If you have hopes of achieving total freedom from your glasses, then LASIK is your best bet. But not everyone can receive LASIK.
Due to strict safety protocols, you first need to be considered a good candidate for the surgery. There are a lot of candidacy requirements before you can get LASIK.
You can learn about LASIK requirements during a consultation at Washington Eye Physicians and Surgeons. Keep reading for 6 of the most important criteria!
To receive LASIK, you must be at least 18 years old. But even if you are 18 years old, that doesn’t always mean you are a good LASIK candidate.
Your vision can change drastically while you are young due to growth hormones. If your eyes are not finished growing by the time you are 18, then you will need to wait until they are.
It is not uncommon for surgeons to have patients wait until they are in their mid-twenties before getting LASIK.
Youth is not the only reason vision becomes unstable. Hormones caused by pregnancy, disease, and other factors may be the cause.
Whatever the reason, your vision must be stable for an entire year or more before you can get LASIK. If your vision is unstable while you get LASIK, it could lead to complications or your vision changing after the procedure.
LASIK can work wonders with sight but it can’t help everyone. Patients with refractive errors beyond normal limits carry higher risks of complications.
If your prescription is too high, results are less predictable when you get LASIK. If you can’t get LASIK, you may qualify for another procedure like PRK or an implantable collamer lens instead.
Having healthy eyes before getting LASIK is a must if you want to be a good LASIK candidate. While recovering from the operation, you will be much more prone to both infection and injury.
While LASIK has a very low risk of complications, it will likely make any preexisting problems worse. If your eyes are unhealthy, LASIK will do more harm than good.
Your corneas are the most important aspect of your eyes in regards to LASIK candidacy. To improve vision, LASIK reshapes your corneas. This allows light to refract through them and provides clear vision.
But to reshape your corneas, the surgeon needs ample corneal tissue to work with. Reshaping the corneas means a small amount of corneal tissue is removed.
Some people are born with thinner corneas, making them bad candidates for LASIK. Having thinner corneas means removing any corneal tissue could result in complications.
There are other vision correction procedures more suited to people with thin corneas.
Your eyes are not the only part of your body that should be healthy before having LASIK. In particular, to have LASIK, you need to be able to heal.
If you have any autoimmune conditions or things that make it harder to heal, LASIK may not be right for you. This could include HIV, diabetes, or lupus.
Want to find out if you could be a good LASIK candidate? Schedule a free LASIK consultation in Chevy Chase, MD today!
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