About Custom LASIK Surgery

Custom LASIK surgery uses advanced Wavefront™ technology to correct visual flaws not addressed by traditional LASIK. This provides patients with vision correction tailored to address their own unique needs, often leading to better vision after the procedure has been completed. On this page, learn more about the custom LASIK procedure and what you can expect during your surgery.

Preparing for Custom LASIK Surgery

An initial consultation with your doctor will determine if you are a good candidate for custom LASIK surgery. Your doctor will talk to you about the risks, benefits, and possible complications of custom laser vision correction. This is the time to ask all of the questions necessary to ensure you are making a well-informed decision.

During the consultation, your doctor will ask for a complete medical history and give you specific instructions concerning how to prepare for surgery, including important pre-surgery rules for eating and drinking, smoking, and taking medications.

If you wear contact lenses, you will need to stop wearing them for a period of time before your initial consultation and your surgery. Depending on what type you wear, contact lenses can change the shape of your cornea for several weeks following use. Talk to your doctor about the length of time you will need to go without contacts before your appointment. Additional visits may be required before your surgery to ensure your eye is properly prepared and stable.

The day before your custom LASIK surgery, you should not wear any creams, lotions, makeup, or perfumes that may cause an infection in your eyes after the procedure.

The Custom LASIK Procedure

Light does not focus perfectly on the retina in individuals who are nearsighted, farsighted, or have astigmatism. Custom LASIK surgery uses Wavefront™ mapping to detail the individual contour of your eye before reshaping it with a laser so it can properly refract light onto your retina.

After your pre-surgery appointments, you’ll be ready for the surgery. Custom LASIK surgery generally only takes between five and ten minutes for each eye, and both eyes can be done on the same day.

Wavefront™ Mapping

Each eye has a unique “aberration” profile with different contours, like a fingerprint. Minimizing or correcting these aberrations will help correct your vision by enabling your eye to properly focus light on the retina.

During custom LASIK surgery, the patient first stares at a fixed point while a light is shined into his or her eye. The light reflects off the back of the eye and out through the front, where it is read by a wavefront sensor. When the light first enters the eye, it has a flat wavefront. A perfect human eye would reflect back a beam with a flat wavefront; however, because every cornea has irregularities, the eye distorts the wavefront as it reflects the light. These distortions reveal the cornea's irregularities, which are mapped using a computer. This information is then used by the laser as a guide for treatment. Learn more about Wavefront™ laser eye surgery.

Creating the Corneal Flap

Before reshaping the cornea with a laser, the surgeon will create a small flap in the surface of the eye using either a laser (referred to as bladeless LASIK or IntraLASIK) or a small blade called a microkeratome. The doctor will leave part of the flap connected by a tiny hinge. The flap is then folded back to reveal the surface of the cornea to be reshaped.

Reshaping the Cornea

Guided by the Wavefront™ map created prior to the surgery, the excimer laser will remove corneal tissue from the eye through a series of pulses. The reshaped cornea will more accurately refract light onto the retina, creating clearer images.

Based on the map of the eye, custom LASIK also corrects pre-existing higher-order aberrations that create halos, glare, poor night vision, haze, and starburst patterns. After the cornea is correctly reshaped, the flap is replaced over the eye, where it naturally adheres to the surface.

After Custom LASIK Surgery

Following your custom LASIK surgery, your vision should improve almost immediately. However, eye drop medication used to lubricate and protect your eyes may cause some blurring. You should arrange for transportation to and from the surgeon's office, as you will not be able to drive home following the surgery.

Clear plastic shields will be taped over your eyes following the procedure to prevent you from bumping or touching your eyes. Some patients may receive non-prescription safety glasses instead of shields.

Your doctor will probably prescribe eye drops for you to use for about a week following surgery to help reduce inflammation and the risk of infection in your eyes. Within a matter of days, your vision should continue to get better. Over the next year, you will have several post-operative check-ups with your LASIK surgeon who will track your progress and ensure that your vision correction was wholly successful. You should have an appointment several times over the first month, and then less frequently as time goes on and the likelihood of complications decreases.

Speak with a Custom LASIK Surgeon in Your Area

A custom LASIK surgeon in your area can go into greater detail concerning the specifics of custom LASIK surgery, including benefits, risks, and potential complications. These are all important things to consider if you are thinking of undergoing custom LASIK surgery. Contact a local custom LASIK surgeon to find out whether the procedure is right for you.