Clearview Eye and Laser Medical Center
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Lasers Used for Vision Correction
Laser has become a word, though originally it was an acronym for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. All lasers are man-made light beams. Some are so hot they can cut through a block of steel. Others are cool. Some are pulsed, others steady; some wide, others microscopically narrow.
Each laser vibrates at a specific frequency, and each frequency corresponds to a color. Some we can see, and others are beyond our ability to see, being infrared or ultraviolet. Laser light shines in parallel, straight waves, rather than scattered rays like incandescent lights or sunshine. This makes it extraordinarily precise.
The laser used for LASIK vision correction is the excimer laser, which is ultraviolet and cool. Its light is well-absorbed by body tissues. It works by breaking the bonds between tissue molecules, disintegrating small pieces of tissue into the air – that is, vaporizing them. Its heat is dissipated along with the vaporized tissue. Photoablation is another word for this process.
It can vaporize microscopically tiny pieces of the cornea (front of the eye) without affecting the rest of the eye. It penetrates the corneal treatment surface to a distance of less than one-billionth of a meter (a nanometer). The focus of its beam can be as small as the width of half a human hair.
Such precision enables safe and precise LASIK treatments. The excimer laser is also used in the other vision correction procedures we offer here in San Diego: IntraLase and PRK. These two treatments accomplish the same excellent results as a WaveFront CustomVue LASIK treatment, but are more suitable for people with thinner corneas than average. Give us a call or send an email to see which would be the best procedure for you.
posted by JennyK at 9:16 AM
858.452.3937
::
Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S. :: ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
6255 Lusk Blvd., Suite 100 :: San Diego, California 92121
1Comments:
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