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Laser Eye Center of Carolina
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Laser Eye Center of Carolina
1609 E Booker Dairy Rd
Smithfield, NC 27577

Wavefront Technology and LASIK

Submitted by Dr. Dean Dornic on Sun 09/02/2012 - 12:42
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Optical aberrations can effect the quality of vision after LASIK

Early in the history of LASIK eye surgery, a small sub-group of patients complained about the quality of their vision.  Some actually had 20/20 levels of vision but described issues of “vision not being crisp” or “poor contrast”.  Some complained of disturbed night vision: star-bursting or halos around lights.  Out of a desire to solve these patients complaints, the science of wave-front guided LASIK science was born.

A standard LASIK procedure is based solely on a patient’s eyeglass prescription. A wavefront-guided LASIK is a treatment based on all of the eye’s measured optical aberrations. These aberrations are measured with a sophisticated device called a wavefront-analyzer, which essentially takes a “fingerprint” of the eye. This unique “fingerprint” is then recorded and used to correct vision with a sophisticated, computer-controlled laser.

But the use of a wavefront-analyzer to perform LASIK added time and cost to the procedure.  A “shortcut” was developed to reduce time and cost: the wavefront-optimized LASIK procedure.  An “optimized” LASIK procedure was designed to be aberration-neutral, neither creating nor reducing aberrations. The treatment is still based on the refractive prescription in glasses. It does not measure and cannot correct optical aberrations in the eye.

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New aberrations created from standard LASIK can cause “starbursting” at night. Wavefront-guided LASIK can minimize or eliminate starbursting.

A wavefront-optimized procedure is better than a standard LASIK procedure because it tends to reduce the incidence and severity of new aberrations. A wavefront-guide procedure is even better than a wavefront-optimized procedure because it actually measures and treats pre-existing higher-order aberrations Wavefront-guided LASIK procedures, just like optimized, can minimize induction of spherical aberrations. But it can also measure and treat other higher-order aberrations.

There is no disputing that wavefront-guided LASIK uses much higher technology and is more expensive than standard or wavefront-optimized LASIK. But the real advantage of a wavefront-guided LASIK is more than just higher technology. Studies have demonstrated that a wavefront-guided LASIK results in better outcomes and better visual quality — especially when it comes to vision at night or in a dark environment, or when there is a high visual demand.

A wavefront-optimized LASIK procedure tends to reduce the incidence of visual side-effects as compared to standard LASIK but for the ultimate in outcomes, choose a wavefront-guided LASIK procedure.