What is laser vision correction?
Laser vision correction (laser eye surgery) aims to remove or reduce refractive errors of the eye – short-sightedness, long-sightedness and astigmatism. Ideally, you will need neither glasses nor contact lenses after the procedure, or a lower prescription.
Below you can read about the history of surgical vision correction and the essentials of laser (refractive) procedures: who laser eye surgery suits, which procedures there are, and what research is under way to improve them and widen their use.
Who is laser eye surgery for?
- To correct refractive errors of the eye, such as short-sightedness, long-sightedness and astigmatism.
- For people who see sharply at distance only with glasses or contact lenses and would like to be free of them – if medically suitable, laser vision correction is worth choosing.
- For people who wear glasses for distance and also have reading glasses: in some cases laser eye surgery can give sharp distance vision. Recently, with the PresbyMAX treatment, near vision can be improved too.
- We use laser vision correction when short- or long-sightedness can be corrected with glasses or contact lenses. In many cases the refractive error is so large that patients are bothered by very thick lenses, cannot wear contact lenses for other reasons, and see very little without an aid.
- Some professions require sharp vision, so even mild short- or long-sightedness – and so wearing glasses – can rule a candidate out when applying for a job.
- In addition, the excimer laser can in some cases remove corneal opacities caused by injury, inflammation or disease.
For many people the price of laser vision correction seems high at first. The investment pays for itself within a few years, though: no more spending on glasses, contact lenses or prescription sunglasses.
How will a treated eye see in later life?
Just like any other normal eye: around the age of 40 you will need reading glasses. Otherwise there will be no difference. The exception is the PresbyMAX treatment, which can also give near vision without glasses.
Every treatment starts with a suitability exam: it shows what result laser vision correction can bring for you.
The PRK procedure
We perform the excimer laser treatment on the central area of the cornea, without touching it. The cornea then heals over in 2–3 days.
The international name of the procedure is Photorefractive Keratectomy, PRK for short. For decades our clinic has performed PRK without touching the eye (so-called no-touch, or transepithelial, PRK).
Smart Pulse and no-touch: the most advanced PRK
In September 2015 we were the first in the country to introduce Schwind Amaris's latest German technology. We use Smart Pulse technology for vision correction and for PRK procedures – our clinic was the first in Hungary to use it. Since 2023 we have used the manufacturer's updated version, with the greatest possible safety and routine.
The advantages of Smart Pulse technology:
- the latest version of PRK procedures;
- fast healing – a smooth, glossy surface;
- much faster regrowth of the surface layer than with earlier methods;
- a shorter healing period and much shorter pain after the procedure.
Combining no-touch and Smart Pulse technology makes the most advanced PRK procedure available today possible – at KLIN Szemészeti Kft.
PresbyMAX
The SCHWIND AMARIS's newest program, PresbyMAX, gives near and distance vision at the same time – with some compromise. It can be a solution for people who wear glasses for distance and already use reading glasses. The exam decides whether you are suitable.
The SCHWIND AMARIS laser
- 0.5 mmlaser beam diameter
- 500 Hzoperating frequency
- 2008German industrial and medical design award
We perform laser eye surgery with a SCHWIND AMARIS laser. The device came on the market in September 2007 and won the German industrial and medical design award in 2008. We use a newer, further developed model of this device, because the SCHWIND AMARIS is one of the most modern and safest vision correction lasers available.
The treating laser beam is 0.5 mm in diameter, so with the help of the Corneal Wavefront analyser it can correct even the smallest individual irregularities of the eye's refraction. This is how personalised treatments are done. The device works at 500 Hz, so the procedure is finished faster.
Its new treatment profiles save tissue – the cornea becomes less thin during treatment – and reduce the chance of light scatter and glare to a minimum.
Laser vision correction: a little history
Attempts at surgically improving sharpness of vision go back to the 18th–19th centuries, but these were early experiments and did not spread into practice. Even then, though, it was recognised that by changing the curvature of the cornea – the clear front part of the eye – light entering the eye could be focused exactly on the retina, creating a sharp image.
Modern vision correction began in the 1950s, when the Japanese surgeon Sato made incisions in the cornea to change its curvature. Fyodorov developed this method, called radial keratotomy, further in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, but its results were not safe enough and complications were relatively common.
The real breakthrough came with the excimer laser and the discovery of its use in ophthalmology. Its development for eye surgery started in the early 1980s. After a seven-year experimental phase, the first refractive, that is laser vision correction, procedures were performed in Dresden in 1987, and the results met expectations.
The method was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1996, so laser vision correction has a history of several decades. Based on the experience of more than 10 million laser vision corrections worldwide, the procedure can be called safe.