REFRACTIVE SURGERY: IS IT RIGHT FOR YOU?
Blurry or distorted vision
Eyestrain
Headaches
Trouble seeing at night
Refractive Errors Types: Are You Impacted?
Nearsighted
With nearsightedness (myopia), distant objects are blurry. When your cornea curves too sharply, light rays focus in front of your retina and blurs your distance vision.
Farsighted
With farsightedness (hyperopia), nearby objects are blurry. When your cornea is too flat, light focuses behind the retina instead of on it resulting in blurry near vision.
Astigmatism
Astigmatism causes overall blurry vision. When the cornea curves or flattens unevenly, it disrupts your focusing ability for near and distant objects.
How Refractive Surgery Helps
If blurred vision is impacting your life, or you want to stop using contact lenses or glasses, refractive eye surgery may be right for you.
Refractive eye surgery involves reshaping the cornea (front surface of the eye) to correct its curvature. When the eyeball is shaped like a perfectly round ball, light is able to enter the eye and bend evenly to give you a clear image. However, if your eye has a curvature imperfection (or more oval shape), light is angled more in one direction than another which provides only partial focus on an object. This curvature and non-ideal refraction of light causes objects to look blurry, wavy or distorted.
Nearsighted
By reducing the curvature of an overly angled cornea, surgery balances your focusing power.
Farsighted
Surgery increases the eye’s focusing power on near objects by achieving a steeper corneal angle.
Astigmatism
Selective reshaping irregular portions of the cornea makes it symmetrical, resulting in clear images.
Types of Refractive Surgery
Based on your specific needs, our optometrist will recommend the best treatment following your assessment.

Photorefractive Keratectomy
Laser-assisted surgery similar to LASIK.

LASIK
Laser vision correction with corneal flap creation.

Intraocular Lens Implant
A lens implant inside your eyes.
Is Refractive Surgery Right for You?
The type of surgery and results depend on your refractive error, corneal thickness, ocular health and other factors. Mild to moderate nearsightedness tends to have the most success with refractive surgery. Higher degrees of nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism have less-predictable results in some cases.
A refractive surgery evaluation is advised to determine which method is best for our patients.
What to Expect During Your Refractive Surgery Evaluation
- Refraction: You look through a series of lenses to find the ones that give you the clearest vision. This will determine your refractive error.
- Corneal Curvature: A keratometer or topographer uses a circle of light to measure the curvature of your cornea.
- Corneal thickness: A specialized instrument will determine how thick your corneas are. This will determine refractive surgery eligibility.
- Comprehensive ocular health evaluation: An optometrist will take an indepth look at the front and back of your eyes to ensure adequate health before surgery can take place.