Who’s A LASIK Candidate?

You are a LASIK candidate if:

• You’re 18 years or older.
• You do not have an eye disease.
• Your prescription has not changed for at least a year.
• Have the approved corneal thickness and topography.

Clemson Eye offers patients a multitude of vision correction options. We are committed to providing a solution that is right for you. Our eye doctors always take the time to discuss with you the very best options for your specific situation and long-term eye health. Consultations for any vision correction procedures are free and take just 60 minutes.

What Can LASIK Treat?

LASIK restores your vision if you suffer from nearsightedness, farsightedness, presbyopia or have astigmatism.

Here are the refractive errors LASIK can correct:

• Myopia (Nearsightedness) occurs when light rays are focused in front of the retina instead of directly on the retina. To treat nearsightedness, the cornea must be made flatter. This is accomplished by removing microscopic amounts of tissue from the center of the cornea.
• Hyperopia (Farsightedness) occurs when light rays are not bent enough to focus on the retina. To treat farsightedness, the central cornea must be made steeper. This is accomplished by directing the laser beam to remove tissue from around this area.
• Astigmatism (irregularly shaped cornea) occurs when light rays are focused by an irregularly shaped cornea at more than one point on the retina. To treat astigmatism, the cornea must be made more spherical. By changing the pattern of the beam, tissue is removed in one direction more than the other.
• Presbyopia (age-related near-vision loss) is part of the eyes’ natural aging process that typically starts around age 40. That is the age when the eyes’ natural lenses start to lose their flexibility. As a result, we lose our ability to focus on objects up close and require reading glasses. To treat presbyopia, our surgeons perform a custom ‘Blended Vision’ LASIK that corrects your dominant eye for distance and your non-dominant eye for intermediate and near vision. Fortunately, patients can test ‘Blended Vision’ prior to LASIK with a specialized ‘Mono-Vision’ contact lens trial, to see if they are an ideal candidate.
  
  Many people mistake LASIK to be a procedure only for younger people, but with our ability to correct presbyopia, LASIK can make you spectacle free when you’re older, too.