LASIK: Are your eyes worth it?
by Sandi Tatum
Issue date: 1/8/07 Section: Opinion
Anyone who wears glasses or contacts knows how irritating it is to wake up in the morning unable to see. Because you can't see you have to search for your glasses and some mornings that is a task in itself, especially if your glasses fall off your nightstand. Then the contact wearers have to go and poke their fingers in their eyes to get their lenses in. I know how it goes because I started wearing glasses when I was four-years-old and contacts when I was 10.
Over the break I was able to get LASIK and it is one of the best things that I have ever done. I can wake up in the morning and actually see what's in front of me. I was scared out of my mind, but was assured that the doctor I went to has never had anyone go blind.
According to an article, in the Washington Post, called Should you have it?, only one to two percent of patients have serious complications. Although serious complications are rare with LASIK they do happen and sometimes they become permanent. This small percent is what usually scares people away from the procedure. According to LASIK Surgery News, 1.3 million people got the procedure done. Two percent of 1.3 million people are 26,000 people that had serious complications. But when it comes to your eyes and not being able to see again it is a very difficult choice to make.
LASIK also has some small complications that must be considered before you get the procedure. One of the most important is that your vision may not be fully corrected or overcorrected. There is still a chance that you may have to wear contact lenses or glasses after the procedure. If you are over the age of 40 when you get the procedure if is almost guaranteed that later on you will need reading glasses.
Going to the right doctor has a huge part in determining how well your outcome of the procedure will be. When my mom got the procedure done five years ago, the eye doctor told her that if she went to a better doctor it was going to be much more expensive but "would she rather go to a surgeon that has done hundreds or surgeries or thousands of surgeries." To get the best possible result of the procedure you need to go to the best doctor you can find.
Over the break I was able to get LASIK and it is one of the best things that I have ever done. I can wake up in the morning and actually see what's in front of me. I was scared out of my mind, but was assured that the doctor I went to has never had anyone go blind.
According to an article, in the Washington Post, called Should you have it?, only one to two percent of patients have serious complications. Although serious complications are rare with LASIK they do happen and sometimes they become permanent. This small percent is what usually scares people away from the procedure. According to LASIK Surgery News, 1.3 million people got the procedure done. Two percent of 1.3 million people are 26,000 people that had serious complications. But when it comes to your eyes and not being able to see again it is a very difficult choice to make.
LASIK also has some small complications that must be considered before you get the procedure. One of the most important is that your vision may not be fully corrected or overcorrected. There is still a chance that you may have to wear contact lenses or glasses after the procedure. If you are over the age of 40 when you get the procedure if is almost guaranteed that later on you will need reading glasses.
Going to the right doctor has a huge part in determining how well your outcome of the procedure will be. When my mom got the procedure done five years ago, the eye doctor told her that if she went to a better doctor it was going to be much more expensive but "would she rather go to a surgeon that has done hundreds or surgeries or thousands of surgeries." To get the best possible result of the procedure you need to go to the best doctor you can find.
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