With the newest technology using our Wavelight Allegretto laser, over 99% of our patients, after treatment achieve 20/40 or better vision without glasses or contacts (which is good enough to pass the driver’s license test) and over 90% have 20/20 or better vision without glasses or contacts. If you are over 45 years old and wear glasses for reading or bifocals, trifocals etc. you will most likely still require reading glasses. For many blended vision or monovision allows even these individuals to achieve excellent functional vision both far away and near.

A significant percentage of our patients see better after laser treatment without any glasses or contacts than they did prior to the treatment with the glasses or contacts.

When performed by a board-certified ophthalmic surgeon preferably with special additional training in Cornea like Dr. Robbins using state of the art equipment, LASIK treatments are extremely safe. Like any surgical procedure, the risk for complications is real. Not only is important to do everything possible to avoid complications, but the surgeon must recognize that a complication exists and what steps to take to remedy the situation.

Much of what is done to avoid complications starts long before the actual surgical procedure. At Robbins Eye we employ very sophisticated testing to determine if you are a suitable candidate for LASIK. This includes a Pentacam which maps not only the front surface of the cornea but the inner back curve as well. Dry eye testing is performed utilizing some of the latest dry eye diagnostic equipment not generally available.

This boils down to the same reason not all laptops are the same. Or not all cars are the same. All lasers that are used in the United States must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but they are of varying quality and offer different levels of performance and features. The Allegretto Wavelight EX500 is the most recent device to get approval for LASIK. In the FDA clinical trials it achieved better outcomes than any laser tested previously. It has also been granted the broadest range of prescription approvals by the FDA. It is the 9th laser platform that Dr. Robbins in his experience the best so far by a wide margin.

There are a few main complications that patients should be aware of. Of course, other problems are possible. Here are a few:

1) Need for possible future LASIK procedure called an enhancement.

No laser system yields 20/20 vision or optimal results 100% of the time. To some degree this is due to variations in healing from person to person and even eye to eye in the same person. Our overall enhancement rate is very low, much less than 4% but is higher for some prescriptions. Your surgeon will advise you if you fall into one of those categories.

2) Dryness.

Increased dryness on a temporary basis is very common after Lasik. Permanently increased dryness is rare but can occur. Naturally, dryness after LASIK treatment is more common in people who had dryness prior to the surgery, and will often last up to several months.

Robbins Eye does extensive testing for the presence of Dry Eye prior to surgery. Additional therapy above and beyond artificial tears may initiated prior to or immediately after surgery. These include but are not limited to specially formulated Omega-3 preparations, Restasis, Xiidra and Punctal plugs.

3) Halos and night vision symptoms.

Night vision issues are much less of a problem since we began using the Allegretto Wavelight laser. This is a result of the proprietary treatment profiles and the manner in which the blend zones are managed. However, this still remains a problem with other lasers and can still infrequently occur even with the latest technology.

Everyone sees some degree of halos at night whether or not they have had LASIK or not. You can prove this by looking at the full moon in the late evening when it is dark and you will notice that there is softness to the edge of the moon. This is call this a halo. When you view the full moon during the daylight, this softness is not present. When LASIK was in its infancy and when using older lasers, the halos were made worse in around 25% percent of patients. Although this uncommonly interfered with the ability to drive or live your life, it was annoying for some people.
After LASIK it is not unusual to experience a short-term increase in the night halos, lasting for weeks and occasionally longer. However, since switching to the Allegretto Wavelight system we rarely have patients with any significant haloing at night on a long term basis.

There have been millions of people treated with LASIK and for the most part the risk of serious complication is very low, much less than 1 percent. Some studies have even shown that LASIK procedures have less complications than wearing contact lenses.

Yes the type of laser is an enormous consideration in deciding which doctor to use. Modern laser systems are much more consistent with refined treatment technology that achieves significantly better results. The Allegretto Wavelight EX500 has a wavefront optimized treatment profile with a unique blend zone and larger effective optical zones. It also has the most extensive prescription range approved by the FDA to treat nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.