NOTE: Just want to make it clear that I am in no way affiliated with anyone or any company that provides laser eye surgery. I am not endorsing it either. I am simply providing my own experience with it for those who are interested in reading it. If you are considering getting laser eye surgery done, I suggest you do your own research / homework on the topic. I am not an expert on the topic, so please don’t ask me for questions or advice on it as if I am. Please consult an ophthalmologist for your questions. Thanks!
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I woke up this morning wearing sunglasses and it’s not even summer. Whoa, that’s a bit strange. I guess I’d better back up a little.
Earlier this year I decided to get laser eye surgery. There were a few reasons that led me to doing this. One was that I had worn glasses for about 15 years thus far and there were a lot of situations where I found glasses kind of bothersome. Second, was that laser eye surgery technology is extremely good now and relatively safe. Third, was that being a medical student with the Canadian Federation of Medical Students lets you get a substantial discount at one of the companies that provide laser eye surgery (laser eye surgery is not covered by the public health insurance system, but at least it’s tax free!).
I ended up getting a laser eye surgery assessment done at the end of summer. There two main types of laser eye surgeries down to correct vision include PRK and LASIK – at the assessment, it was determined I was a good candidate for LASIK.
In LASIK, there are two main parts to the procedure. (1) an ophthalmologist uses a precise instrument to create a thin flap of corneal tissue. He then raises the flap to the side, preparing the rest of the cornea for the actual laser to correct the vision. (2) the ophthalmologist then uses an excimer laser to remove some tissue from the middle layer of the cornea, thus reshaping the cornea. The entire procedure is relatively quick, and takes about 20 minutes to do both eyes.
I decided to get an “All-Laser LASIK” procedure done – meaning that both the reshaping of my corneas and the creation of the corneal flap was both done by a laser.