Why do doctors wear glasses themselves but not do laser surgery?

  In clinical work, we often hear such questions, and doctors are sometimes not too happy to answer such questions, mainly for the following reasons: it is a personal choice whether to do laser or not, not every myopia has to come for laser surgery, and in addition, whether it is suitable for laser is also a personal privacy. The fact that we often hear such similar questions may have to do with the lack of mutual trust between people nowadays. Some of the chaos in the medical industry also makes patients suspicious of doctors, and they have to become “experts” in this area before they can do certain things, and in the long run, doctors and patients are tired of living.  Before answering this question, I would now like to evaluate femtosecond and excimer laser surgery as objectively as possible. The main purpose of this procedure is to replace a pair of frames or contact lenses, but nothing else, and the convenience of “not wearing glasses” comes at the cost of “thinning the cornea”. Within the safe range (after a strict and detailed pre-operative examination), the loss of some corneal thickness does not usually cause serious sequelae and complications, but within six months after surgery, there is often a dryness of the eyes, foreign body sensation, easy redness, glare at night, etc., and in a few cases, it may also affect night driving. Therefore it is not advisable to exaggerate the benefits of having laser surgery and avoid talking about the risks of having laser surgery. For people who have adapted and have been wearing frame glasses for a long time, especially those male compatriots who usually wear glasses, there is no need to catch this fashion to do femtosecond and excimer laser surgery, after all, there is still a risk of surgery and wearing frame glasses is the safest, which is the reason why many doctors do not do the surgery themselves. However, this risk is manageable in most cases, and in the case of our ophthalmologists, there are still many doctors who choose to do laser surgery. Of the total of six male top ophthalmologists (professors and doctoral supervisors) currently on staff at our hospital, three have already had laser vision correction surgery; among our young and middle-aged female ophthalmologists, more than half have chosen laser vision correction surgery.  So, who can consider having femtosecond and excimer laser surgery? One is the need for work: certain special positions are not suitable for wearing glasses, such as police, military, etc. These positions now have bare eye vision requirements, and laser surgery, as a minimally invasive, precise and long-lasting method, is a more appropriate choice. In addition, women who believe that wearing frame glasses affects their appearance and often wear corneal contact lenses (contact lenses) may also choose this procedure because laser surgery still has greater advantages than long-term contact lens wear: low risk, convenience (once and for all) and low cost. There is another type of person who is also a good candidate for laser surgery: those who have a large difference between the prescriptions of the two eyes, with a difference in prescription greater than 200-250 degrees, which is clinically called refractive aberration, and when wearing frame glasses, the object difference between the two eyes is large, creating difficulties for the brain to fuse the images of the left and right eyes and easily producing visual fatigue, can consider laser surgery.  There are many doctors who wear glasses in our hospital, and there are many young doctors who choose to do excimer laser surgery, so this surgery is still a safe, minimally invasive and precise surgery for the right people, and it is definitely not a trap.