One aspect of surgical vision correction that puts a lot of people off is the thought of knives being used to slice layers from their eyes. In fact, a large number of surgical vision correction these days is done without knives, as lasers are much more effective as a tool by which your optical surgeon can use to reshape your cornea, changing the focal point of light when it enters your eye so it hits your retina precisely where nature intended.

What Does Bladeless LASIK Involve?

A piece of equipment known as a microkeratome is used as a blade in ‘traditional’ LASIK surgery. This is a surgical tool with an oscillating blade that is only used for LASIK treatment. The actually shaping of the cornea is performed with an excimer laser.

With bladeless LASIK surgery, a femtosecond laser is used instead. This is an ultra-thin laser that is also used in cataract surgery. A femtosecond laser is so precise that it can be guaranteed to a precision down to 10 microns – that’s about a quarter of the width of a human hair.

The femtosecond laser is used to cut a flap into the cornea after which an excimer is used as normal to reshape the cornea.

What Are the Advantages of Bladeless LASIK as Opposed to ‘Traditional’ LASIK Surgery?

First of all, a femtosecond laser is much kinder to the cornea than a microkeratome. A laser harnesses light to create the corneal flap, whereas a microkeratome uses direct physical contact.

There’s less chance of complications arising during the procedure if a femtosecond laser is used, and there’s also less chance of the following post-operative complications arising:

• Diffuse lamellar keratitis: inflammation of the cornea due to inflammatory infiltration beneath the corneal flap.
• Epithelial ingrowth: invasion of epithelial cells beneath the corneal flap, usually corrected by a second surgery.
• Flap straie: wrinkles in the corneal flap that will also require further correctively surgery.

All LASIK treatments are fairly routine, complications are rare and results are typically completely satisfactory. Many people though find bladeless  LASIK treatment more comfortable than other more traditional, LASIK options. Read more about Common LASIK Questions Answered.

If you are considering LASIK treatment as a long-term solution to your vision issues, then please contact Palmetto LASIK at (864) 583-6381 for advice or to schedule a consultation. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Learn more and take a LASIK Self Evaluation online today.