WVLEC Services — LASIK
The LASIK Procedure
Once your procedure is scheduled
- Eat a light meal prior to arriving for your procedure.
- There are a variety of Hotels to choose from in our area. Hotel accommodations are available for out of town patients at a special rate of $65 per night at the Ramada Inn. The Ramada has a restaurant, complimentary breakfast, swimming pool and an exercise room. Transportation to and from our office is available.
- Restrictions on the day of your procedure are as follows: No alcohol or recreational drugs but take your prescription drugs as usual. Wear comfortable/warm clothing, no eye make-up for 2-3 days prior to your procedure and no face make-up on the day of your procedure.
- Abstain from wearing perfume, cologne, hair sprays or after-shave as their vapors can affect your vision results.
- Contact lenses must be removed from the operative eye(s) prior to the day of your consultation and cannot be put back in the eyes before the procedure: 4 weeks for gas permeable or hard contacts and 2 weeks for soft contacts.
- On the day of your procedure you should arrange to be here at the clinic for a minimum of 2-3 hours. Please arrive ½ hour before the time of your scheduled procedure.
- Please feel free to call us before coming to the center for your procedure to confirm that everything is running on schedule. This will reduce the chance of your wait being longer than estimated.
- At the time of your exam Dr. Moore will prescribe any medication necessary to maximize the postoperative results. These medications may vary from patient to patient. Some patients may need to start medications as much as three days prior to surgery. Others will only need to start their medication the day of the surgery. You should have all pre-op prescriptions filled prior to the day of surgery.
When you arrive
- Check in and inform the front desk receptionist that you are here for laser surgery.
- Please bring all of your paperwork with you on the day of your procedure.
- You will be asked to read and sign the consent form. You will be required to sign the consent in the presence of one of our staff employees.
- You will be given a set appointment for the one-day and one-week appointments on the day of your procedure. These are important and need to be kept as scheduled.
- You may wish to pay in advance. Final payment is due on the day of your surgery. You will be asked to take care of any outstanding financial matters at this time. Accepted methods of payment are Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Certified checks or cash. We will request this information when your surgery is scheduled.
In the pre-op area
- You will be given the opportunity to request some medication to relieve any anxiety you may have. This is optional.
Inside the laser room
- Laser Vision Correction is performed in a few small steps. Most procedures take less than 10-15 minutes for each eye even though the actual laser treatment may only be seconds.
- The laser is calibrated and programmed with your customized treatment plan before you even enter the Laser room.
- It will take a few minutes to position you properly under the microscope.
- There will be drops applied for both lubrication and numbing of your operative eye(s).
- One eye will be covered during the procedure to help you focus with the operative eye.
- You will be instructed to look at a flashing, greenish light most of the time and then a larger red light during the actual laser treatments. Your cooperation is very important, as your fixation on the red light will determine your vision results.
- You will hear a buzzing sound when the flap is being created; for safety, suction is put onto the eye causing the vision in that eye to go dim then dark; this is normal, for safety, and vision returns in a few seconds so you can see the blinking light.
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Using an instrument called a microkeratome, a thin layer created at the top of your cornea, which is lifted away, but still remains attached at one side. |
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The excimer laser, programmed to correct your degree of error, evaporates a microscopic layer of tissue. This part of the procedure takes approximately one minute. |
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Then a gently placed thin corneal layer back to its original position; healing starts immediately. |
Step 1- Expect to hear a harmless clicking sound from the laser as the correction is performed.
- You may smell a scent similar to burning hair while the laser performs the correction; this is normal. The larger your correction the more the scent may be present.
- The laser room normally will be cool and noisy, but the staff will talk loud enough for you to hear and follow instructions.
- The first post-operative exam is in the Laser room.
- After surgery, you will be placed in a reclining chair and instructed to keep your eyes closed for at least half an hour.
- Then, Dr. Moore will do your second post-operative exam, place medications and bandage contact lens, if necessary, before you go home.
After the procedure
- Moments after your procedure, your vision maybe relatively blurry like looking through tears, this is normal.
- You should not drive or operate any machinery until given permission by Dr. Moore. Most patients are comfortable driving after their one-day post-operative appointment.
