According to incomplete statistics, roughly more than one million people undergo refractive surgery each year in China, most of whom are young people. Who exactly needs refractive surgery? Some people think that refractive surgery is a cosmetic surgery, and that it is only needed to improve their appearance. In fact, patients with refractive errors (nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, etc.) are not motivated to undergo refractive surgery just for cosmetic improvement. Generally speaking, there are two main categories of reasons for choosing refractive surgery: active and passive reasons. 1.Active reasons for choosing refractive surgery: mainly because of the subjective desire to remove glasses and actively requesting surgery. Specific reasons include: considering the improvement of appearance; for the convenience of sports activities; unwilling to endure the discomfort of the eyes caused by long-term contact lens wear or corneal disease, and so on. Anyone who wears eyeglasses will know that they do bring a lot of inconvenience to life. For girls, wearing thick glasses will immediately cause serious damage to their beautiful image; for boys, wearing glasses to participate in some sports activities is not only inconvenient, but also increases some dangers. In winter time, when you walk into the room from the cold outdoor, immediately there will be water mist condensed on the lens, life is very inconvenient. Some people will choose to wear contact lenses. However, there are many dangers associated with wearing contact lenses for long periods of time. Because the cornea is transparent and has no blood vessels, most of the oxygen to the cornea is absorbed directly from the air. Contact lenses are directly fastened to the surface of the cornea. No matter what material the contact lenses are made of, they will always block the absorption of oxygen, leading to corneal oxygen deprivation, which can lead to problems such as keratitis and corneal neovascularization. Therefore, it is a good choice to correct vision problems through refractive surgery, which basically can be done once and for all, not only eliminating the appearance problems caused by frames, but also avoiding the hassle of taking off and putting on contact lenses every day as contact lenses will cause corneal hypoxia. 2.Passive choice of refractive surgery: This is divided into two cases, one is because of work reasons can not wear glasses, one is because the eye itself is not suitable for glasses. (1) Choosing refractive surgery because of work: Every year, there are many young people who join the army, and joining the army is required not to wear glasses, so, during the conscription season, there will be many people choosing refractive surgery. During the college entrance exams, there are also many candidates who need refractive surgery in order to enroll in military schools, police academies, or other professions that require vision. There are also many professions that require no glasses, including some civil servants, police officers, flight attendants, airport workers, etc., who also need to have their glasses removed through surgery in order to meet the requirements of their jobs. Being operated on for the sake of one’s job is kind of a characteristic of China. There are a lot of myopic patients in China, but the percentage of surgeries is much lower than that in developed countries such as the United States, and the percentage of those who choose surgery on their own initiative is even smaller. Therefore, refractive surgery in China still has great potential for development. As people’s awareness of refractive surgery and their demand for quality of life improves, more people will actively choose surgery to remove their glasses. (2) Forced to choose refractive surgery because of the state of their eyes: Many people think that refractive surgery is only an elective surgery, and even equate refractive surgery with cosmetic surgery, which is actually not true. Refractive surgery itself is of therapeutic significance. For some special refractive states, refractive surgery is the only option and is not suitable for glasses. For example, for patients with a large difference between the degrees of both eyes (refractive error), wearing glasses will lead to discordant vision in both eyes, and it is best to choose surgical correction. The choice of surgery is also based on each person’s specific eye characteristics. Also, for very high myopia, the quality of vision with glasses will be poorer, for example, myopia close to 2,000 diopters will be difficult to correct with glasses, but with IOL implantation, better vision can be obtained and the quality of life can be significantly improved.