Clearview Eye and Laser Medical Center

Over recent years, technology for vision correction has developed and refined and expanded, so that now there is a wide selection of procedures to choose from. It all began with what is now known as traditional LASIK, and gradually it became evident that LASIK was not for everyone.

How could more people be safely offered this astounding vision correction? Expanding the candidate pool became desirable, and new ideas and techniques multiplied. At Clearview Eye and Laser Medical Center here in San Diego, California, we offer three major types of eye surgery:

• LASIK
• PRK
• IntraLase

If you are nearsighted, farsighted, or astigmatic, you can probably qualify for one of these three types of eye surgery.

The term LASIK by now usually means Custom Wavefront LASIK, unless it is amended as “Traditional LASIK”. We offer CustomVue, the wavefront system manufactured by VISX. It is a highly sophisticated system for eye correction. It both diagnoses the eye's exact shape, and guides the excimer laser in treatment.

PRK, the next type of eye surgery we offer, sidesteps one of the stages in the LASIK procedure. It creates no flap on the cornea. In LASIK, that little flap is folded back to allow laser treatment, and then replaced afterwards. PRK is a better choice for people with thinner or steeper corneas. Instead of a flap, PRK removes a tiny amount of surface tissue, which regrows after treatment. This gives you a slightly longer recovery period, but vision correction which is just as amazing.

IntraLase includes the flap-creating step, but instead of using the special LASIK blade to create it, it uses a second laser. That laser can create a thinner flap, so IntraLase is another choice for people with thinner or steeper corneas. The flap being so thin, it is covered with a bandage contact lens during recovery.

Eye physicians will probably have further technology choices in the coming years, and be able to offer ever more precise, fast, and effective eye surgery.

• LASIK
• PRK
• IntraLase
• Presbyopia
• Implantable Contact Lenses
• Intacs
• Cataracts
• BOTOX®

Previous Posts

• Bladeless LASIK – What’s all the Flap About?
• What is the Cornea?
• Cataract Symptoms
• Farsightedness vs. Presbyopia
• Farsightedness
• The San Diego Fires and Providing Eye Care
• Lasers Used for Vision Correction
• The Safety of IntraLase
• Toss Those Reading Glasses
• Welcome