I am nearsighted and have astigmatism, do I need to have two surgeries? No, you don’t. The excimer laser has evolved to the point where it is technically possible to correct myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism in one surgery. Will wearing contact lenses affect the outcome of the surgery? No. Wearing contact lenses can affect the shape of the cornea to some extent, so it can have a significant impact on the accurate data measurement. However, after a period of discontinuation, the shape of the cornea will naturally return to normal. Therefore, to ensure the accuracy of the pre-surgical examination results, it is required to discontinue wearing contact lenses for 1-2 weeks prior to the examination, and to remove them for at least 3 weeks for those who wear hard contact lenses. Do I need to be hospitalized after laser surgery? There is no need to be hospitalized as you can go home the same day after laser surgery. However, there will be tearing and foreign body sensation for a few hours after the procedure, so it is advisable to rest with your eyes closed. How long does the laser treatment take? The actual surgery is very short, about 10 minutes for both eyes. However, it can take up to a week or more to confirm the availability of the procedure and to prepare for it. Is there any pain after the procedure? Does everything return to normal after laser treatment? Most of the time there is only mild discomfort after the procedure, but if needed, ask your doctor for a light painkiller or sedative tablet. For the first few hours after surgery, you may experience a sensation similar to a foreign body entering your eye, but this will soon pass. The laser surgery only corrects the visual acuity (refractive error), but the original myopic stroma remains unchanged. Therefore, patients will still be more prone to myopia-induced fundus complications (such as retinal detachment) than normal people after surgery, and if left untreated, they may also be at risk of blindness, but this situation is not clearly related to the surgery itself. Therefore, it is important to follow your doctor’s request for a timely review after surgery. Does laser surgery require an incision? Does it hurt? LASIK surgery is performed on the cornea, using a microlaminoplasty system to lift a corneal flap and an excimer laser to make precise cuts in the corneal stroma under the flap according to the degree of myopia and astigmatism. It is not a knife surgery in the traditional sense. There are no blood vessels in the cornea, and there are abundant nerve endings on the surface, so the surface anesthetic drops can completely anesthetize the nerve endings on the surface of the cornea. The procedure takes only a few tens of seconds to complete. Will my vision rebound after laser surgery? Once your post-operative vision has stabilized (it is better after about a week, and true stabilization is usually between 3-6 months, depending on the individual), the results of the procedure will be long-lasting with little to no regression. However, due to the need for employment and schooling, a few patients who go for surgery before their refractive status is stable may develop myopia later. Therefore, we control the age of surgery to be 18 years old or older; and it is also important to adhere to healthy eye use after surgery. What kind of results can I expect? How effective is laser treatment for myopia? The results of treatment to date, both domestically and internationally, have been satisfactory, with the vast majority of patients having their heavy myopia glasses removed once and for all. Naked eye vision after treatment is usually as good as the corrected vision with glasses before treatment. However, there is a small percentage of people who have slightly poorer vision, but they can usually achieve the goal of removing their glasses. Will my vision recede with laser treatment? The results of laser treatment for myopia are long-lasting and stable. For patients with more than 1,000 degrees of myopia, it is basically impossible to regress after the procedure. This is because the procedure for patients with advanced myopia is usually slightly more corrective according to the degree of myopia. Due to the correct estimation in advance, even if regression occurs in a year or two, the correction is just right. The regression and re-wear of glasses in individual patients is due to their own physical condition, eye condition and improper post-operative maintenance. It is important to emphasize the importance of protecting your vision and maintaining healthy eye use after surgery. When can I start working after surgery? After LASIK, you can open your eyes immediately, restore your vision in a few hours, and go to school or work the next day. However, LASEK, PRK, and epi-LASIK require a break of about 4 days before you can go to work and do some simple text work. One week after surgery is more appropriate to go to work. It sometimes takes about 1 month for your vision to reach a better state. Are the results of LASIK surgery permanent? It takes a few months for the full effect of the surgery to be achieved, after which your eyes will be stable and the results will be permanent. However, some changes may occur in old age when age-related visual impairment (presbyopia) occurs. Younger people may also experience vision changes as the optical system of the eye is not yet fully stabilized. Overall, the results of LASIK surgery are permanent and stable. It is also especially important to have healthy eyes after surgery. Does the surgery have a negative impact on night vision? There may be disadvantages such as nighttime glare and loss of night vision after LASIK. Foreign data show that as many as 30% of patients have difficulty driving at night after LASIK! It has been proven that just the safety of surgery and just the improvement of naked eye vision can no longer meet the visual requirements of modern patients with refractive errors. In the mid-1990s, experts such as Liang began to measure and study the aberration of the human eye and found that the overall aberration of the human eye after LASIK increased by more than five times compared to the preoperative period. This is the main culprit of postoperative glare and visual quality loss after LASIK, and factors such as laser off-center cutting, uneven corneal cutting surface, too small cutting surface, too deep cutting, and too large cutting slope are the main causes of postoperative aberration increase. Therefore, in order to eliminate postoperative glare and complications such as reduced visual quality, it is necessary to improve and correct the above-mentioned factors that lead to increased postoperative aberrations. In conventional laser keratomileusis such as PRK and LASIK, it is impossible to avoid off-center laser cutting and improve the smoothness of the corneal cutting surface due to the limitation of equipment technology. What can be done to prevent and eliminate these complications that may come with LASIK surgery? Rapid advances in high technology and the interplay of different technological achievements in different fields have led to breakthroughs in laser keratomileusis technology. Cutting-edge technologies such as flypoint scanning, eye tracking and wavefront aberration have been successfully researched, and complications such as glare and loss of visual quality have been addressed to the greatest extent possible.