Have you ever seen an advertisement for LASIK? Have you ever visited a LASIK eye doctor? Whether in India or abroad, we doubt if you have come across  any eye doctor or LASIK Centre who did not claim to have the latest and best technology. As a patient, naturally you want to get treated by a machine which is the best, and by a technology which is the best too!! So when everyone makes the claim that they have the latest and best technology, and gives you mumbo jumbo about wavefront customization, and fastest laser and smallest spot size etc., it gets extremely confusing. That, in a way, is also reason for the existence of this blog. We want to help you, the patient, to make appropriate and correct choices. We want you to know enough so that people (and lasik centres) don’t fool you. We want you to know enough to be able to ask your eye doctor tough questions. So here goes:

First things first: Technology is important, but the doctor is even more so. As LASIK technology becomes more and more refined, it might seem that the eye doctor’s role in all of this becomes smaller and smaller. It should not matter whom you get treated by, right? Well, we don’t believe this for an instant. You don’t get treated by a machine. You get treated by a doctor. The machine will not take care of you if something goes wrong, the doctor will. The machine will respond to whatever data is plugged into it, the person deciding which data needs to be plugged in is your eye surgeon. Don’t get so caught up in finding the perfect technology with which to get your LASIK operation done. Instead concentrate on finding a  doctor who is knowledgeable, truthful, and who seems to care for you. As a patient, you are a lay person, how could you possibly evaluate technology in a way a good doctor could? So find an eye doctor you trust, and follow their advice. In another post, we have a section on finding a good eye surgeon.

Therefore, as we introduce the section on LASIK technology, we urge you to use this information with a certain sense of caution. Don’t get too caught up in it.

The following pages will speak about different aspects of LASIK technology. First, we will talk about the most critical part of the LASIK technology equation, the excimer laser. We will discuss what kind of lasers are available, results with different excimer lasers in clinical settings and the different technology parameters on which machines can be graded.

We will then speak a little about aspheric profiles, which is a topic of hot discussion in the LASIK technology area. On a related topic, we will then speak about wavefront customized LASIK, about what wavefront errors are, what they represent, and how you will benefit (and whether you will benefit) by wavefront customized LASIK. We will then speak on iris registration and cyclotorsion compensation, again hot topics in the LASIK technology discussion. Finally, we will speak on microkeratomes, and Blade Free LASIK technology, a subject which often differentiates the best equipped centers from the rest.