Wavefront LASIK
Custom LASIK procedures are state-of-the-art refractive eye surgeries resulting in superior results when compared to conventional LASIK. The new customized wavefront technologies are more precise, improve night vision, reduce halo effects, and reduce the need for enhancement treatments. Although it is a little more expensive, it is well worth it. Patients that qualify for custom LASIK should have it.
Development of Wavefront Technology
Using wavefront technology, a doctor can take an imprint of the eye, almost like a roadmap, to display all of the irregularities, known as aberrations. Wavefront technology devices were first used by astronomers to collect image data about distant constellations and stars. The devices were effective in this data collection because the wavefront technology sensors can pick up images of tiny lenslets, which create patterns in the sky. Wavefront technology was applied to laser eye surgery, leading to the approval of Wavefront Lasik in 2003.
Benefits and Cost of Wavefront
The wavefront technology can pick up aberration presence in every part of the eye, whether it is on the back of the retina or inside the cornea. This custom information can be captured from each patient's eye to plan the most effective custom LASIK procedure. Plus, the use of wavefront technology on a patient is totally painless, touch-free, and noninvasive.
Wavefront technology is often used in pre-operative procedures to determine the best roadmap for surgery. But surgeons are taking the technology one step further and combining it with the excimer lasers to perform the ultimate in custom LASIK surgery. With the technology comes a price; the addition of wavefront technology can add about $500 per eye for a total of about $2,500 per eye according to a report done by The Wall Street Journal. However, the combination of these technologies is resulting in more perfected vision. Some experts have even speculated that the advancement of wavefront and the combination of those types of technologies could result in more than perfect vision for some future LASIK patients.
Wavefront Systems
In the United States, there are three wavefront-guided systems that have the ability to create an ablation (surgical removal of eye tissue) that is customized for a patient's wavefront evaluation. The trade names are CustomVue by VISX, CustomCornea by LADARVision, and Zypotix by Bausch & Lomb, all which refer to their systems as custom wavefront.
Another system is the Wave Light Allegretto which is referred to as a wavefront-optimized procedure. Although wavefront data is used to optimize a laser ablation pattern, it does not use a patient's individual wavefront diagnosis to create a customized ablation pattern.
