While LASIK is still a relatively new procedure in the Bay Area, Dr. Turner has provided more than 30,000 procedures to Bay Area residents who are interested in correcting their vision without contact lenses or glasses. The Bay Area is a technology center and residents expect the best in medical care with the newest eye care and LASIK technology.
One recent improvement in LASIK laser eye surgery technology in the San Francisco Bay Area is wavefront customized LASIK. Unlike traditional LASIK, wavefront LASIK not only treats the lower order aberrations, such as hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism, but also treats higher order aberrations, like coma, spherical aberration, and trefoil. Higher order aberrations can cause significant visual disturbances if not corrected and can impair vision.
Only recently have scientists in the San Francisco Bay Area begun to measure the higher order aberrations of the human eye. Technology previously did not exist. One Bay Area company, AMO VISX, has spent millions in research and development in an effort to discover the most effective method of correcting these higher order aberrations in the vision system.
Wavefront Customized LASIK eye surgery prepares an optical map of a patient’s eye. In Turner Eye Institute’s LASIK clinics throught the Bay Area, a patients can sit in front of a wavefront analyzer and receive a printout of the low and higher order aberrations currently present in their eyes. Unlike glasses or contact lenses, LASIK is a permanent part of a person’s vision. It can therefore improve vision in ways that glasses or contact lenses cannot.
Glasses are separate from a person’s eye. They do not move with the eye and a person looks through different portions of the lenses to whenever the eyes move. This prevents the possibility of manufacturing a lens capable of providing a customized wavefront correction.
Similarly, contact lenses are designed to move on the eye. Part of fitting a contact lens requires that the Bay Area optometrist provide for good movement of the contact lens. A poor fitting contact lens can constrict the patient’s eye and decreases long term eye comfort. Long term wear of a tight fitting contact lens can cause damage to a patient’s eye. Because contact lenses are designed to move, a customized wavefront correction is less beneficial.
LASIK or other refractive surgery can be viewed as an ideal modality for correcting high order aberrations through wavefront customized correction. In the Bay Area, LASIK surgeons offer wavefront LASIK corrections to help correct these higher order aberrations.
Another recent innovation of the VISX laser is the iris registration technology. This technology is very important to wavefront LASIK as it allows improved tracking and adjustments for cyclorotation. Iris registation is extremely important when considering a wavefront correction. Wavefront correction LASIK that cannot adapt to cyclorotation can often miscorrect the eye and would likely create as many aberrations as it corrects.
Turner Eye Institute continually updates its technology to maintain its position in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not only does Turner Eye Institute offer wavefront LASIK, but they also offer Iris Registration and Intralase, a bladeless method of performing LASIK.
If you have any questions about wavefront LASIK or bladeless LASIK, call us at one of our Bay Area locations and we can discuss this with you. We look forward ot providing the highest quality of Customized Wavefront LASIK to all of our San Francisco Bay Area patients.