LASIK and Dry Eye

By Jeffrey Martin MD

Published on April 02, 2010

Laser vision correction has become a household name over the last decade. Every patient that we see knows about LASIK and many ask about it. There are a number of rumors and truths regarding vision surgery and Dr. Jeffrey Martin spends a fair amount of time discussing the risks and benefits of the laser eye surgery procedure with his patients.

LASIK is the most popular of the laser vision correction procedures. With LASIK, we use Intralase, a blade-free laser to make a superficial flap in the cornea. With Wavescan, we get a custom fingerprint of each patient's vision that is transferred to the VISX laser for the vision correction part of LASIK. The laser automatically tracks and centers, and uses iris registration to place the ablation exactly where it belongs.

Some patients with dry eye have been told that they cannot have LASIK and this is sometimes true. Some medications, the aging process, hormonal changes, and smoking all cause dry eye. Some types of dry eye are very treatable. These patients are sometimes able to safely have LASIK. With our current LASIK technique, we induce far less dry eye than was the case 10 years ago. We create smaller and thinner flaps that are gentler to the ocular surface. The ablations are smoother as well.

It is important that patients with dry eye let their laser vision surgeon know about it. Treatment can be initiated and if successful, LASIK can be considered.

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