Lasek takes longer to heal.
The Lasek® technique lessens the likelihood of removing too much cornea.
Lasek was featured in the first seven games in the Tony
Hawk video game series.
The Lasek procedure tends to be more painful,
and discomfort can last longer than with LASIK.
Epi-LASIK is like Lasek, except that a special cutting tool is used to lift the flap.
While Lasek avoids the corneal flap-related risks of LASIK,
there are some complications exclusive to Lasek surgery.
Lasek eye surgery is performed on a walk-in,
walk-out basis, and should take about 15 minutes per eye.
An experienced eye doctor
will be able to advise you when Lasek is the best vision correction surgery for your individual needs.
In some cases, the thin flap created during Lasek® is not strong enough to be replaced
and will be removed completely as it would have been in PRK.
LASIK remains the most popular laser eye surgery, but for people who are not suitable LASIK candidates,
PRK or Lasek may be better options
and produce comparable outcomes to LASIK.
In practice, however,
many surgeons have found that the replaced epithelial layer in Lasek often takes longer to heal compared
with the growth of a new epithelial layer after PRK.
Initial visual recovery can take up to a week with Lasek(as opposed to 24 hours in typical LASIK cases)
and final outcomes can be seen anywhere from a few weeks to several months.
Even if you are not a good candidate for LASIK, don't worry- you might still be able to have your vision fixed with
other vision correction surgery such as PRK, Lasek or implantable lenses.
The initial visual recovery can, in fact,
take up to a week with Lasek surgery(compared to 24 hours,
in typical cases, of LASIK) while the complete recovery from the intervention can take from a few weeks to several months.
But instead of completely removing and discarding this tissue, as in PRK, the Lasek surgeon pushes an ultra-thin"flap" of epithelium off to one side of the
cornea, where it remains attached to the eye(like the thicker flap of corneal tissue created during LASIK surgery).