So now that you're well-informed about LASIK, it's time to book a consultation to evaluate your eligibility.
There are 2 ways you can do this:
Your regular optometrist can assess your eligibility and then refer you to the LASIK centre
You can go directly to the LASIK centre and see their on-site optometrist/ophthalmologist
If you have been seeing your optometrist for a long time, they would have your detailed ocular and medical history and may be the best person to advise you. However, not all optometrists have a corneal topographer. I personally booked a consultation appointment at the LASIK centre, since my previous optometrist was located far from me. I was asked to submit a pre-screening questionnaire online prior to my appointment. The purpose of the questionnaire is to screen for candidates who may NOT be eligible for LASIK. [See: WHO IS ELIGIBLE]
I had been a soft contact lens wearer for over 12 years, and would wear contacts 5-6 days per week. I stopped wearing contact lenses 2 days prior to my appointment so that the corneal scans would be as accurate as possible, since contact lenses can slightly alter the shape of your natural eye. Some LASIK centres will even recommend that you stop wearing soft contact lenses for 1 week before the pre-op. Rigid contact lens wearers need to stop wearing rigid lenses for at least 1-2 months prior to the pre-operative assessment, as well as prior to the surgery. I also wore no eye makeup for 24 hours prior to this appointment.
At the appointment, the technicians performed a variety of important tests, including:
Autorefraction - to measure the refractive power of the eyes
Pachymetry - to measure corneal thickness
Corneal topography & tomography - to measure the shape/curvature of the front & back of the cornea
Wavefront aberrometry - an even more accurate map of your eye created by thousands of rays of light, which allows for customized wavefront-guided LASIK (not available at every surgical centre)
They also measured the prescription of my glasses that I was wearing
I then met with the optometrist who performed an ocular assessment which included:
A thorough refraction to confirm my current refraction, i.e. the "which is better, 1 or 2" test that determines your glasses prescription
Eye pressure measurement which involves dropping a yellow fluorescent dye in your eye (don't worry, it doesn't hurt and is not harmful)
A thorough assessment of the health of my eyes. This involved dilating my pupils with dilating eyedrops so that he could assess the health of the back of my eyes to ensure there were no hidden ocular pathologies. After dilation, your eyes will be light sensitive and your near vision will be blurry, but you can still drive home with sunglasses. The effects of dilation wear off after a couple hours, and they often provide plastic sunglasses inserts to fit behind your regular glasses.
He confirmed that my eyes were healthy, and that my refraction (glasses prescription) has been stable. My glasses prescription had been stable for over 2 years and was --5.25 / --0.75 x 175 in both eyes. As you can see, I have a fairly high amount of myopia (--5.25) and the --0.75 indicates I have some astigmatism.
Photo of one of my corneal topography scans. This photo clearly shows the direction of my astigmatism: my cornea is more curved in the vertical direction than in the horizontal.
He then reviewed my corneal topography scans with me (shown above), which confirmed that there were no irregularities in the structure of my cornea.
(P.S. Regular astigmatism is common and NOT pathological, and can be corrected by LASIK).
The scans also showed that I had enough corneal thickness to do the procedure safely for my prescription. The higher your glasses prescription, the more tissue the laser needs to remove, and thus the thicker your cornea needs to be in order for the procedure to be done safely. This is VERY important, as having corneas that are too thin can lead to ectasia, which is a loss of the cornea's structural integrity; in ectasia, the cornea can't maintain its shape and bulges out, leading to vision loss.
The optometrist reassured me that considering all my ocular & health characteristics, I would be a good candidate for LASIK and could expect a favourable outcome (yay!).
I then met with the surgical coordinator, who reviewed the finances & scheduling. Many surgical centres offer a payment plan. She then booked my surgery date for 3 weeks away. They recommend that you book your surgery within 3 months of your initial pre-op consultation, so that the data they've obtained at this visit is still relevant.
WOW! It was really happening, and it was happening fast!
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