The first step of the LASIK procedure is the creation of a corneal flap. The purpose of the flap is to serve as a protective “lid” underwhich the vision correcting corneal reshaping is accomplished.
A laser has always been used to perform the reshaping but until IntraLase, the flap was created with instruments that contained a blade. The IntraLase Method is a 100% blade-free approach to creating your corneal flap. With the IntraLase Method, a blade never touches your eye.
How does the IntraLase Method work?
Tiny pulses of laser light pass harmlessly through the outer portion of your cornea and form a uniform layer of microscopic bubbles just beneath the surface of your eye. Just prior to LASIK surgery, the doctor can lift the corneal flap by gently and easily separating the tissue where these bubbles have formed.
While LASIK complications are rare, when they do occur they are primarily related to the creation of the flap. The IntraLase Method virtually eliminates the most severe complications associated with LASIK.
IntraLase is a blade-free or all-laser procedure but the educated consumer needs to beware. Not all LASIK centers touting All-laser LASIK are offering IntraLase. Some may be offering a less refined procedure that lacks some of the safeguards of IntraLase.
To date, the IntraLase Method has been used in hundreds of thousands of LASIK procedures around the world.
The creation of the flap itself takes only about 15-20 seconds per eye after the application of numbing eyedrops. Including preparation time, the LASIK procedure takes about 10 minutes total.
The IntraLase Method is quickly becoming the preferred method among doctors, patients and the US military to create a corneal flap.
Dr. Dornic has been performing IntraLase for the past several years and is the first Raleigh area ophthalmologist to perform IntraLase.