The purpose behind Lasik surgery is to help reduce one's dependency on glasses and contacts. Lasik surgery is designed to improve your vision, but it may not restore your eyesight back to 20/20 vision. Lasik surgery is most often used to treat astigmatism, moderate farsightedness, and up to severe nearsightedness. There are a variety of criteria that an eye doctor considers, beyond your medical eye condition, to determine if you are a good candidate for Lasik surgery.
Age
Lasik eye surgery is not performed on children. One generally has to be an adult before any eye doctor will consider performing Lasik surgery on you. Lasik surgery is not performed on children because their bodies are still changing rapidly.
Overall Health
In general, doctors prefer to perform Lasik eye surgery on individuals who have an overall good bill of health. There are certain health problems that can exclude one from being a candidate for Lasik eye surgery.
If one has a collagen vascular disease or an autoimmune disease, they may not be a good candidate for Lasik surgery. If one has diabetes that is not under control, you would not be a good candidate until your diabetes was under control. If you are taking any medication that compromises your immune system, you would not be a good candidate until you are done taking that medication.
Lacking Eye Disease
You should have good overall eye health outside of the condition that you want to have treated. You should not be suffering from other eye disease such as cataracts, optic nerve disease, retinal disease, glaucoma, or keratoconus. Suffering from herpes zoster and herpes simplex can also rule you out as a candidate for Lasik eye surgery. You should not have an active eye injury or infection.
Stable Vision
Lasik is designed to correct your vision once it has stabilized. You need to show that your eyes have stayed at the same degree of nearsightedness or farsightedness for at least a year before you are considered a good candidate for Lasik eye surgery. That means you need to get into the eye doctor and have your vision checked on a yearly basis so that you will know when your vision stops changing and can prove that your vision has been stable for at least a year.
These are just a few of the factors that an eye doctor will take into consideration before performing Lasik surgery on you. The eye doctor is going to want to make sure that you are a good candidate for eye surgery before discussing and arranging the operation. To determine if you are a good candidate, the eye doctor will need to look not just at your eye health, but at your overall health.