While laser vision correction is overwhelmingly successful in reducing dependence on glasses and contact lenses, the degree of improvement may vary from individual to individual. How well and how quickly your vision improves depends on how well you heal and the severity of your prescription. Although no one can promise patients "perfect" or 20/20 vision, most laser patients with mild to moderate prescriptions do achieve 20/20 vision or are within i to 2 lines of 20/20 vision on an eye chart. This means they no longer need glasses or contacts to drive, play sports, watch movies and TV or participate in certain careers requiring excellent vision, such as jobs with police or fire departments.

During your pre-procedure consultation, your eye doctor will help determine the range of your probable outcome based on your particular prescription, healing profile and expectations. The results and research gained from hundreds of thousands of TLC procedures are shared throughout our network, allowing doctors to continually fine-tune techniques, more effectively forecast visual results and counsel new patients.

Enhancements

The more severe your initial prescription, the more correction you will need, the more healing you will require and the greater the chance you will not be fully corrected in just one procedure. Some patients experience an over-response or over-correction, leaving them somewhat farsighted. Enhancement procedures usually are performed once the patient's vision has stabilized.

The Importance of Follow-Up

Follow-up care and eye medications are just as important to your results as your actual procedure. Ideally, your own eye doctor provides this care, but it may also be performed at TLC Laser Eye Centers. Periodic examinations are required to ensure that your eye is healing as expected, to verify that there is no evidence of infection, and to measure your visual progress. Each appointment takes between 5 to 15 minutes.

Patients must also use prescribed antibiotic and anti-inflammatory eye drops during recovery. LASIK patients use eye drops for four to seven days.

Annual eye exams are important, we strongly recommend that everyone, not only laser vision correction patients, have a dilated eye exam performed by their eye doctor every year. This is a proactive way to ensure that your eye is healthy and functioning properly.

Follow-up Appointment Schedules After LASIK

1 day

1 week

1 month

3 months

6 months

12 months

Long-Term Success

People often ask how long the benefits of their procedure will last. Laser vision correction has been performed since the late 19805. The first nearsighted patient ever treated in the United States with laser vision correction underwent a PRK procedure. That patient achieved 20/20 vision following treatment and was still 20/20 more than 15 years later.

In a recent long-term survey of people who had LASIK surgery, the results showed that the majority of respondents believe that LASIK improved their overall quality of life and would recommend the procedure to others. 95 percent reported "satisfaction" or "high satisfaction" with the results of their LASIK surgery. 91 percent of patients said the procedure "greatly improved" or "improved" their quality of life and would recommend the procedure to others. The patients who responded to the survey were part of the first physician-sponsored PDA clinical trial of the procedure, held in Atlanta, beginning in 1995.

Today, most experts are confident that they will discover no long-term problems with laser vision correction.