The vast majority of people’s prescription will fall within the treatable range for either Lasik or Lasek surgery and consequently these are the 2 most common laser eye surgery procedures.
If however you fall beyond the treatable range of laser eye surgery or for any other reason you are deemed unsuitable for laser eye surgery then you may have to consider another non laser refractive surgery. The main 2 treatments that you will have to choose from are implantable contact lenses or refractive lens exchange.
Lasik Prescription Range:
- Long sightedness: +0.75DS to +5.00DS.
- Short sightedness: -0.75 to -12.00DS.
- Astigmatism: Standard Lasik treatment: +/- 3.00Dcyl.Wavefront Lasik: +/-6.00Dcyl.
For more information on Lasik click here.
Lasek Prescription Range:
- Long sightedness: +0.75DS to +4.00DS.
- Short sightedness: -0.75 to -9.00DS.
- Astigmatism: Up to +/- 3.00Dcyl. Wave front: up to +/- 6.00Dcyl.
For more information on Lasek click here.
If you are extremely long sighted or short sighted then your prescription may well fall beyond the above laser eye treatment range and so you will therefore have to consider the other options that are available to you. For those people whose prescription is beyond the laser eye surgery parameters, then the 2 other surgical options currently available to you are either implantable contact lenses or refractive lens exchange. Both these treatments do not involve the use of a laser and are classed as intra-ocular procedures (within the eye). They are becoming more and more accurate at treating such high prescriptions and are therefore growing in their popularity.
Final Points
- Implantable contact lenses are also referred to as Phakic IOLS or permanent contact lenses. They all refer to the same procedure.
- Refractive Lens exchange is also referred to as clear lens extraction or clear lens exchange. They all refer to the same procedure.
For more detailed information on refractive lens exchange you can click here.
For more detailed information on implantable contact lenses you can click here.
