Can’t Get LASIK

“I performed over 5,000 LASIKs from 1997-2004, which was at the very beginning of laser vision correction,” says Dr. Chynn. “This means I was one of the first Fellowship-trained Refractive Surgeons in the country, & studied under the “Father of American Refractive Surgery—Dr. George Waring, while at Emory.”

“When I was performing LASIK, there were many patients & conditions & prescriptions I couldn’t ethically treat, including patients with:

1. Dry eyes: because cutting the LASIK flap kills most of your corneal nerves, which would make you even more dry.
2. Thin corneas: because lasering under the LASIK flap would go too deep into the cornea, risking ectasia & the need for a corneal transplant.
3. Irregular astigmatism: because performing LASIK in such eyes again risks causing ectasia & the later need for a corneal transplant.
4. People with poor night vision: because cutting & replacing the LASIK flap results in a 2-piece cornea forever, which worsens night vision.
5. Asian people with very narrow eyes (palpebral fissures): because it’s difficult & unsafe time cut a flap if the eyelids are too close together.
6. People with a phobia of having their eyes cut: because if they squeeze their eyelids during LASIK it might result in a complication while cutting the flap, such as an incomplete flap, buttonhole flap, total flap, or irregular flap, all of which can lead to poor vision, or the laser portion of the procedure not being able to be completed.
7. People with large pupils: because they might see the edge of their LASIK flap after surgery, resulting in halos around lights at night.
8. People who engage in martial arts, boxing, or extreme sports: because if they get hit in the eye even years after LASIK, the flap can get torn off, resulting in permanent loss of vision.
9. People wanting to become part of the military’s “special forces”: because Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Delta Force & Green Berets, etc. aren’t allowed to get LASIK for the reason outlined in #8 above.
10. Any person who wants the safest procedure & doesn’t want to have their eye cut: this eliminates LASIK.

“For all these groups of people, LASIK isn’t a good option. This is why in 2005 I switched to the non-cutting LASEK procedure that I helped invent while at Harvard — because LASEK can safely treat all these conditions & groups of people who aren’t appropriate LASIK candidates

“Fully 90% of LASIK complications arise from cutting or replacing the LASIK flap, or late flap trauma. This means that by eliminating the flap in LASEK, LASEK is, by definition, 10x safer than LASIK—even an ethical LASIK surgeon would agree with this (although healing time after LASEK takes a few days longer than LASIK)

“Here’s a partial list of frequent LASIK complications that are flap-related, so impossible to have after LASEK:

• Flap wrinkles
• Flap striae
• Incomplete flap
• Buttonhole flap
• Full flap
• Irregular flap
• Debris under flap
• Inflammation under flap (“SOS”)
• Misaligned flap
• Epithelial Ingrowth under flap
• Infection under flap
• Flap melt
• Misaligned flap
• Flap dislocation 
• Ectasia requiring a corneal transplant (not impossible after LASEK, but much less likely than if you were to perform a LASIK with the same corneal thickness & prescription)

“So if you’re looking for an alternative that’s safer than LASIK, “bladeless” LASIK, i-LASIK, femtosecond LASIK, SMILE, intracorneal lens, ICL, or PRK, look no further: LASEK is the safest form of laser vision correction!”