How laser eye treatments have developed with the latest technologies to deliver better results

Laser eye treatment is a very popular solution for numerous vision problems. The term laser eye treatment covers many different types of surgery that are performed with an excimer laser. The various laser eye treatments have been undertaken by millions of patients since their effectiveness at correcting shortsight, longsight and astigmatism was proven over 25 years ago.

Since that time the laser technology and laser controls influencing the outcomes have been improved significantly leading to faster, more comfortable treatments and more exact and predictable outcomes.
Laser eye treatments have also been developed to overcome age related longsightedness or Presbyopia, opening up the opportunity for people over the age of 50 to not have to be reliant on glasses or varifocal lenses for reading and distance vision.

The differences in laser eye surgery treatment are usually related to the way the eye is prepared to receive the corrective laser eye surgery.

LASEK laser eye treatments involve the softening of the epithelium on the surface of the eye using alcohol. It is then scraped back to reveal the underlying cornea that is treated using the laser. After the laser treatment the Epithelium layer is folded back into place.

LASIK laser eye treatments require a flap to be created in the very front part of the cornea. These vary in thickness from under 100 microns to over 140 microns, depending on which method is used to create them. No alcohol is needed and once the flap has been folded back to expose the corneal tissue beneath it only takes a matter of seconds for the laser eye treatment to take place and the flap replaced and protected with a bandage contact lens.

Epi-LASIK laser eye treatment is an all laser surface treatment that can be undertaken using advanced lasers and highly skilled clinical teams. The laser is used to remove the epithelium in the first instance, leaving a very smooth corneal surface. The laser eye treatment is then applied to this surface and a bandage contact lens placed immediately after to protect the eye. The epithelium then grows back beneath the contact lens during the days after the laser eye treatment.