You probably already guessed that it is also cheaper to use this surgery. So if you followed so far, there are three types of surgery: lasek, lasik and PRK which all have slight variances that will affect time of recovery and how painful it will be.

One of the main differences between lasik and e-lasik is regarding the first part of the procedure where the surgeon is supposed to create a flap in your cornea. Instead of using a microkeratome blade, the surgeon will use a finer blade known as trephine. After that, the surgeon will use an excimer laser just as in lasik or PRK to sculpt the corneal tissue below. Your surgeon will also use an alcohol solution for your eyes before using lasers and since this treatment can only be done manually the risks of complications can arise even if it's not an important one.

Because lasek is a mix between PRK and lasik, this surgery will gain advantages that both other surgeries do not have but will also have a few disadvantages that the other two surgeries have. For example, you will recover faster than PRK but slower than lasik. For lasik's case, lasek reduces the risk of having stromal flap complications during the surgery or a patient's lifetime. But it will definitely be more painful than lasik. If you're not the one who enjoys pain than I would strongly recommend going with lasik or even custom lasik instead.

In those cases, opting for lasik will be a possibility but if your surgeon suggests going for lasek, ask why. Although this surgery is not for everyone, it is possible that you are not an eligible candidate for lasik so if your surgeon suggests e-lasik, it is mainly because he believes that e-lasik would be a better surgery for you. There is no best standard surgery so if your doctor does not want to use the most common surgery one on you it doesn't mean you should be afraid. In fact you should be happy to know that your surgeon knows what he's doing.

Lasik Eye Surgery