Question about Lasik Eye Surgery?

Question

I am 50 years old. I have been nearsighted since I was a kid, but the need for reading glasses came much later in life. Right now I have to wear bifocals to function. I would really like to have the Lasik procedure, but my question is if the procedure can be done to correct both near and far sightedness either at the same time or with two separate procedures? Anyone know?

Answer 1

After around age 40 the natrual lens within the eye becomes less able to change shape and thereby change focus. This is when reading glasses or bifocals become necessary and is called presbyopia. Lasik cannot treat presbyopia, but there are a few workarounds that you may want to consider.

I work for a nonprofit Lasik patient advocacy. We do not provide Lasik, just Lasik information and we certify Lasik doctos who meet or exceed our patient outcome requirements.

Lasik is only able to reduce the need for glasses, and only one set of glasses at that. It is probable that Lasik can make your vision to be as you see through your distance glasses OR as you see through your near glasses (bifocal), BUT not both. You must choose one or the other, thanks to presbyopia.

There are a couple of workarounds. You can have most of your correction but leave yourself a little nearsighted. That means you would be able to see objects near, such as a computer monitor, reading, etc., but you would lose some of the clarity of your distance vision.

Monovision is the process of correcting your dominant eye to distance vision and your nondominant eye to near vision. After a few weeks the brain figures out what is going on and will "look" through the near eye at near objects and will "look" through the distance eye at distant objects.

http://www.usaeyes.org/lasik/faq/lasik-m...

The problem with monovision is that about one-third of people who try it cannot stand the effects, and even if you adapt well it is very likely you will lose some accuracy of depth perception. Monovision is a workaround, not a total answer, but it can make daily tasks likegetting around the house and being able to see your watch much easier.

The best part of monovision is that you can try it in contact lenses before you have it lasered into your eyes.

A comprehensive examination by a competent doctor will give you more details and help determine if you are a condidate for any form of Lasik or similar laser eye surgery.

Answer 2

Yes, they can correct one eye for distance and the other for near...BUT...not everyone likes that after it is done , and then it is too late.

Night vision will suffer a lot because you lose depth perception.

The only way to know if you will be able to accept that kind of vision is to try it out with contact lenses first.

That is called mono-vision. Some people get used to it in a week or so, but some never do.

Personally, I would rather have excellent distance vision in both eyes, and just use a half-eye reading glass when I want to read.