Our NYC Eye Doctor Explains

As soon as a discussion about refractive laser surgery begins, many acronyms, unfamiliar words, and abbreviated medical terms enter the conversation. There is LASIK, and there is LASEK. There are custom procedures, standard, and Hi-Def… What are these names?

Our New York City eye surgeons understand how confusing and overwhelming all of this terminology can be. Read on for a basic explanation of the differences between your two main options for laser surgery: Standard or Hi-Def.

Intro to the Basics of Refractive Laser Surgery

The first thing you need to know is that the primary difference between LASIK and LASEK is that the former involves cutting, and the latter is described as non-cutting. Beyond this distinction, the procedure can be custom or standard. “Custom” has many synonyms: Hi-Def, Wavefront, and CustomVue.

What does “Standard” mean?

If you have standard LASEK in our New York City clinic, it means that the laser is correcting your vision prescription to the exact same degree as your eyeglasses or contact lenses. That means your vision will be corrected based on the nearest quarter diopter increments, such as -4.00 or -3.75.

Therefore, if your true vision prescription is -3.86, the correction will be rounded off to -4.00, which is the nearest quarter measurement. That is as precise as vision can get with Standard refractive laser surgery.

What is the Hi-Def (CustomVue) procedure?

When our New York City eye doctor performs LASEK, he can correct your vision more precisely – and not based on a rounded-off average. In fact, with the state-of-the-art VISX S4 IR wavefront guided excimer laser that we use, you will be able to benefit from 50 different prescriptions lasered onto your cornea. In addition, the precision of these prescriptions can be done to the nearest hundredth! Your vision can’t get any clearer than that.

In practice, the Hi-Def SafeSight procedure that we perform has given many patients significantly better vision than they ever experienced with glasses or contact lenses.

At present, Dr. Chynn performs Hi-Def/ CustomVue LASEK for many New York City patients. In comparison to CustomVue LASIK, which he used to perform, this more modern procedure is giving people enhanced visual acuity. Why does this happen?

Many published studies explain that cutting a flap (the old method) distorts the WaveScan, so the surgeon is no longer able to laser accurately. However, with the newer, non-cutting method of Hi-Def/ CustomVue LASEK, the accuracy is much higher because there is no cut flap to distort the WaveScan.

Want to Understand More? Book a Consultation in Our NYC Eye Care Center

It is important to us to keep our patients informed and well educated about the latest developments in eye care. We know that this information about laser eye surgery is complex, and if you’d like to understand it more clearly, we’ll be happy to help.

To learn more about the advantages of LASEK and CustomVue, Hi-Def, or Wavefront, please contact our New York City laser center to book an appointment. Come prepared with your questions, and Dr. Chynn or one of the four MD eye surgeons on his team will be pleased to provide detailed and patient explanations!