- You will be given a sleeping medication to be taken as soon as you arrive home; between the time of your procedure and the time you go to sleep you may experience some discomfort.
- You may experience such symptoms as itching, excessive tearing and a scratchy sensation. This is more common with EPI-LASEK and PRK than with LASIK. Your prescription medications and moisturizing drop will alleviate these symptoms.
- Your eyes may be sensitive to bright light and may burn or itch when attempting to open them. Do not be alarmed; these symptoms are normal, temporary and usually relieved with artificial tears. The remedy for this is sleep, or keeping your eyes closed as much as possible for the remainder of the day, and artificial tears every hour. Cold compresses may help.
- You will be given a post-operative kit containing medicated drops, goggles, sunglasses and artificial tears along with instruction for using each. It is very important to follow these directions and to ask question before you leave the center if you do not understand any of the instructions.
- Do not rub/touch your eyes for two weeks following your procedure.
- No swimming or hot tubs for two weeks. Heavy lifting and contact sports should be avoided for four weeks following your procedure. Safety glasses should be worn appropriately at work or while cutting grass. Use common sense.
- If you wish to shower, wear the white goggles that are supplied and turn your back to the shower for a least one-week. Do not let the shower spray hit you in the face.
- No eye make-up for two weeks and no face makeup for three days following your procedure.
- Be careful when attempting stairs due to your depth perception being affected following the procedures.
Expectations
There are a number of key features about the way your eyes will feel and how your vision will behave that are normal and temporary.
- Typically, eyes require several months for the vision to stabilize. Your vision can fluctuate for the first 1 to 2 months. This is part of the healing process.
- Your up close vision may be blurry for a week to ten days after your procedure as well as the fluctuations in your distance vision for the first few weeks after your procedure.
- If you are in the forty and over age group please understand that you may still need reading glasses following the corrections. During your initial exam Dr. Moore will discuss options for correcting Presbyopia with refractive surgery.
- If your vision is blurry beyond 20/40, temporary glasses may be required.
- Later, if our doctors feels you could benefit from an additional treatment, plans will be made to perform an enhancement if your vision is not at least 20/40.The vision must be stabilized first which is determined after two stable dilation exams.
- Driving at night may be difficult due to glare and/or blur. This is an expected, temporary, side effect. This usually resolves within 2 to 4 months.
- You should avoid driving and operating hazardous equipment if you are not comfortable with your vision.
- For many months to follow, artificial tears will be comforting. If your eyes are normally dry, your comfort and vision may be increased by closing your tear drains, e.g. punctual occlusion
- You are required to maintain your proper post-operative care as per our doctors' instructions. Should you fail to keep appointments or use your medications and lubricants as instructed, it will void our enhancement guarantee.
- West Virginia Laser Eye Center has co-management agreements with many area doctors. If you have arranged to have your surgery co-managed with one of those doctors you will be billed accordingly by each office. If, however, those arrangements have not been established prior to your surgery and you decide to maintain post-operative care at a clinic other than ours it is at your expense and it will void your lifetime guarantee for and enhancement .
To treat nearsightedness with LASIK Laser Vision Correction, the cornea must be made flatter. This is accomplished by removing tissue from the center of the cornea.
To treat farsightedness with LASIK Laser Vision Correction, the central cornea must be made steeper. This is accomplished by directing the laser beam to remove tissue from around this area.
To treat astigmatism with LASIK Laser Vision Correction, the cornea must be made more spherical. By changing the pattern of the beam, tissue is removed in one direction more than the other.
The technology associated with laser vision correction is such as to build in safety measures. Throughout the procedure, the surgeon is observing your eye and tracking your eye movements through the microscope. With any large deviations, the surgeon will simply stop the laser ablation and restart the process when the eye is perfectly aligned. Although eye movement is a concern of many patients, those who have experienced the LASIK laser vision correction procedure rarely note a problem-maintaining fixation throughout the short laser ablation.
To treat presbyopia with LASIK Laser vision correction we are changing the focal point of the eye. This has no affect on presbyopia since presbyopia affects the accommodative system of your eyes. If you have presbyopia we, in some cases, can set the focal point of one eye for distance and the other eye for near. We will try this with contacts to make sure it works before proceeding with this type of procedure.