A pair of glasses or contact lenses is most commonly used to correct the usual eye problems: nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. However, using corrective lenses are not comfortable or practical for everyone. Thankfully, another way of correcting eyesight problems is becoming more popular, known as Lasik. This treatment uses lasers to remove sections of the front part of the eye (called the cornea) to reshape it and allow the eye to focus light better for improved vision. Lasik reduces or eliminates altogether the need to use eye glasses and contact lenses.

What is traditional Lasik?

In the past, surgeons relied on patients’ prescriptions to perform Lasik. These prescriptions are based on the patients’ judgment of their eyesight as they read the optometrist’s wall charts. So it only corrects lower order aberrations such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism.

Although traditional Lasik is beneficial, there is a chance that the patient will see higher order aberrations due to the changes in the shape of the cornea. Higher order aberrations include seeing halos around light sources or bad eyesight in dimly lit places.

What is Custom Wavefront Lasik?

With the development of Custom Wavefront Lasik, surgeons no longer need to rely on subjective prescriptions. Custom Wavefront Lasik uses Wavefront technology to create a three-dimensional map unique to each eye that will be used as basis for the surgical plan.

The Wavefront diagnosis is done by letting a patient sit in front of a machine, called an aberrometer, and rest his or her chin on a chin rest. He or she then looks inside the machine and focus on a light source or an image displayed within the machine. As the patient does that, the aberrometer then creates a three-dimensional map of how the patient’s eye reflects light. Theoretically, an eye with no problems will create a flat map as big as the patient’s pupil.

What makes Custom Wavefront Lasik better than traditional Lasik?

An advantage of Custom Wavefront Lasik is that it not only identifies the lower order aberrations, but also higher order aberrations. Because it identifies both types, it may be able to correct all eye problems. Another advantage is that, compared to the traditional Lasik treatment, Custom Wavefront Lasik reduces the chance that patients will have higher order aberrations after the treatment because it has a unique map of each patients’ eye.

Which Custom Wavefront Lasik Systems are approved by the FDA?

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the following Custom Wavefront Lasik Systems:

• LADARVision 4000 with CustomCornea & LADAR6000 with CustomCornea (Alcon)

• Technolas 217z Zyoptix System (Bausch & Lomb)

• Star S4 Active Trak with CustomVue (Visx)

• Star S4 IR with CustomVue (Visx)

•  Allegretto Wave with Allegro Analyzer (WaveLight)

As years go by, more and more systems are developed and improved. Eye surgery is definitely safer now. It also produces better results than it did a decade ago. Just keep in mind to check which system your eye surgery center is using and make sure that your eye doctor has been certified by the American Academy of Ophthalmology (http://www.aao.org/).