It’s 2019 and that means you have a brand new year to take care of you and your eyes! Why not make this year the year that you finally get laser vision correction! You’ve been considering it for a while, now’s the time!
Dr. Cheema in Kingston, NY will help you find the right refractive surgery for you. Check out these 5 reasons to consider refractive surgery, and figure out which procedure is right for you!
1. Live a life free of glasses and contacts!
You’ll have the freedom to live an active lifestyle without worrying about your glasses falling off or losing a contact lens.
Do you love the look of your glasses? After refractive surgery, you can wear them as an accessory without prescription lenses, think of all the frames you have to choose from without paying the cost of expensive lenses. Plus, you’ll be able to see when you take them off!
Buy sunglasses right off the rack without sending them in for prescription lenses!
So what about contact lenses? They can be frustrating and uncomfortable. Working out? Sweat dripping into your eye can cause the wrong kind of workout “burn”! You don’t want to feel this burn!
Going skiing at Belleayre Mountain? Wouldn’t it be nice to wear goggles without a prescription or worry about losing a contact lens?
No more worrying about contacts falling out or getting lodged in an uncomfortable position.
2. Save money, get custom laser vision correction
Okay, we get it…saving money by getting a refractive surgery like custom LASIK or PRK doesn’t make sense. But hear us out.
Consider how much you’re already spending on your glasses and contacts. Most people are getting new glasses every 2 years or so.
When you’re getting new frames, it’s likely you’re spending several hundred dollars. Those designer frames from Kate Spade or Ray-Ban aren’t cheap after all!
Now, most people who wear glasses also wear contact lenses, at least intermittently. Contact lenses are where you’ll save the most money after getting a refractive surgery. Right now, you’re probably buying new lenses every month.
That doesn’t include accessories like contact lens solution or contact lens cases. Don’t forget about the times when you need contacts ASAP and you have to pay extra for shipping!
It all adds up, and fast. Assuming you don’t wear specialty contacts, you could be spending $500 per year on contacts!
So this is where things start getting interesting. For laser vision correction, you’re looking at an average cost of about $2,500 per eye.
Yes, $5,000 seems like a lot up front, but laser vision correction actually pays for itself over time. Consider the fact that laser vision correction is a permanent procedure since it reshapes the cornea. That means that LASIK saves you money after only a few years!
After laser vision correction, you’ll no longer need to spend money monthly on contact lenses or solution. Instead, you can consider other ways to use the extra money you’ll have in your pocket. Maybe you take a vacation to the Caribbean or you open your own business. The sky’s the limit, thanks to laser vision correction!
3. It’s easy to find out if you’re a candidate for refractive surgery
Refractive surgery may sound scary, but it doesn’t have to be! It’s super easy to find out if you’re a good candidate for laser vision correction.
Come see Dr. Cheema for a laser vision correction consultation. During your consultation, your eyes will be tested.
We’ll also go over your health history, eye conditions, and your expectations. Before your consultation, here are some factors to consider that affect laser vision candidacy:
- You must be at least 18 years of age or older
- You must be in general good health
- If you have a condition like dry eye, it needs to be under control before laser vision correction
- You cannot be pregnant or nursing if you are undergoing laser vision correction
- Your corneas must be thick enough to safely handle laser vision correction
4. Even if you’re not a LASIK candidate, there are other options
Although LASIK is a popular refractive surgery, it’s not the end of the world if you’re not a LASIK candidate! If you’re looking for freedom from glasses and contacts, PRK may be a better fit. Like LASIK, PRK is refractive surgery.
PRK is a procedure that’s like LASIK. With PRK, the difference is how the procedure is performed. With LASIK, a flap is created in the cornea using a femtosecond laser.
With this flap, a small amount of corneal tissue gets removed. By removing corneal tissue, the cornea is permanently reshaped. Reshaping the cornea results in the correction of refractive errors. These include nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism.
During PRK, there is no flap creation. Instead, the entire epithelium layer of the cornea gets removed and thrown away. This layer of the cornea actually regrows after PRK. After epithelium removal, the corneal tissue underneath is reshaped with an excimer laser.
Another difference between LASIK and PRK is recovery time. LASIK has a quick recovery time. It can take several months to fully recover, but most patients have clearer vision just a day or two later!
With PRK, recovery may take several days before patients notice a change in vision. This is because it can take several days for new epithelial cells to regrow and cover the eye.
However, the visual outcomes with LASIK and PRK are almost identical. Most patients achieve 20/20 vision, if not better, after LASIK or PRK.
5. Imagine life after refractive surgery
Yes, glasses and contacts are annoying, but think what your life would be like without them. Want to travel spontaneously? Say goodbye to obsessively packing extra contacts and glasses!
On vacation and want to go scuba diving? You won’t have to worry about finding special goggles to see underwater.
Cramming before the big final? Pulling an all-nighter becomes a lot easier after a laser vision correction. It’s no longer a crisis because there’s no expensive glasses to hunt for or contacts to blearily take out.
Instead, you can relax. Wake up, and see the world around you, exactly how it’s meant to be seen. Laser vision correction makes the little moments in life better, every single day.
You owe it to yourself to find out if there’s a refractive surgery right for you! Schedule your appointment with Dr. Cheema in Kingston, NY today!
