do you qualify for lasik are you a good candidate for lasik if you're interested in lasik
this video is going to be very helpful because we're going over the top five lasik qualifications
but the last one probably being the one that's not emphasized enough let's focus in hey howdy
everybody this is Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, with the channel to keep your eyes healthy and
your vision clear now in this video we're going over five broad category qualifications that could
also apply to different refractive surgeries like prk smile lasik so if you're interested in any of
those this video will still help qualification number one age how old do you need to be and how
old is too old for lasik per fda requirements you do need to be 18 years old in the united states to
get lasik a lot of doctors will recommend waiting until you're 24 years old that's when most people
will stabilize their prescription and their eyes will stabilize but yeah minimum age in the united
states 18 years old now on the other side how old is too old there really isn't an age restriction
or an age that you're too old to get lasik but there are definitely a few things to consider now
usually when people start entering into the 40s you start getting presbyopia this is where people
start needing reading glasses or bifocals in their glasses and this will happen whether you have
lasik or not so this is definitely something to be aware of that you still may need reading glasses
down the road even if you've had lasik also in the later years of life people might be having some
other conditions of the eyes that might be causing blur like cataracts and so lasik might not be the
best option there because it might not give them the best results or the results that they want
because the cataract might be in there blocking some of the vision so really as you get older it
becomes a case-by-case basis and conditions of your eyes whether you might be a good candidate
for lasik qualification number two is with your prescription how stable is it and how high is your
nearsightedness astigmatism or farsightedness now your eye doctor will usually like to see
that your prescription stays stable it doesn't change for at least a year two years is better
now lasik has the potential to correct for quite a bit it can correct all the way up to a plus
six farsightedness negative 12 nearsightedness or six diopters of astigmatism which is quite a bit
now that being said this is a case-by-case basis definitely depends on the person there are a lot
of different factors and eye conditions that goes into figuring out how much lace it could correct
so definitely take this with a grain of salt but that's the potential of what lasik
could correct for usually becomes a little bit more difficult to correct nearsightedness up
past a negative nine and maybe astigmatism past a negative 450 so that's when you start getting
into the tricky territory but it still has the potential now i do want to throw this one in here
as a bonus or a side qualification if you are pregnant or you're planning on getting pregnant
pregnancy has been known to change a prescription so you might want to hold off on getting lasik now
lasik is performed on the cornea of the eye so qualification number three you want to make sure
that you have the right thickness and shape to your cornea they use the laser to reshape your
cornea the higher your prescription is the thicker your cornea needs to be if it's too
thin then they just won't have enough room or enough space or thickness to actually
do lasik on the cornea to correct all of your vision also in the same category you want it to
be the right shape they'll do a corneal topography or a map of the cornea just to make sure that
it's shaped right if there's any suspicion of thinning areas or maybe the lasik might
damage the integrity of the cornea then you don't want to do lasik because you could end up with
a progressive thinning type of corneal disease like keratoconus or marginal pellucid degeneration
which is just bad qualification number four eye diseases you definitely want to rule out any other
eye diseases or eye conditions that you might have like i mentioned before cataracts or macular
degeneration glaucoma is a big one glaucoma can be a little bit trickier to manage after someone's
had lasik or if some of these run in your family and you just want to be a little extra safe and
also and definitely any other corneal conditions like keratoconus like i mentioned before
or corneal dystrophies or genetic inherited conditions that might compromise the integrity
of the cornea where you just don't want to shoot a laser on there with lasik and i also would like
to add diabetes into this category you definitely want to have your blood sugar and your a1c under
control because that could mess with and delay the healing from the surgery now just remember these
are broad qualification categories everybody's different it's a case by case basis everybody's
eyes are different so make sure that you check in with your doctor to get a full evaluation
to see if you're a good candidate for lasik but if you're learning something new from this video
definitely hit that like button for me number five is dryness eye dryness now this is the one that
i think is probably not emphasized enough now eye dryness is probably one of the most common
complications or side effects after getting lasik when they do lasik onto the cornea it actually
damages the corneal nerves those nerves are what sends the signal to the brain to regulate the
tears if the nerves are damaged then your tear regulation or tear production might be out of
whack now luckily most people have improvement in their dry symptoms maybe taking up to three to six
months some people might take a little bit longer six to twelve months but every once while you'll
get reports of people reporting longer lasting dry eye conditions or symptoms or chronic dry eye
conditions so you might find more and more days eye doctors might screen more in depth for dry
eye conditions or dry eye diseases they might look at your meibomian oil glands your tear production
just to see where you stand with your dryness or your dryness symptoms because they know lasik will
push it and make it worse they just don't want to push it over the edge and make it a really
bad problem and so eye dryness is definitely a big one to consider definitely not one that
you should underestimate as far as being a good candidate for lasik now that you know the broad
qualifications if you're a good candidate for lasik you definitely want to know the side effects
the possible side effects to getting lasik so definitely check out the next video in the series
right there or the full playlist to learn more I'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, stay focused.