I have myopia, -6.5 in one eye and -6.25 in the other. My corneal thickness is 524. Surgeon 1 has recommended LASIK. Surgeon 2 has recommended PRK.

Surgeon 1 says my myopia is too strong for PRK. Surgeon 2 says my corneas are too thin for LASIK. They also use different lasers, Surgeon 1 VISX Star4, Surgeon 2 LADARVision 4000.

Any thoughts? Thanks so much. I have been out of my hard contacts for 8 weeks and want to make a decision. I am having trouble with my glasses since my cornea has take shape again.

I had PRK done on both of my eyes in 11/2004. My prescriptions was -7.5 L and -7.0 R. I had PRK because mu cornea wasn't thick enough to have Lasik. I'm now seeing 20/20 with my right eye and 20/25 with my left eye. I just wanted to let you that I had PRK and had a stronger pre-op prescriptions that you have, and I love my outcome. But keep in mind that it took me a very long time after the surgery to reach my current vision, a good 12 months for me. Good luck.

1. If you can tolerate contacts, maybe switch to soft contacts, they should be more comfortable than the hard kind.

2. If you are over 35, consider an undercorrection, perhaps ask for 20/40 instead of 20/20. You still wont need glasses, maybe just to drive at night. The benefit is itll keep you out of reading glasses till 50 with a -1 to -1.5 undercorrection and I know people with a -2 to -2.5 undercorrection that never needed reading glasses, just glasses for distance.

3. IOLs are used for those with thin corneas, high pescriptions, dry eyes. Discuss this with your doctor.

4. If you dont mind an undercorrection, PRK wont be a problem. Full correction may put you at risk for haze. If getting lasik, you might have enough with intralase but only for one time, no enhancements.

I disagree that most people with 20/40 "don't need glasses except for maybe driving at night." My personal experience, and the experience of "most" people that I know or have read about that are 20/40 need glasses for seeing everything that is past 6-8 feet. At 20/40 (-1 D) I needed gleasses for driving in the day, watching movies, watching TV, making dinner, reading signs, shopping, and finding anyone across a room or restuarant. Please make it clear that you might be comfortable with 20/40 for all of your daily tasks, but many people would not be, especially if they are used to 20/20 correction with glasses. The only people I know that are comfortable with 20/40 either can't be corrected to 20/20 or just haven't yet been corrected. Once you can see clearly (corrected or not) it is tough going back to blurry....
Take care,
Sue

If you choose to be 20/20 and are presbyopic, many people I know are not happy to find they cant see anything from near or intermediate clearly. From my experience, I am much happier being undercorrected because I can avoid reading glasses or taking my glasses off to peak under them. I have tried contacts before that corrected me to plano and was shocked how blurry reading a newspaper was! Being myopic, I am used to seeing clearly from near and to be taken away from this gift is unacceptable.

If someone is getting surgury and wants 20/20, he risks overcorrection. If he wants 20/40 and gets overcorrected, he may end 20/20 instead of farsighted. For someone who is presbyopic and gets lasik, hes gonna need glasses either way so why not choose a slight undercorrection, even if only to greatly reduce the risk of overcorrection? I still dont understand why 20/40 is so bad, I dont correct much better than 20/40 and everything is crisp and sharp. My brother is 20/60 without glasses and he has no trouble seeing so he only wears glasses to drive. Almost all of my friends dont tend to wear glasses if they are seeing 20/40 or better.