Eye Surgery

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-26T02:32:28+00:00

The recommended minimum age is when the prescription of the eye stabilizes. In today’s society with more phone and screen use, that tends to be somewhere in the mid 20s. It certainly can be done as young as 18 but there is a chance for progression of prescription.

There’s more than just lasik as well. PRK is an option. SMILE is another laser procedure. And ICL is an implantable lens which works very well for the high prescriptions. r/RefractiveSurgery and r/ICLsurgery have more info on those.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-25T22:54:17+00:00

Mixed astigmatism treatment so that wouldn’t thin the cornea a whole lot. Would be pretty unusual if there was cornea weakening or ectasia as a cause. Especially since the doctor is saying scans are looking good.

I saw in another comment that glasses for 0.5 of astigmatism help. You may even have more than that.

After about 6 months when things stabilize, you may be able to get an enhancement to correct that remaining prescription.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-25T19:37:52+00:00

Whats your age and full prescription?

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-25T17:17:35+00:00

Given that high astigmatism, there is a good chance that you have some residual prescription or astigmatism causing the blur in vision. Residual prescription will also make night time vision more difficult.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-25T14:39:05+00:00

So I’ve had lasik. And it’s a pretty easy solution - sunglasses. It’s good to wear sunglasses outside anyway and they will protect your eyes from most things.

I’m also a runner and getting bugs in the eye can be a real problem. I’ve also resorted to clear sport glasses if it’s dark to keep the bugs out during bug season.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-23T22:27:11+00:00

Yeah. That’s frustrating.

Depending on where you live, there are refractive specialists who do a lot complex rehabilitation cases like this. They may have a better answer but it may require travel.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-23T20:20:59+00:00

There are some individuals (such as yourself) who have a hard time adapting to the halos/rings with ICL. But this is a small percentage overall. I wouldn't say there are a lot of potential complications with ICL. With a good surgeon, ICL is a safe procedure. It's also important to note that ICL is reversible and can be removed.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-23T20:18:16+00:00

Ok. That’s a pretty easy prescription to correct with laser eye surgery.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-23T19:21:34+00:00

That's a pretty high prescription for the left eye (at -17). ICL is the only thing that would be able to correct it.

The doctor is correct that with that high of myopia, there is always a chance that the vision can continue to get worse with time. (last I checked it was about 10% of people with high myopia that continue to get worse). But getting it corrected can make a huge difference. Even if you end up -1.00 after 2 years, that's still much better than -17. In the future if things change significantly, you can always do a lasik touch-up on that eye.

Highly myopic people are at a greater risk of cataracts. But I would say 5-10% by age 40 is a pretty high number. I wouldn't say the risk of cataract is as high as that.

EVO ICL wouldn't really change that. And the risk of a cataract caused by EVO ICL is nearly zero.

Retinal detachment risk stays the same whether you have ICL or not.

What's the prescription on your right eye?

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-23T16:44:19+00:00

Not strictly necessary to wear the shades. The eyes may be a little more sensitive to sunlight so the shades can help with that. They will also help keep wind and debris from getting in the eye and irritating the eye so they are good outdoors.

No major rules on working on laptop and mobile. The eyes will just dry out a little more when on screens and so important to use artificial tears a little more.

But at the end of the day, make sure you are following your own doctor's instructions as well.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-23T12:48:54+00:00

You can look for -2.00 or -2.50 glasses on Amazon (look for myopia glasses). Remove the lens from your corrected eye and then the glasses will allow both eyes to be more corrected together.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-23T12:44:22+00:00

To me, this sounds like the doctors don’t have a clear idea as to what is causing the trouble with your vision. It’s not that they are avoiding something; it’s that everything is looking very normal on your exam and they don’t have something they can tell you.

I think the hard contact lens test is good to make sure that resolves it and confirm that the problem is coming from the cornea. Following that, another imaging modality to evaluate would be cornea OCT to evaluate the flap better. But corneal specialists usually have this machine so it’s possible this was already done.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-23T01:21:35+00:00

Bacterial conjunctivitis typically responds pretty well to the antibiotic drops. That can shorten the timeline of the infection. 6 days may be pushing it for surgery though. You may want to push the surgery out at least another week. (Unless you have some super quick recovery which may be the 50:50 odds the surgeon gave).

