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After LASIK

Everyone who has LASIK expects great results.  What happens if the outcome was less than that and you are bothered by certain symptoms?  There are answers.

People often have LASIK because they want to be able to see clearly without having to wear Contact Lenses or Eyeglasses.  Fortunately, LASIK has a relatively good track record, but no procedure will help everyone 100% of the time. If your results were less than what you were hoping for, there may be ways to help you restore vision.  Custom Gas Permeable (GP), Scleral, Semi-Scleral, or hybrid contact lenses may give you relief and improve your vision.  This is especially true if a follow-up surgical procedure, euphemistically called an enhancement, is not possible.

The sharper clarity of a GP lens can correct optical imperfections that eyeglasses and soft contacts can't address, making gas permeable contact lenses or hybrids the best choice if you're looking for the sharpest vision possible.

The results of LASIK and other laser vision correction procedures depend on the skill of the surgeon as well as how your corneas heal.  Symptoms that some people have after laser procedures include glare, halos and starbursts around headlights and street lights.  LASIK and other procedures also can sometimes cause irregular astigmatism, with accompanying blurred and/or distorted vision.

Fortunately, for most people who have less-than-perfect vision after refractive surgery, these problems are quite mild and usually tolerable. For others however, the vision problems that occur after surgery can cause eye strain, headaches and difficulty driving at night.

The question that you have to ask yourself is how much of a problem is this causing me?  If you are reading this, you are probably one of those people that are bothered by the results.  LASIK and other laser vision correction procedures reshape your eye's front surface by removing microscopic amounts of tissue from the cornea. This can cause irregularities in the shape of the cornea that can make your vision less distinct after surgery than it was when you wore glasses or contact lenses before the procedure.

Gas permeable contact lenses maintain their shape on the eye, unlike soft lenses that conform to the shape of the cornea.  That's significant because the space between the cornea and the back surface of a GP lens is filled with tears. This "lake" of tears covers irregularities on the cornea's surface that cause aberrations. The smooth front surface of the GP lens then optically replaces the irregular corneal surface, eliminating blur and visual distortions.

Regular eyeglasses can’t change corneal irregularities and can’t correct the vision problems those irregularities cause. These glasses can correct only the basic refractive errors — nearsightedness, farsightedness, and regular astigmatism.

Prescribing contact lenses for the eye that has had LASIK and other laser refractive surgery is more of a challenge because the cornea has been altered.

A Corneal Topographer is a special computerized instrument that obtains highly accurate, point-to-point measurements of the post-surgery corneal surface to obtain the best possible fit and vision correction.

Contact lens fittings after refractive surgery typically are more time-consuming and involve a higher fee than regular contact lens fittings. Fitting GP contacts on an eye that has undergone refractive surgery requires special skills similar to those needed to fit lenses irregular-shaped corneas caused by keratoconus or a cornea transplant. Several lens modifications may be required to achieve the optimum fit, comfort and visual acuity. For best results, you may need to ask your eye doctor to refer you to a colleague who specializes in contacts for hard-to-fit-eyes.

Scleral lenses, Semi-Scleral lenses, and SynergEyes hybrid contact lenses may give you the sharpness that you are looking for.

SynergEyes hybrid contact lenses have a rigid GP lens in the middle with a soft skirt for comfort.  These Hybrid contact lenses are designed to offer the best of both worlds: aberration-correcting optics of a rigid GP lens and wearing comfort that is comparable with soft contact lenses.