Laser Eye Surgery - LASIK

If their vision has stabilized, most adults qualify for LASIK. Your eyesight changes during puberty and into your twenties, but your prescription will change less frequently as you reach visual maturity. If your vision prescription remains unchanged for at least one to two years, you may qualify for LASIK.

Candidates for LASIK must have healthy eyes and no medical conditions that could complicate the surgery or recovery. During laser eye surgery, our ophthalmologists need sufficient corneal tissue to construct the LASIK flap. Patients with narrow corneas may be better candidates for PRK or lens exchange.

During your consultation at the Laser Eye Centre of Istanbul, our ophthalmologists will determine if LASIK is the best method for improving your eyesight.

There is no upper age limit for LASIK, but optimal results are achieved between the ages of 25 and 40. People over the age of 40 are most likely experiencing or will soon experience presbyopia, which is the age-related hardening of the natural lens of the eye. Vision in individuals under 25 may continue to fluctuate as their eyes mature. Your eye lens functions like a camera lens, adjusting the focus to enable you to see distant and nearby objects distinctly. This elasticity diminishes with age, and the lens can no longer adapt to the change in distance for near vision. In their forties, most individuals require reading glasses or readers due to presbyopia.

Presbyopia is a problem with the natural lens inside the eye (behind the pigmented iris), whereas LASIK concentrates on refractive errors caused by an abnormally shaped cornea. Laser eye surgery can correct vision issues caused by nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, but it cannot improve presbyopia.

People with presbyopia who wish to rectify their vision may be eligible for clear lens extraction, which corrects presbyopia and other refractive errors by replacing the natural eye lens with an artificial intraocular implant.

PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) is an alternative to LASIK for patients who are not optimal candidates for the procedure. While the two surgeries are comparable in most respects, the construction of the corneal flap is the primary difference. With LASIK, your ophthalmologist creates a small corneal incision using a laser so that the cornea can be reshaped. In contrast, with PRK, your ophthalmologist removes the cornea's outermost layer (the epithelium) to gain access to the cornea. In the subsequent weeks, the epithelium regenerates, but this delays recovery. 

As LASIK yields faster results, it is by far the most prevalent option. However, patients who are not optimal candidates for LASIK may be recommended PRK. Patients with thin corneas, chronic dry eye, or extreme astigmatism fall into this category. Patients who participate in contact sports (and are therefore more susceptible to eye injuries) frequently choose PRK to prevent a potential corneal flap complication.