Are major advances in lasik eye surgery still being made or is the procedure relatively close to maturity?Kyle
LASIK has been available in the US since 1995. Since that time several improvements have been made. For instance, eye tracking technology that allows the laser to rapidly adjust for any small movements in the eye during the procedure. Also, rather than using a blade to cut the flap it is now possible to use a laser itself to create the flap. In addition, we now have what is called custom LASIK. This allows the surgeon to assess whether a patient has higher order abberrations (distortion) in the cornea and program the laser to not only correct the prescription but also the distortion in the cornea. Having said all this, though, the basic technology has changed very little in the last 13 years. What does the future hold? Who knows. But I would not expect any major changes any time in the forseeable future. The real question you need to ask is this. At the current state of technology is LASIK able to provide satisfactory results and do it in a safe and predictable manner. The answer to that is a resounding YES. I personally believe that rather than expecting a dramatic technological improvement in LASIK anytime soon, it is more probable that some other technology may someday take the place of LASIK. But that is just conjecture. We'll just have to wait and see.
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