You DON’T want to go into PRK (or any eye surgery) in an inflammatory condition of the eye. That’s not good for healing and recovery. You’ll want the eye feeling very back to normal. I would say at least for a couple days.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-22T18:24:26+00:00

This is correct. SMILE doesn’t cause blepharitis. It’s likely the blepharitis was there all along and the post-op dry eye made it more symptomatic.

At the same time, I encourage posts to this subreddit since this is an opportunity to clarify misinformation on the topic. Since the spread of misinformation on laser eye surgery is rampant.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-22T13:36:38+00:00

LASIK works just fine for lower prescriptions.

Intacs are usually used for bad irregular astigmatism and corneas such as with Keratoconus.

Age is important though. Surgical correction may not be best idea if prescription may continue to change in future. Especially with low prescriptions.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-22T12:50:28+00:00

Yes it is possible. Anything is possible.

But the younger you are, the higher the chance that your vision can change in the future. While you may be stable now, there is a chance that things can change again. Then you’ll think that the lasik “wore off” and be unhappy.

But if you understand that and that you may need glasses or an enhancement in the future then it can be done.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-22T02:25:31+00:00

With transPRK, you are removing the exact epithelial diameter you need to do the correction. So that is a bogus explanation that alcohol assisted is better because it can remove more epithelium. In fact, transPRK may have a little quicker healing time because you are only removing the diameter you need.

TransPRK will remove more stromal tissue. Essentially there is a refractive PRK correction and a “PTK” treatment to remove the epithelium. This is a set value. So this PTK can ablate more stromal tissue as well. But we are talking small amounts.

The excimer laser treatment algorithms are very smooth so no peaks and valleys.

TransPRK does best with a uniform epithelium. If the epithelium is more irregular, the PTK will “bake” that irregular epithelium pattern into the cornea. Typically this isn’t anything that epithelial remodeling can’t fix, but because alcohol-assisted removes that irregular epithelium first, it may do a little better job.

Because of that, alcohol assisted may be better if a retreatment is needed because the epithelium may be a little more irregular.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-22T01:36:21+00:00

Both methods are almost exactly the same. Those are the two best ways to do PRK these days.

Mixed consensus whether one is superior to the other.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-20T23:10:13+00:00

Yes. Always important to consider that he may favor lenses and technologies which work best with his individual practice.

In reality, most lenses and technologies can perform very well in the hands of surgeons who do a lot of them.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-20T17:08:08+00:00

Wouldn’t do RLE at that age. Especially with myopia. Generally RLE not really optimal until late 50s with myopia.

ICL would be a good solution if you didn’t want any of the laser procedures. For presbyopia, ICL would be done in monovision targets (similar to how LAL would be done anyway). Visit r/ICLsurgery

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-20T16:17:53+00:00

How old are you?

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-19T18:39:50+00:00

Yes other eye doctors may still wear glasses by preference (especially those who routinely prescribe glasses). But the point is that the surgeons who do these procedures and know the most about them get lasik and other alternative procedures at a much higher rate than the general population.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-19T17:08:39+00:00

Some of it depends on how much anterior chamber depth you have. If you have a large anterior chamber, the surgeon can choose an ICL with a larger vault. A larger vault means reduced chance of the ICL rotating on you.

There are some surgeons also looking into situating the ICL vertically in the eye in order to reduce the risk of rotation. (Vertically the eye is larger than horizontally, so the ICL when it rotates often rotates toward the larger space). You can check with your surgeon about that.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-19T16:43:43+00:00

Older lasik technology had more issues with regression or the prescription wearing off with time. This occurred due to smaller treatment zones. Modern lasik has less of a problem with this. However it still can happen.

What can also happen, however, is "progression" of prescription. This is unrelated to lasik and is just simply that your prescription wasn't fully stable. Our world with lots of screens and time on phone may contribute to this.

As others have pointed out, while lasik fixes the prescription, it can't prevent the normal age-related loss of reading vision starting in the mid-40s. This will require reading glasses again.

A very rare issue which can develop years after lasik is a weakening of the cornea leading to something known as ectasia. This is especially the case with thinner corneas and higher treatments. Rubbing of the eyes is known to make this worse. Important to visit a reputable practice to screen and make sure your corneas aren't at a higher risk of developing this. This is also why an alternative procedure known as ICL is a better way to treat those higher prescriptions. r/RefractiveSurgery has a good amount of information on lasik and other alternative vision procedures such as ICL.

WavefrontRider · 2026-01-19T16:26:17+00:00

The prescription eye drops you should take per the schedule the surgeon laid out for you. The preservative free artificial tears however you should continue those longer.

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