A large percentage of the population in the United States are required to wear glasses or contact lenses to be able to see clearly. Since these devices do not correct your vision problem, you are forced to wear them the rest of your life. If you are tired of wearing glasses or contact lenses throughout every day of your life, then you should look into getting vision correction surgery.
One of the most popular ways to permanently correct vision problems is the PRK procedure. This refractive surgery will be able to fix nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. The PRK procedure is effective because it can reshape the curvature of the eye using a laser. Once the cornea is reshaped, the retina will be able to properly focus the light entering the eye. This gives you the perfect vision that you have desired for many years.
You must get evaluated by our eye surgeon before you are able to have the PRK procedure. The eye surgeon will examine the size of your pupils, the thickness of the cornea, the curvature of the cornea and the moistness of your eyes. This evaluation will let her determine if you are a good candidate for the PRK laser eye surgery.
The PRK eye surgery is an outpatient procedure. You will remain awake throughout the entire procedure, but you will be given a numbing agent for your eyes. A special instrument will be used to prevent you from blinking during the procedure. Once this instrument is in place, you will be asked to focus on a target light for a few moments. The eye surgeon will then use a laser to send pulses of light to the cornea.
The energy and heat produced by the laser light will remove small pieces of tissue from your eye. This will completely reshape your cornea and allow you to see more clearly. Once one eye has been corrected, the eye surgeon will start to correct the other eye.
Once the PRK procedure is completed, you will be given a bandage contact lens for each eye. This will provide extra protection for the cornea as it heals. You will only be required to wear these special contact lenses for several days to one week. You will be able to go home on the same day of your procedure.
It may take a few weeks to fully recover from the PRK procedure. You can expect to have blurry vision and some discomfort following the surgery. You can resume driving once your vision is no longer blurry. Antibiotics and pain mediation will be prescribed to help ease any discomfort.
Once you are fully healed, you can expect to have drastically improved vision. Most patients will have 20/20 vision after the PRK procedure, so your days of wearing contact lenses or glasses will finally be over.
Talk to the team at Wichita Vision Institute to get all of the facts about how a PRK procedure can correct your vision. Our office is located in Wichita. Contact us today to request a consultation to learn more.