LASIK vs. PRK eye surgery

Sounds like you’ve had a great run without glasses. Everybody with ‘normal vision’ develops presbyopia in their 40s and ultimately needs readers to compensate for the natural lens’ diminishing ability to change focus for near. So needing readers in your late 40s is just a sign your surgery gave you ‘normal vision’. A small price to pay in my opinion. If it’s a real nuisance you can try wearing a low power soft contact lens in your non-dominant eye (maybe +1.0) and then you have the best of both worlds.

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Great to hear. The vast majority of patients recover from the dry eye symptoms by 6 months. Remember that dry eyes can also be a reason it might seem the vision is fluctuating from time to time. The nerves in the front part of the cornea are transected when the flap is made and never completely recover, but the symptoms do settle down. Beats the heck of out wearing contact lenses hey?

Wife had LASIK and had that for about a year.

I had PRK in 2010 and still get dry eyes, FWIW

I’m 49 and had LASIK in 2001. I have riding buddies who continue to struggle with glasses or contacts and who could get it done but won’t for some reason. For me it’s some of the best money I’ve ever spent.

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Bumping this up with some curiosity if anyone has any thoughts in genenal beyond what’s above.

I have a relatively light prescription at -1.5 and -1.75 with mild astigmatism. It’s light enough that I don’t wear glasses when riding or running and alwas feel safe, but sometimes I wish I could see my computer more clearly.

Due to my astigmatism and general propensity to rub my eyes, contacts are a nonstarter for me. I’m very, very bothered by them.

I have a desire for either lasik or prk, but I’m quite nervous at bad outcomes, even things like dry eyes. I don’t mind wearing glasses one bit, and if not for sports, I’d not consider either surgery. So as such, the thought of a permanent bad outcome is really nervewracking to me.

Any thoughts?

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If you don’t mind glasses and are quite nervous about dry eyes I wouldn’t bother with a procedure.

I had lasik maybe 15 years ago (can’t remember the exact year) and my vision is still good. Although I’m getting older and bifocals might be coming soon. But for me, it took about 2 years before the halo and starburst effect fully went away. It was much better after 6 months and slowly improved. And I did have some level of dry eye issues for that time period as well.

Yeah, that terrifies me. :confused:

Everybody’s different but it’s not uncommon. It was annoying but it wasn’t awful for me. I couldn’t wear contacts and hated wearing glasses while exercising so lasik worked out great. But today there are a ton more options for getting prescription sunglasses or cycling glasses. It’s not that they didn’t exist 15 years ago but there are many more options today.

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I had lasik about two years ago and it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I was worried about the dry eyes too, I suffer from them regardless.

My left eye tends to feel a bit sticky sometimes (mostly in winter) with no impact on my vision. Annoying but ignorable.

The procedure itself is fast and painless, in and out in under 10 minutes. You go home, take the drops for the burning, take a nap and wake up a few hours later being able to see. It’s mind blowing.

I don’t remember my prescription, but it was worse than yours also with astigmatism. I needed new glasses and sunglasses, opted for surgery instead.

I had starbursts before the surgery and my night vision wasn’t great with glasses. It’s much better now, but glares off the road when it’s raining still bother me.

Would absolutely do it again, without hesitation.

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Had SMILE LASIK 4 years ago. With covid and staring at screen for meetings I am now at -0.75 in both eyes…still glad I had the surgery but now I am at a point where I am bothered by the returning myopia. Considering going back to get an idea of my options…looks like repeat procedures are done with PRK…

I also had too thin corneas for LASIK. Ended up with astigmatic keratotomy. Meant I didn’t have to wear glasses for a year, and then my vision got bad enough that I needed glasses again.

When I see a new eye Dr, they always comment on the scaring they can see.

Given I still need glasses, I wish I hadn’t have bothered. Glasses (which I’ve worn since I was 3 or 4) aren’t that big of a deal to me.

I wish I’d been one of the LASIK and no glasses again crowd, but it wasn’t in the cards for me.