Keratoconus is caused by thin and bulging cornea, which mostly occurs in male teens and young adults. Cornea bulging usually brings distorted and droopy eye, resulting in blurred vision. Keratoconus patients also have abnormal tears. In addition, keratoconus is to some extent hereditary, so that other family members should be careful if there is one keratoconus patient in the family.

To some extent, cataracts are evitable in old people. But there are many other factors that contribute to the development of cataracts, such as exposure to intensive UV light or high-energy x-rays, cigarette smoking and tobacco chewing, drugs including steroids, certain diseases including diabetes and so on. Maternal infections caused cataracts and traumatic cataracts are also potential. With proper methods, cataracts in younger individuals can be possibly prevented or slowed.

Since the advent of laser eye surgery, the dream of having a perfect vision again comes to reality for those people with bad vision problem. However, like the common surgery, the laser eye one also has some side effects, which mostly depend on the surgeon and equipment. Before you decide to take an eye surgery, you should know the potential side effects and ways to avoid them.

The selection of a surgeon for LASIK or PRK is quite critical because visual result after the procedure is a lifelong issue. Factors in choosing a great surgeon include experience, credentials and after-procedure remedies.

Presbyopia is an eye problem that is very common in people above 40. While most doctors consider stiffening of the lens as the cause of presbyopia, some others believe other reasons such as continued growth of the lens and atrophy of lens muscles. Traditional solutions to this bothersome eye problem include reading glasses and multifocal lenses. Thanks to modern surgical advancements, there are several types of surgeries that can be used to correct presbyopia, either FDA-approved or investigational.

Without FDA approval, some surgeons use refractive lens exchange (RLE) off label to correct refractive vision problems. Replacing natural lens with an artificial one, RLE is a practical option for both older and younger patients.

The environmental and lighting conditions are crucial factors which determine the selection of lens tints. For example, the best choice of lens tint for volleyball on a sunny day may be too dark for golfing on a cloudy day.

Laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) is actually the most popular refractive surgery. LASIK causes less afterward pain and offers quick vision recovery. A microkeratome or a laser can be used to create a thin flap during LASIK. After lifting the flap, the surgeon removes some corneal tissue with an excimer laser. Both hyperopic and myopic patients can get visual correction from LASIK through reshaping the cornea. LASIK flattens the too-steep cornea in myopic people and creates steep cornea for hyperopic patients.

A surgery of laser vision correction can reshape the cornea using a cool beam of light, improving visual acuity. The laser performs in several ways, flattening the cornea, steepening the cornea or smoothing out corneal irregularities. Laser vision correction methods LASIK and PRK are two types of laser procedures. Most LASIK surgeons correct both of the patient’s eyes at the same visit, while PRK always treats the two eyes with a proper interval.

While calculated at per eye, the cost of LASIK can be quite different from one surgeon to another. If the patient wants to have two eyes corrected, the cost doubles. In addition, LASIK involving new technologies such as wavefront and bladeless also requires higher prices.