Imagine having worn glasses or contact lenses for 10, 15 or 20 years. Now imagine not having to wear any corrective lenses at all. Imagine the freedom of having near-perfect vision while engaging in sports activities, being able to see while swimming, or playing with your kids and not worrying about breaking your glasses. Such are the many blessings of taking advantage of laser eye treatment.

Laser eye treatment is a surgical procedure that corrects many vision disorders. Some of these common vision maladies are nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. There are two types of laser eye surgical procedures that can be accomplished on individuals. Those procedures are PRK or photorefractive keratectomy and Lasik surgery or keratomileusis.

PRK

The laser eye treatment known as PRK is a surgical procedure that is performed in an outpatient laser eye treatment clinic. To numb the area eye drops are applied that contain a local anesthetic. Once the anesthetic has taken effect the cornea of the eye is reshaped. This reshaping is accomplished by the surgical removing of miniscule amounts of tissue. This removal of tissue is accomplished through the use of an ultraviolet light beam. The success of this eye treatment is based upon the preciseness of the process and its ability to remove tissue down to billionths of an inch.

In addition, the reshaping of the cornea is not accomplished arbitrarily. The scientific and precise method of determining how much tissue is removed off of the cornea is determined through various measurements. These measurements are then imputed into the laser's computer which results in the precise extraction of the cornea's tissue. Generally, the entire procedure allows for the patients return to their daily activities in one to three days.

Lasik

The second eye treatment procedure is known as the Lasik procedure. The surgical process requires the use of a surgical knife and as such defines this practice as a more complicated method of laser eye treatment.

The Lasik eye treatment procedure begins with the surgeon using a surgical knife and cutting, in a circular form, the cornea. The flap is then pulled back and the exposed cornea is treated with a low powered laser. The laser then is utilized to remove a portion of the tissue. This process restructures the cornea and allows for the light captured by the eye, to be more succinctly refocused onto the retina. This laser treatment allows for the patient's eyesight to improve significantly. The Lasik laser eye treatment is indicated for those patients whose vision requires the correction of more difficult refractive corrections.