Through the past 15 years I would have to say the LASIK procedure has been one of the most evolutionary and advancing procedures in ophthalmology and medicine.

Considering these changes is why I have decided to name this article HD LASIK.

LASIK surgery is a life-changing experience that gives an increase of freedom from glasses and contacts to the patients who are good candidates for the procedure. To be a good candidate you have to be 18 years or older with a stable prescription for the past two years and qualify after a full comprehensive eye exam.

The LASIK procedure consists of two steps: the first where a flap in the cornea is created and the second where a laser is used to reshape the underlying cornea. The majority of the complications in the past took place in that first step, in which a microkeratome machine with a blade was used.

Now we have a blade-free procedure. With this technology the initial flap is created by a computerized and precise femtosecond laser without actually cutting the tissue until there is complete satisfaction about the outcome. This is achieved by a series of microscopic bubbles of CO2 and water that once ready are linked to one another.

The use of this laser was approved by the U.S. military and NASA for their pilots in 2006. This computer-controlled laser provides a whole new level of accuracy and safety to LASIK. The technology allows the creation of thinner flaps significantly reducing the risks of dry eye after surgery.

Ninety to 100 percent of patients completely recover from any dry eye symptoms six months after their surgery, with a lot of them showing even better quality of surface since they have been already properly treated.

While these advancements were taking place on one side of the procedure (creating the corneal flap) the other side of the procedure was advancing just as rapidly. The first Excimer laser results were comparable to the correction you would get with glasses or contact lenses. They would only correct the bigger imperfections or aberrrations of the eye like myopia and hyperopia.

Now we use Wavefront technology to reduce smaller irregularities on the surface of the eye called higher order aberrations. Although correcting myopia or hyperopia provides improved quantity of vision, higher-order aberrations can affect the quality of vision and induce night visual problems, such as glare and halos.

With this technology a fingerprint map of the eye is created to determine a precise treatment for each eye by sending a safe infrared ray of light through the eye composing a 3D map. This treatment delivers superior vision (HD vision) at night with low light and low contrast conditions.

Finally, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a first of its kind technology for LASIK eye surgery, known as Advanced Control Eye tracking (ACE), for the Technolas LASIK platform which is the one I have selected for our clinic. This new eye tracker is able to adjust the delivery of laser pulses in response to subtle rotations of the eye that can occur during the laser treatment.

In summary, we truly now have the possibility of achieving high definition LASIK with new levels of accuracy, safety and technology. That is why there has never been a better time to have LASIK.