What Is Refractive Surgery?

In order for you to fully understand how refractive surgery works, you need to understand how your eye works. This basic knowledge will help you determine if LASIK is right for you. The primary purpose of your eye is to focus light. When the rays of light are not focused properly, you need glasses or contact lenses.

Your eye works very much like a camera. Light enters the eye through the cornea, the clear front surface or “window” of the eye. As the light passes though the cornea, it is bent or refracted. This bent light then travels through the pupil and into the lens. The lens acts to fine tune the focus of light onto the retina. The retina turns the light energy into electrical impulses that travel along the optic nerve from the eye to the brain, where the image is interpreted.

If you have a refractive error, then light is not focusing on the retina in the back of your eye properly. In order to change this problem and improve your vision, you can choose to have refractive surgery. Refractive surgery is a common procedure that uses a laser to reshape your cornea so that light refracts onto your retina correctly. Light that may have focused too far in front of, or behind your retina before laser surgery will now focus directly on it, giving you much clearer vision. Although refractive surgery cannot guarantee 20/20 vision, it can significantly improve your eyesight.