The choice to proceed with lasik eye surgery can be a difficult decision to make. My cousin was going through the worst nightmare in her life and needed to act fast in order to save her vision. Her eyesight was slowly deteriorating and she panicked at the thought that she could lose her eyesight. She was myopic and the contact lenses she was using were not helping her much, so she needed an alternative, and a strong one at that. The thought of life without vision was unbearable.

Sometimes, dependence on eyeglasses or contact lenses can become so strenuous that individuals turn to alternative methods of repairing and correcting their vision. Lasik eye surgery is becoming increasingly popular because of its high success percentages. LASIK is an acronym for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis, and is a surgery by which the shape of the cornea - the clear covering of the eye - is permanently altered to improve the quality of vision.

If you're anything like me, you're sick and tired of trying to put your contacts in every morning or worse yet, trying to find your glasses as you're running late for an important meeting. I decided to do something about my poor eyesight and look into LASIK eye surgery. According to the latest LASIK surgery marketing, there are constant improvements to the field.

Laser eye correction surgery is something I'd considered for myself for a long, long time. Laser eye correction surgery, or "Lasik," as it's called, has been around for fifteen years or more. It's designed to correct the sight of people who suffer from nearsightedness or farsightedness, as well as astigmatism as long as it's not too severe.

A lot of people are apprehensive before going for laser eye surgery. However, for cosmetic and/or corrective purposes, they want to have the surgery done. In order to erase pre-surgery apprehensions, a lot of research and knowledge about the surgical process can come in handy.

Laser Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) is currently the most common elective surgical procedure in the world with over one million people having LASIK each year. Although very popular and safe by surgical standards, LASIK is not for everybody. It is important to understand the advantages and limitations of LASIK and to select a qualified doctor to be assured of the highest probability of a desired outcome.

What is LASIK?

LASIK is a way to improve your eyesight, but it was also a serious surgery. Though extremely rare, you should be aware of the possibility of these side effects before choosing to have LASIK eye surgery. So many variables can be responsible for the side effects:

-The laser and the way it is calibrated.

-The conditions of the room (i.e. temperature and humidity).

-During surgery, having the cornea moistened will cause effects

-Your genetics and the way your eye responded to the healing.

In 1998 I had the chance to "throw away my glasses" and undergo LASIK. At the time, LASIK was not an FDA-approved procedure, but was being performed "off-label" on lasers that had been approved for another refractive procedure called PRK. LASIK is performed by cutting a flap into the cornea, flipping it back, burning tissue from the middle layer of the cornea (called the stroma), returning the flap to its original position, smoothing it into place and wait for healing to take place.

LASIK and other corneal refractive procedures (PRK, RK) have popularized to the point that most people either know someone who's had the procedure, or have had the procedure themselves. For the most part these procedures are successful and life-changing in the positive direction, reducing or eliminating the dependence on glasses or contact lenses for vision. However, about three percent suffer from visual complications that are not regarded as official "complications", but can be life-altering in a negative way.

When we need assistance with our sight the usual aids we use are glasses in the form of frame or contact lenses.

There are a number of reasons why they are inconvenient. They become outdated; they are easily lost; they are easily broken and at times they aren't attractive.

The medical profession's answer to this dilemma has been LASIK "Laser Eye Surgery."

What is Laser Eye Surgery?