LASIK: How to Select Post-Surgery Contact Lenses?

During the LASIK, which is a refractive surgery, some amount of tissue is removed from the eye-surface. This leads into considerable irregularities in the surface of the cornea. That means, one can no longer use soft contact lenses, because they will conform to the surface of the cornea resulting in blurred and visual distortions.

But the patients who still need corrective glasses after the surgery don't need to worry too much if they hate the idea of wearing glasses. There are options to choose from in the contact lenses which have been designed keeping in mind the concerns of those patients.

The Options after the LASIK surgery may be:

• Gas permeable (rigid) Contact Lenses: The Gas Permeable Contact Lenses are rigid. Thus, they keep their shape when placed on the cornea as compared to the soft lenses which are absolutely pliable. When the rigid contact lens is placed on the cornea, the place between the lens and the cornea is filled with tears, and thus all the aberrations are cancelled out. Gas Permeable Contact Lenses are very much ideal for post-LASIK use.
  
  It should be however, kept in mind that they are not as comfortable as the soft lenses, and one may need some time to get used to them.


• Hybrid contact lenses: Hybrid contact lenses are combinations of lenses with rigid, gas permeable centers surrounded by a soft outer ring. This aids the aberration-correcting ability of the rigid gas permeable lenses but the comfort of the soft lenses is the added advantage.


• Wavefront Lenses: These lenses are aided by computerized instruments that are designed to project uniform light waves into the eye by measuring the refractive errors and high order aberrations. The light waves are reflected off the retina and after that, the returning "wavefront" of light is analyzed and adjusted to produce crisp and sharp visions.
  
  These lenses can correct irregular astigmatism and corneal irregularities. The usual refractive errors of nearsightedness and farsightedness can be also corrected by these lenses.