The eye is considered one of the most advanced organs in our body, and when you really look into it, it’s not surprising why! I found it quite fascinating learning about how our eyes work. In fact it’s not that much different from how your camera works. The basis of your eyes anatomy works something like this. Light coming in to your eye is controlled by your pupil, which works much like a camera shutter. This light is focused on the retina, which is the cells lining the back of your eye. Your retina reacts to the incoming light sending a record of it via the optic nerve which travels to your brain. In fact the image that your brain receives is actually upside down! Your brain puts it into perspective so you see it as it should be. Now of course if you are an optometrist or ophthalmologist this process becomes much more complex. So how does this work in-terms of your vision prescription? Well for the four most common vision problems each have an eye imperfection.
Eye Length- If your eye is too long, light is focused before it reaches the retina. This causes nearsightedness.
Curvature of the Cornea- If not perfectly spherical then the image is not focused properly. This is known as astigmatism.
Curvature of the Lens- If the lens is too steeply curved this will cause you to be farsighted.
Less Flexible Lenses- Usually somewhere between the ages of 40- 50 your lenses loose their flexibility, which younger eyes naturally have. This will cause you to need reading glasses. This is known as presbyopia.
When considering LASIK vision correction, it is helpful to have an idea of why you need LASIK in the first place (what your prescription means). Knowing these kinds of things will allow you to have an appropriate list of questions ready to ask your optometrist and/or surgeon. As always with any surgical procedure there are risks. Make sure that you are well aware of those risks and all the options available to you. This will help to ensure your surgery is a success!
