How Do I Know If I’m A LASIK Candidate Anyway?

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Tired of wearing glasses and contact lenses? An easy solution, if you’re a candidate, is to consider getting LASIK!

The first step in the LASIK process is to have a LASIK consultation. This is how your eye doctor will determine if you are a LASIK candidate.

Not everyone will be a candidate. Certain eye conditions such as dry eye syndrome and glaucoma can rule out your candidacy.

Your corneas must also be thick enough, as LASIK reshapes your corneas.
Keep reading to learn more about LASIK candidacy!

Current Prescription

One of the first things considered in LASIK candidacy is your prescription and how current it is. To undergo LASIK, your vision needs to be stable.

That means your prescription cannot change. It also has to fall within a set range, meaning that it cannot be too high or too low.

Disease and Condition Free

Another factor that goes into LASIK candidacy is that your eyes must be free of diseases and eye conditions that can hinder your vision. This includes dry eye syndrome, glaucoma, cataracts, or any condition that affects your cornea, retina, or optic nerve.

You also need to be free of eye conditions like lazy eye and muscular imbalance. If you have dry eye syndrome, you need to have it managed and under control, before you can have LASIK.

Glaucoma and cataracts can also make it hard to operate on your eyes due to pressure building up and cloudy lenses. If you have either of these, another procedure may be a better fit instead.

Eye conditions like amblyopia (lazy eye) and strabismus (muscle imbalance) can make it risky to perform LASIK on your eyes. This is because your eyes may move around during the procedure.

Cornea Thickness

LASIK requires that your cornea be at least .45-.5 mm thick. LASIK works because it involves permanently reshaping your cornea.

Refractive errors like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism occur because of an irregularly shaped cornea. During LASIK, the surgeon will create an incision in your eye.

A laser will then reshape your cornea. It becomes unsafe to have LASIK if your corneas are too thin. Removing even a small amount of corneal tissue could lead to serious complications.

Good Health

To be a LASIK candidate, you must also be in good health. This is important as certain health conditions can make it harder to heal after having LASIK.
Having conditions like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or multiple sclerosis can rule out your LASIK candidacy.

You also cannot have unmanaged diabetes or diabetic retinopathy.

Pregnancy

If you’re currently pregnant or nursing, you need to wait to have LASIK. During pregnancy, there are many changes that occur, and your eyes are no exception to this.

They may change significantly due to the hormones in your body and make your vision unstable. Wait to have LASIK until you’ve finished nursing for at least three months.

This will give your eyes enough time to stabilize and go back to normal. The best thing you can do is wait to have the procedure until you know you are done having children.

These are only some of the factors that go into LASIK candidacy. The only way to know for sure if LASIK is right for you is to schedule a LASIK consultation.

Ready to find out if LASIK and a lifetime of clear vision could be waiting for you? Schedule your LASIK consultation at Stahl Eyecare Experts in Hauppauge, NY today!


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GARDEN CITY, LONG ISLAND
450 Endo Boulevard Garden City, NY 11530
Phone: 516.832.8000
For a LASIK consultation, please call (516) 832-8000 ext. 4
MANHATTAN
185 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor (On the corner of 34th Street) New York, NY 10016
Phone: 212.689.7676
For a LASIK consultation, please call (516) 832-8000 ext. 4
HAUPPAUGE, LONG ISLAND
200 Motor Parkway, Suite D-25 Hauppauge, NY 11788
Phone: 631.952.8000
For a LASIK consultation, please call (516) 832-8000 ext. 4
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If you are seeking a Long Island LASIK specialist, the eye doctors at Stahl Eyecare Experts would like to offer you a great opportunity in laser eye surgery. Brought to you by professional, experienced Long Island LASIK surgeons, our one-of-a-kind medical facility brings not only cutting-edge technology, but experienced hands in ophthalmology as well. Helping you achieve your personal best vision is mission critical at our Long Island LASIK office. If LASIK cost is something that has been holding you back please feel free to review our options regarding LASIK Financing. We are dedicated to providing the best in patient education so that our patients can make a well-educated decision as to whether or not LASIK would be a good vision correction option. Remember, not everyone is a good candidate for LASIK. This is precisely why you need to have an experienced LASIK surgeon in Long Island evaluate you to make sure that this is the right eye surgery procedure for you! If LASIK is not the best procedure for you, we offer other ophthalmology procedures such as cataract surgery to help you see better. If you are seeking a Long Island cataract surgeon we are happy to offer cataract consultations to educate you about this process and determine your vision correction options.

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