Laser Treatments for Short Sight

The use of laser technology in the medical field has become the solution for treating a plethora of conditions and has made a tremendous impact in eye and vision care. Laser treatment has made it possible to correct vision, so that those who have had to wear contacts or glasses no longer need them. People with the vision condition of shortsightedness, also called nearsightedness, may undergo laser treatment to restore vision to 20/20.

Myopia

• Myopia is the technical term for shortsightedness or nearsightedness, and, according to John Andrews' "Short-sightedness and Laser Eye Surgery" article on eHealthArticles, over 30 percent of the population suffers from this condition. Distant objects that people with 20/20 vision can see clearly are not seen clearly for people who have shortsightedness. This is because of the light rays' relationship with the retina of the eye: in a "normal" eye, light focuses on the retina, while for a shortsighted eye, the light focuses in front of the retina, which ultimately blurs distant objects. This type of vision problem usually begins in teenage years and may worsen over time in early adulthood, after which it stabilizes.

Correction Function

• To correct shortsightedness, treatment is focused on adjusting the way light focuses on the retina. Glasses and contacts use concave lenses, which bend the light rays slightly outward so that they fall properly on the retina. Laser surgery adjusts the cornea to create this same effect, flattening out the cornea so that the light rays can focus further back in the eye, where they focus in 20/20 vision.

Laser Treatment Correction

• The cornea is the transparent window of the front of the eye that gives the eye the majority of its total focusing power. Thus changing the shape of the cornea transforms the eye's focusing power. For shortsightedness, laser treatment correction actually flattens out the cornea by removing tissue. The amount of tissue and location of that tissue that requires removal is determined by a series of tests. According to Patient UK's article on myopia, the procedure is usually painless and the cure is instant.

Types of Laser Eye Treatment

• LASIK, the acronym for laser-assisted in-situ keratomileusis, is the most popular type of laser eye treatment. According to Ed Ewing's "Consumer test: Laser eye surgery" article in the Guardian, more than 85 percent of laser eye treatment patients in Europe and the U.S. undergo this type of treatment, which uses a cold laser to transform the cornea. LASEK, short for laser epithelial keratomileusis, is a similar procedure for people with eyes not suitable for LASIK treatment. This type has a longer recovery time, though it's still only a few days.

Effectiveness

• Laser treatment for myopia is highly effective, and works for most people, according to Ewing. A 2005 UK study of over 300,000 treated eyes showed that 90 percent of patients ended up with perfect or very near-perfect vision after treatment. Since there have been many advances in the laser technology used for eye treatment since 2005, this percentage is highly likely to have increased. Ewing also reports that bad outcomes of eye laser treatment are unusual.

Cost

• The cost of laser treatment varies. Ewing summarizes cost variation by pointing out that the worse the vision problem, the higher the cost of laser surgery. DocShop.com's 2008 report on LASIK eye surgery lists a detailed LASIK cost breakdown that includes, but is not limited to, royalties owed to laser equipment manufacturers, geographic location, surgeon fees and salary, medications used, and pre- and post-treatment evaluations. Docshop.com's report also says that the type of technology used affects cost, saying that custom LASIK with wavefront technology costs between $200 and $500 per eye, and newer technology, such as IntraLase, costs between $250 and $500 per eye. These costs do not include the aforementioned cost variables, such as surgeon fees.