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Options if you can’t have laser eye surgery

Some patients have levels of short sight (myopia) or long sight (hyperopia) that are beyond the range of safe correction by laser eye surgery. Paradoxically these are the people that are troubled the most by their glasses prescription and with wearing glasses or contact lenses. In others the thickness of their corneas may be insufficient to safely allow full correction of their glasses prescription. Safety should be your number one priority when considering any sort of surgery.

Laser eye surgery works by precisely removing and reshaping the tissue of the cornea. At higher levels of correction more tissue needs to be removed. This leaves the cornea thinner and potentially weaker. Laser eye surgery for higher prescriptions are also sometimes less accurate and have a higher chance of regression and need for second treatment. Quality of vision after higher attempted corrections can also be poorer because of induced optical aberrations, resulting in problems with night vision, haloes, and reduced contrast sensitivity.

If you do have a higher prescription (greater than +5.0 to +6.0 dioptres of long sight or -10.0 dioptres of short sight) you should ask your surgeon what alternatives to laser eye surgery may be available.

If the clinic you visit is only able to offer laser eye surgery, they are very likely to push the boundaries of treatment and be less likely talk about alternatives. Arguments by these clinics that they possess superior technology that allow them to push the limits of treatment are questionable. A surgeon that offers more that just laser eye surgery will be able to discuss the various excellent options available for your eyes. These will vary dependent on age, glasses prescription and your individual eye anatomy. There are now a number of excellent alternatives to laser eye surgery and you should make an informed decision about the best treatment for you.

Options include

Visian (ICL) implantation which can treat between +21 to -23 dioptres
Clear lens extraction (CLE) or bioptics. Clear lens extraction is the same operation performed for cataract surgery, but in the absence of a cataractous lens is called CLE. At the time of CLE an artificial lens implant corrects your glasses prescription. Bioptics is a combination of laser vision correction together with either ICL or CLE. In bioptics the laser is used to remove and fine tune any residual refractive error once the ICL or CLE procedure has been performed.
Artiflex or Artisan iris clip lens