How Does Custom LASIK Diagnose the Eyes?

    /24-7PressRelease/ - August 31, 2008 - The best medical treatments of any sort are those based on an accurate diagnosis. Custom LASIK is such an excellent vision correction because the diagnosis done first is so very precise.

All four of the main Custom LASIK systems use similar technology to give us four outstanding vision correction procedures:
• Bausch & Lomb's Zyoptix
• VISX/AMO's Customvue
• Wavelight, Inc.'s Allegretto Wave
• Alcon's CustomCornea

Each Human Eye Unique

Our two eyes are not the same when it comes to the subtle Custom LASIK diagnosis. You will have two different treatments, and nobody else has had, or ever will have, either of those treatments. This is because each eye has two types of shape imperfections:
1. Lower Order Aberrations - overall corneal shape which gives you nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism; and
2. Higher Order Aberrations - unique microscopic bumps and hollows in its surface contour (the cornea), which can give you vision imperfections like halos around light sources, starbursts in low light conditions, and ghosting (faint duplicate images).

There are over 60 higher order aberrations and more being discovered all the time. Not all have names, but are expressed mathematically. They pertain to the quality of your vision, as opposed to its quantity. In other words, you might be corrected to have 20/20 vision - that is how much you can see. But you might still have difficulty with night vision because of your higher order aberrations, which determine the quality of what you see.

Custom LASIK diagnosis will map both lower and higher order aberrations, and the treatment laser will correct them all. Your treatment can be LASIK, PRK, LASEK, or Epi-LASIK, as all these LASIK variations are based on the same diagnosis.

The Diagnostic Steps

• The Custom LASIK system shines a light into one of your eyes as you look through an eyepiece. This light has a straight front end, with the rays lined up evenly.
• The light reflects back to the system from your eye and now it has a wavy front end, created by the contours of your eye.
• The system receives this wave information and expresses it on the monitor as a colored, three-dimensional map. Your eye surgeon will study these two maps, one for each eye, to devise your two laser treatments.

Traditional LASIK Diagnosis

When LASIK was first FDA-approved in the mid 1990s, that was what we now call Traditional LASIK. [url=http://www.oceancountyeye.com/services/lasik.html] is a vast refinement over that original procedure, because of the subtle diagnosis.

Traditional LASIK was based on a standard diagnosis done using a phoropter. You are familiar with the phoropter if you have ever been tested for glasses or contact lenses. It is a floor-standing device with chin and forehead rests, and many lenses. The eye doctor flips between lenses asking you to read the smallest line of letters you can see clearly as you look through the eyepiece with each eye separately.

Traditional diagnosis with a phoropter detects only the lower order aberrations. Accordingly, glasses and contact lenses correct only those aberrations.

Fewer Potential Side Effects

The higher order aberrations were possible side effects of a Traditional LASIK procedure. But since Custom LASIK is based on a diagnosis of your higher order aberrations, it treats them, and they are not left in the eye to cause side effects.

If you are considering LASIK surgery, contact the experienced doctors at Susskind & Almallah Eye Associates, P.A. today.

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