Is laser vision correction safe?

Up to now, over 100 million laser vision correction procedures have already been performer all over the world. Among the patients who have decided to undergo the surgery are many celebrities, as well as active people who have chosen comfort and quality of their everyday lives. Is laser vision correction safe? Should we be afraid of post-surgical complications? How big a risk is involved in the procedure?

Laser vision correction is often thought to be a dangerous surgery, but is this opinion really justified? First laser vision correction procedures were conducted in 1989. Since then there has been significant progress in technology and millions of people around the world have benefited from the advantages of the procedure, partly due to the fact that an ever increasing percentage of our society has vision defects. What has to be taken into consideration is the fact that laser vision correction is a surgical procedure and similarly to other surgeries, even the minor ones, is an invasive body procedure. However, long-standing clinical studies conducted on such a large number of people only confirm that laser vision correction is one of the safest surgical procedures. In other words – the procedure entails hardly any risk at all. Post-surgical complications occur in fewer than 0,1% of the procedures and are fully curable.

How can we minimise the risk?

First and foremost, only qualified and experienced medical personnel should perform the laser vision correction procedure and they should have very good, reliable equipment at their disposal during the surgery. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial to choose the right ophthalmological centre. Our clinic uses only the cutting-edge medical equipment. Both the WaveLight^® EX500 Excimer Laser ® EX500 used for laser vision correction and the equipment used for diagnostic examination are serviced regularly.

Conducting a precise qualifying examination additionally minimizes the risk of any complications, as it allows the doctors to predict any possible risk at this early stage and prevent any complications. During the qualifying examination an ophthalmologist conducts basic tests, takes detailed medical history of the patient and individually chooses the most suitable method of laser vision correction. Only having received complete information does the patient make the final decision regarding the laser vision correction procedure.

The course of the procedure as well as the recovery period largely depend on the patients themselves, their cooperation with the doctor and adherence to the recommendations received before and after the surgery. Furthermore, after the procedure every patient has to undergo follow-up examination since vision improves gradually. During the recovery period the patient should be monitored by the doctor, with regard to the patient’s individual features, including individual healing ability of the cornea, degree of short- or far-sightedness and astigmatism, which may have influence on the length of time necessary for the patient’s vision to obtain a stable correction result.

Visit our subpage to see the most frequently asked questions and the subpage ASK A DOCTOR, where you can find authentic questions asked by our patients and answers given by our doctors, as well as a special form designed for sending new enquiries.

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