Some time ago my eye doctor referred me to the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which is part of the University of Miami's medical school, and a very highly regarded facility. Since I'd been thinking about laser surgery and was in the room with probably the most knowledgable person about this topic I'd ever meet, I took shameless advantage of the opportunity and asked lots of questions. Unfortunately the answers were not too pleasant. The doctor (of opthalmology and an MD) is also a professor at UM.
The most important point I came away with is that although the purpose of the surgery is to free one of glasses/contacts, one will probably still need them after the surgery. This can happen for two reasons.
The first is that not everyone comes out of the procedure with 20/20 vision. In most cases it will be close but there is still a good chance that corrective lenses of a weaker prescription will be required.
The second reason is that after about age 40 (I'm 31 now), glasses would be required for reading and other close-up work. Since I'm very near-sighted now I will never need glasses for reading, so in that respect the situation would actually be worse if I had the surgery.
Other side effects that have been mentioned elsewhere in this discussion were also brought up. The halo effect on point souces of light does not always go away.
Needless to say, I'm still wearing contact lenses.
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The most important point I came away with is that although the purpose of the surgery is to free one of glasses/contacts, one will probably still need them after the surgery. This can happen for two reasons.
The first is that not everyone comes out of the procedure with 20/20 vision. In most cases it will be close but there is still a good chance that corrective lenses of a weaker prescription will be required.
The second reason is that after about age 40 (I'm 31 now), glasses would be required for reading and other close-up work. Since I'm very near-sighted now I will never need glasses for reading, so in that respect the situation would actually be worse if I had the surgery.
Other side effects that have been mentioned elsewhere in this discussion were also brought up. The halo effect on point souces of light does not always go away.
Needless to say, I'm still wearing contact lenses.
--Adam :-)