Who Is a Good Candidate for LASIK Surgery?
To have LASIK surgery, you need to meet certain requirements. Here are some of them:
- You should be 18 years or older (ideally, over 21 years old, when vision is more likely to have stopped changing).
- Your eye prescription should not have changed much in the last year.
- Your refractive error must be one that can be treated with LASIK.
- Your corneas need to be thick enough and healthy, and your overall eye health must be generally good.
- You need to have realistic expectations about what LASIK can and cannot do for you.
Some people are not candidates for LASIK. They include people with:
- An unstable (changing) refractive error
- Extreme levels of myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism
- Severe dry eye
- Corneas that are too thin
- Corneal scars or disease
- Keratoconus (cone-shaped cornea)
- Advanced glaucoma
- A cataract affecting vision
- A history of having certain eye infections
- Diabetes that is not controlled well
- Also, women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should not have LASIK. This is due to vision changes that can happen during pregnancy.
Your ophthalmologist can talk with you about other conditions that may keep you from having LASIK.
