Lasik surgery has been around in some form for over 20 years. However, there have been many changes made to it, and it is not the same as it was in the past. This is a good thing, because the evolution of the procedure has made it much safer and much more precise. In the past, the Lasik procedure worked relatively well, but the complication rate was higher than eye doctors liked it to be, the cost was excessive and the results were not always as good as expected. The procedure was good, but there were improvements that needed to be made. Now, those improvements have been made and the Lasik procedure is safer and more effective than ever. Recent studies have even indicated that Lasik is safer over the long-term than wearing contact lenses -- which were considered the standard for a long time among eye doctors and their patients.



New Technology -- Bladeless Lasik

One of the most important technological advances where Lasik is concerned is the new style of bladeless Lasik. In the past, a microkeratome blade was used to make a cut in the cornea, which would allow a corneal flap to be folded back, exposing the inner corneal surface to the laser for reshaping. This is still used quite often, and is certainly not obsolete. However, the bladeless technology has been found to be safer and even more precise than the current style of Lasik, making it the wave of the future. Like Lasik itself, though, there is a learning curve, and it may be some time before bladeless Lasik is used more often than the standard kind.

More New Technology -- CustomVue

The CustomVue system is able to give Lasik patients a much more customized experience. In the past, Lasik was done based on a person's prescription and nothing else. This worked relatively well, but each person has some subtle nuances in his or her eyes that the Lasik could not adjust for. This meant that not everyone got the sharpest vision they could get, and a lot of that depended on whether their eye just happened to be 'normal' for that prescription -- in which case their Lasik would generally have a better result. Now, with the customized Lasik option, a person can get that better result because the Lasik procedure is calibrated specifically for the contours of that individual's eye. This is a significant change from the way that Lasik used to be performed, and it holds a lot of hope for an even better future for Lasik and the patients who choose to have it.

Future Advances Are Coming

Given the fact that CustomVue and bladeless Lasik have done so well, eye doctors and researchers, as well as Lasik surgeons, are all working toward new ideas for improvements and procedures. If individuals keep working in that way, the chances that Lasik will continue to evolve and improve are extremely high. No one really knows, however, what the future holds for Lasik. Since it has been around for a relatively short time, and it is still being perfected in the eyes of many people, there is no real knowledge of whether there will be long-term complications with the procedure. Only time will tell if the Lasik procedure changes much in future years or if the people that have had it continue to have successful vision correction throughout their lifetime.