LASIK Checklist - 5 Things That Make You a Good Candidate
Are you wondering, “Am I a good candidate for LASIK?” Many people are interested in the procedure, but unsure whether it’s a good fit for them. Here’s a checklist you can review to figure out if you are a good candidate for LASIK.
- Healthy eyes.
If you have certain eye conditions, like glaucoma or cataracts, they may negatively affect your candidacy for the procedure. Likewise, some people who suffer from chronic dry eye may not be a great match for laser eye surgery, since it may exacerbate eye dryness. However, if your dry eye is strictly related to contact lens wear LASIK may eliminate many of your dry eye issues. If you’re not quite sure how healthy your eyes are, schedule an eye exam with our doctors who can let you know whether they’re healthy enough for LASIK.
- Overall health.
While eye health is extremely important to your LASIK candidacy, your health, in general, is also a key consideration. Any abnormalities in your health, even something exciting like pregnancy or seemingly unrelated impending surgeries, will affect whether or not you should get LASIK. Certain conditions that compromise your body’s immune system (and/or inhibit healing) will also make some people less suited for the LASIK procedure.
- Prescription consistency.
In order to be a good candidate for LASIK, your vision prescription should have remained consistent for at least two years. This is one of the biggest LASIK prescription requirements, as even minor fluctuations could indicate instability in your vision. Doctors do not want to fix eyesight in such a permanent way, if it may change again shortly after.
- Ideal prescription range.
Another key consideration is where your eyesight falls on the spectrum. LASIK can successfully correct mild to moderate to severe amounts of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism but if your prescription is extremely high, your eye surgeon may advise you to pursue an alternative course of action. There is more risk involved when correcting those with high prescriptions, and there may be better options for people in this group. Therefore, LASIK surgery is usually the most ideal for people with mid-range prescriptions.
- Optimal age range.
While there is not necessarily a best age to get LASIK, there are some general parameters to keep in mind. First, eye surgeons will not perform LASIK for anyone younger than 18 years of age, and some eye clinics will not perform LASIK for anyone younger than 21 years of age. You can get LASIK for years after this, but when people get into their mid to late 40s, their vision generally starts to change again. At that point, there may be better vision correction options for them than LASIK.
So, where do you stack up? Are you a shoo-in for LASIK, or might there be a different form of vision correction that’s better for you? If you’re still not sure, take our LASIK candidacy quiz here or schedule an eye exam with one of our talented doctors.