Where do people who travel for medical care go when they need a procedure done? The 2020-2021 Medical Tourism Index ranked 46 global destinations. It revealed that the top five places people travel to for medical and cosmetic procedures are Canada, Singapore, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Dubai is in 6th place globally, ranking 7th in destination environment and 5th in quality of facilities and services and excelling in cosmetic and orthopaedic surgery, cardiac care, dental treatment, robotic surgery, and cancer treatment. LASIK eye surgery in Dubai is also popular among medical tourists.
If you’ve ever wished for clear vision without relying on glasses or contacts, LASIK could be the game-changer you’ve been waiting for. This quick and highly effective laser procedure, available to medical tourists in Dubai, has helped millions see the world in sharper, clearer detail.
How does LASIK work, and is it right for you?
What LASIK Does?
Laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis is a precise, laser-enabled surgery designed to reshape the cornea—the transparent dome on the surface or at the front of your eye. The cornea is crucial to clear eyesight because it bends or refracts the light entering your eye. Depending on how good it is at doing its job (and some other factors, like the length of your eyeball and the flexibility of your lens), the light rays entering your eyes will focus:
- on the retina, where the light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors are (good vision)
- behind the retina (leads to hyperopia or farsightedness)
- in front of the retina (leads to myopia or nearsightedness)
- on two different points, which could be a mix of on, in front, or behind the retina (leads to astigmatism)
Eye surgeons can change how your cornea bends light by altering its curvature or shape. Flattening the cornea a bit can push focus from the front and onto the retina. Increasing the curvature of the cornea, meanwhile, will pull focus from behind and onto the retina. In astigmatism, doctors can flatten and increase the steepness or roundness of the cornea in specific places, where needed, to unify focus on a single point on the retina.
LASIK is one of the strategies eye surgeons use to reshape the cornea. It involves using laser pulses to remove parts of the corneal tissue and achieve the target corneal curvature.
How About LASIK in Presbyopia?
Presbyopia is an eye condition characterised by blurry or unclear vision due to a refractive error. It occurs when the lens of the eye becomes less flexible.
The lens can make itself flatter to see long-distance objects or rounder to see up close. However, as you age, the lens becomes harder and less flexible, thus, unable to readily increase or decrease its curvature.
Unlike nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, presbyopia isn’t caused by the less-than-ideal shape of the cornea but by lens inflexibility due to natural ageing. As such, LASIK is not commonly indicated for presbyopia.
That said, there are two ways LASIK can remedy presbyopia.
- Monovision LASIK is corneal reshaping through laser surgery that optimises the dominant eye for distance vision. It leaves the other eye alone so it can remain mildly nearsighted for near vision.
- Blended vision LASIK is another alternative. In this case, there’s less disparity between the dominant eye and the other eye; the latter is corrected for intermediate vision instead of being left nearsighted.
Monovision LASIK does not work for everyone, as it can take time for the brain to adjust to using each eye differently. Blended vision LASIK may work better because it offers a less jarring focus shift between the two eyes.
Step-by-Step Process
This laser-assisted surgery is straightforward and quick, often finishing in less time than it takes to watch a full-length episode of a regular TV show. You can expect your doctor to undertake these steps during LASIK surgery:
1. Prepare the eye.
First, numbing drops are applied to keep things comfortable. If necessary, you may be given medication to help you relax, too. Your doctor will then hold your eyes open with an eyelid speculum to prevent blinking.
2. Create the flap
Your doctor will attach a suction ring to your eye and then cut your cornea with a laser or some other cutting tool to create an outer flap that they can fold out of the way to gain access to the tissue underneath.
3. Reshape the cornea
A computer-guided excimer laser starts removing parts of the cornea in precise locations to attain the desired curvature. This step is tailored to your specific condition, and the computer’s precision cutting instructions are mapped to your cornea.
4. Reattach the flap
Once the laser has finished reshaping the corneal tissue, the outer flap is unfolded and repositioned. There’s no need for stitches because the flap naturally reattaches itself to the rest of the cornea in a couple of minutes.
LASIK in Dubai
LASIK is a laser procedure that addresses refractive errors by reshaping the cornea and thus altering the way it focuses light on your retina, correcting common vision issues like nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and even presbyopia. It’s easy and fast and a good option to gain (or regain) better eyesight.
You can get the procedure done in the United Arab Emirates. Book a consultation with a trusted ophthalmologist in Dubai who specialises in LASIK surgery so you can get assessed for fit and get answers to your questions and concerns.
