Eight Qualities LASIK Surgeons Look at When Determining Candidate Eligibility

If you’ve ever contemplated undergoing LASIK eye surgery, you’ve probably also considered whether or not you’d be a good candidate for the surgery. It’s an important question to ask yourself, and one of your eye surgeons will definitely answer for you since they will not operate on someone who doesn’t meet certain specific qualifications. This is because the success of the LASIK eye surgery procedure is significantly influenced by whether the patient complies with these standards. If you’d like to get a basic idea of your eligibility, here are the general qualities a Los Angeles LASIK professional will assess a patient for when determining if LASIK would be a viable option for them. 

Your eye health

Eye health is a crucial deciding factor for your surgery eligibility because certain eye conditions can affect your healing post-surgery or how your eyes respond to the procedure. Such conditions include any eye infections or eye injuries. If this is your case and you’re experiencing unfavorable eye health, you will have to wait to undergo surgery until the condition subsides and your eye health is at its best. 

The thickness of your cornea

The LASIK eye procedure revolves around reshaping the patient’s cornea. As such, a thicker cornea is desired for LASIK surgery. That being said, there is some risk to operating on too thin or irregular corneas, so your surgeon will most definitely consider your cornea shape before deciding your eligibility for the procedure. 

The size of your pupils

As with your corneas, the size of your pupils also plays an important role in the success of a LASIK procedure. The ideal patient has pupils that are not too large.  This is because large pupils may put patients at an increased risk for certain side effects after the procedure, like glares, halos, and starbursts in low light. 

Your prescription

Prescription is important because there is a slightly increased risk for patients with higher prescriptions because the results of their surgery are less predictable than those with lower prescriptions. Thus, your surgeon may suggest you forego LASIK if your prescription is too high. According to the American Refractive Surgery Council, the FDA deems prescriptions that are suitable for LASIK to be prescriptions that are up to +6.00 diopters of hyperopia, up to 6 diopters of cylinder/astigmatism and up to -12.00 or nearsightedness.

Your age

Generally, patients have to be at least 18 to receive LASIK. However, getting the procedure at a younger age is possible if the surgeon and the patient’s guardian(s) agree to the surgery. On the other hand, there isn’t any upper age limit to receiving LASIK. 

Your vision stability

The ideal LASIK candidate has eyes that have consistently maintained a prescription without any changes for at least one year. It is not uncommon for young adults to experience shifts in the severity of their prescription from year to year. For this reason, they are generally not considered suitable candidates for LASIK until their vision has stabilized and they have stopped experiencing changes in their vision. 

Your health

Generally speaking, there is more risk involved for those with conditions that cause issues for the body during its healing process. However, there are little to no hard and fast rules for what conditions warrant an outright denial of your eligibility for LASIK. As such, opinions differ among LASIK surgeons; while one surgeon may refuse to operate on a person with a certain condition, a different surgeon may operate if the patient accepts the increased risks that may come from their health. If you yourself have any health condition, be sure to discuss it with your surgeon so they can explain how it may affect your LASIK results. 

Your expectations

LASIK is an incredibly beneficial and life-changing surgery. However, as with all surgery, it comes with certain possible risks. It is important that you are aware of these before you make your final decision. All the best LASIK surgeons in Los Angeles will thoroughly inform you about everything you need to know before making your decisions to ensure that you’ll know exactly what to expect after your surgery. 

Above all, please remember that this is just a basic guideline to provide you with a little insight into what surgeons are looking for in their LASIK candidates, and this guideline alone cannot accurately determine if you’d make a good candidate with certainty. Ultimately, if you’re considering getting LASIK from a Los Angeles LASIK surgeon, the only way to truly determine your surgery eligibility is to see a professional and ask them yourself. 

Here are some LASIK technologies worth checking out: https://www.bigonlosangeles.com/laser-eye-center-los-angeles-uses-visumax-laser-and-the-wavelight-ex500-excimer-laser/