What will my vision be like after LASIK?

It is important that anyone considering LASIK have realistic expectations. LASIK allows people to perform most of their everyday tasks without corrective lenses. However, people looking for perfect vision without glasses or contacts run the risk of being disappointed.

It is important that anyone considering LASIK have realistic expectations. LASIK allows people to perform most of their everyday tasks without corrective lenses. However, people looking for perfect vision without glasses or contacts run the risk of being disappointed.

The majority of people who have LASIK achieve somewhere between 20/10 and 20/40 vision without glasses or contact lenses. If vision is undercorrected after the procedure, yours doctor may decide to perform second surgery, called an enhancement, to further refine the result.

If 20/20 vision is essential for your career or leisure activities, consider whether 20/40 vision would be good enough for you. You should be comfortable with the possibility that you may need a second surgery, or that you might need to wear glasses for certain things, such as reading or driving at night.

LASIK cannot correct presbyopia, the age-related loss of close-up focusing power. With or without refractive surgery, almost everyone who has excellent distance vision will need reading glasses by the time they get to be 40 or 50. Some people choose to be corrected to monovision, which leaves one eye slightly nearsighted. The nearsighted eye is used for close work, while the other eye is adjusted for distance vision. Although monovision is acceptable for most people, some may not be comfortable with this correction. You may wish to consider trying monovision with contact lenses before surgery to determine your individual needs and your ability to adapt to this correction.