| You may have read or heard quite a bit about LASIK | | | | Jonathan Davidorf in West Hills, California. His website |
| (Laser-Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis), but since the | | | | gives more information and offers you an online form |
| FDA approved the first version of it in 1995, many | | | | for asking your questions about it. You could also |
| improvements and benefits have been devised to the | | | | schedule a consultation to see if you might be a |
| original procedure. If you were previously told that you | | | | candidate for Wavefront-guided LASIK. |
| weren't a good candidate for LASIK, you may be a | | | | After you're comfortably seated at the Wavefront |
| good one now, because of these improvements. | | | | system, you gaze at a field and focus on an object. A |
| Wavefront technology guides and optimizes LASIK | | | | light is shone into your eye. These straight light waves |
| procedures and offers a more sophisticated technique | | | | are reflected back from your eye to the machine that |
| for calculating optical aberrations in your vision. | | | | sent them, but only from a perfect eye would they |
| Ophthalmologists now have tools for assessing and | | | | reflect back as straight waves. They are distorted by |
| treating higher as well as lower order optical | | | | your eye's particular shape. The computer in the |
| aberrations . | | | | Wavefront system converts this information into a |
| The lower order aberrations | | | | 3-Dn optical map, showing your eye's unique flaws. |
| Traditional LASIK has treated these three conditions | | | | Wavefront sensing maps out where the exiting beams |
| for many years. | | | | of light end up and records it. The wavefront map |
| · Myopia (nearsightedness) | | | | contains almost 2,000 data points, so your doctor has |
| · Hyperopia (farsightedness) | | | | an extremely detailed map of your eye. |
| · Astigmatism (oval or irregularly shaped cornea | | | | When ophthalmologists conduct an evaluation, |
| which causes blurred or double vision) | | | | wavefront technology gives them personalized |
| The higher order aberrations | | | | diagnostic information about you. Because of this, |
| Wavefront-guided LASIK can do more: it diagnoses | | | | LASIK surgeons have more information on which to |
| and treats these more elusive and puzzling eye | | | | base an informed decision and make |
| conditions such as: | | | | recommendations about your best treatment option(s). |
| · Halos - radiating circles around lights at night | | | | They can devise a very subtle and detailed treatment |
| · Ghosting - faint duplicate images | | | | plan for you. |
| · Double vision - more definite duplicate images | | | | Wavefront-Guided Treatment |
| · Coma - points of light looking like little comets | | | | The information gathered and recorded by the |
| with blurry tails | | | | Wavefront technology is used like a road map, guiding |
| · Glare - over-bright appearance of lights at night | | | | the refractive surgeon as he applies the laser for your |
| These subtle visual impairments are talked about in | | | | treatment. He can sculpt the cornea so that it treats |
| mathematical terms and require an understanding of | | | | the myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and higher order |
| optics. Your LASIK surgeon can diagnose them in your | | | | aberrations all at the same time. The doctor is able to |
| vision when he examines the way light rays are | | | | tailor the LASIK procedure to each individual person, |
| reflected back from your eyes to his Wavefront | | | | making the results more exact. Wavefront technology |
| system. Every human eye is unique in its combination | | | | offers people the benefits of crisper, sharper, |
| and severity of vision features. Wavefront technology | | | | superior-quality vision correction while at the same time |
| allows your eye surgeon to map your two eyes | | | | reducing higher order aberration side effects such as |
| exactly, and to use those two maps to guide the laser | | | | night vision problems of glare, ghosts, or halos. |
| during your procedure. That's why it's called Custom | | | | Wavefront technology accesses formerly inaccessible |
| LASIK. | | | | information. This, in turn, allows doctors to apply more |
| Wavefront-Guided Diagnosis | | | | precise and customized treatments. |
| One experienced Custom LASIK surgeon is Dr. | | | | |