There are a lot of claims out there by LASIK providers. Of course everyone claims to be the best or offer the best technology. Most of the time, claims about results or number of procedures are completely unsubstantiated making it difficult to compare. If having the highest percentage of 20/20 is your yardstick for success, then CustomVue LASIK from AMO and offered by the Laser Eye Center of Carolina boasts the highest percentage of 20/20 results (98%) ever reported to the FDA and is therefore the best laser and the best LASIK technology. Patients can arm themselves with unbiased information available from the FDA website, All About Vision.com, the Academy of Ophthalmology website and other reputable unbiased sources in helping them to decide where to get their LASIK Eye Surgery in the Raleigh Durham NC area.
Posts Tagged ‘customvue’
Trust but Verify
Saturday, October 10th, 2009iLASIK vs zLASIK: Which is Better?
Sunday, October 4th, 2009The first all-laser LASIK procedure made use of the IntraLase laser to make the flap rather than a blade. When the IntraLase laser is combined with AMO VISX’s proprietary CustomVue wavefront-guided treatment, the resulting procedure is termed “iLASIK”. The IntraLase laser has gone through several upgrades since it was first developed to improve it’s safety and precision. Because the IntraLase flaps can be made to fit like a “manhole” they tend to be more secure than those cut by a blade. Also, if something interrupts the creation of the flap, treatment can be restarted without any ill consequences. Since the introduction of IntraLase, Ziemer, a Swiss company, has introduced a laser to make LASIK flaps. Dr. Dornic has used both of these lasers to perform LASIK. The Ziemer laser is less expensive but it is not as well refined as the IntraLase laser. While the IntraLase laser can make flaps of varied thicknesses and architecture, the Ziemer laser can only make flaps of 3 different thicknesses and 3 diameters. The Ziemer can also only make flaps that are cut in much the same shape as a blade. They are therefore not as secure as an IntraLase flap. Another limitation of the Ziemer laser flap is that unlike the IntraLase laser, your surgeon cannot see the flap being made. Therefore, the surgeon cannot intercede to correct a problem such as misalignment or loss of suction occurring during the creation of the flap. What this means to the patient is that iLASIK is safer (more customizable flaps, lower risk of small, misshapen, decentered or slipped flaps) and the overall results are better with iLASIK than with zLASIK. If you want the safest, most precise LASIK, choose iLASIK.
There is a Difference Between LASIK Technologies
Sunday, August 16th, 2009Patients are often confused about the different technologies available. Information available on the web and by LASIK providers can be tainted by commercial bias. The US military is in the unique position to evaluate the different LASIK technologies that are commercially available and their flight surgeons are completely free of monetary incentives. Military flight surgeons are salaried and in choosing LASIK platforms, price is no object. See why NASA and the military chose IntraLase LASIK with CustomVue as their preferred technology: the exact same technology employed by Laser Eye Center of Carolina. http://www.amo-ilasik.com/500-video-center.aspx
What Happens if My Eye Moves during LASIK?
Sunday, August 9th, 2009A common question asked is “what happens if my eye moves during LASIK?” Obviously, the best results can occur if the treatment is precisely centered on the eye. Iris registration and tracking is a technology in which the LASIK treatment is precisely centered using color markings on the iris to guard against the effects of eye movement and rotation. Previously, lasers followed the patient’s eye moving up, down, left or right. Therefore as long as you move your eye left or right or up or down the laser beam could track the movement of the eye. However, there are other ways in which you can move your eye. For example, you can move your eye closer to the laser or away from it.
Iris registration can track such movements and relay them to the laser so that the operation becomes more accurate. The same is true with you eye rotating. You can rotate you eye clockwise or anti-clockwise, which previous lasers wouldn’t have tracked. But Iris registration doesn’t fail here either. This is truly a remarkable progress in the field of vision correction.
Iris registration and tracking is one component of CustomVue LASIK that makes this type of LASIK superior to other LASIK procedures and is to triangle area patients at the Laser Eye Center of Carolina.
Not All Custom LASIK is CustomVue
Sunday, July 12th, 2009Raleigh area LASIK candidates can be confused by advertisements for “custom LASIK”. Patients considering LASIK and who understand that the results of custom LASIK are in general, better than conventional LASIK, may mistakenly believe that all providers who offer custom LASIK are offering the same service.
Unfortunately, some providers of wavefront optimized LASIK advertise their procedure as “custom”. This is a distortion of the original meaning of custom LASIK which refers to wavefront guided LASIK.
Although a thorough understanding of the difference would take much more room than can be spent on this blog, needless to say, the visual performance of wavefront guided LASIK tends to be better than wavefront optimized. This has been born out by numerous studies and is the reason that NASA and the Department of Defense prefers wavefront guided LASIK.
Vision problems can be categorized into lower order ones (nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism) and higher order aberrations: the type that cause visual distortions, night time halos and starbursts. Wavefront optimized LASIK simply means there is an effort made not to induce new aberrations. Wavefront guided LASIK means that there is an effort to correct any preexisting distortions /aberrations and is the reason some LASIK patients will note that there vision is actually better after LASIK than it was before with their best glasses or contact lenses.
Raleigh area LASIK candidates may want to investigate data submitted to the FDA on LASIK. They will discover that the LASIK technology with the highest ever rate of 20/20 results was accomplished by CustomVue on a VISX Star laser and is the same technology employed here at the Laser Eye Center of Carolina.