this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago

Had all-laser LASIK done in 2007.

Was scary, and the excimer laser sounded like a giant electrical wasp, but overall, I’ve had zero problems. Best procedure I’ve ever had done.

My older sibling had it done back then, too. No issues. 2 other close friends did the same. Not a single issue.

Give it a rest people.

Go get checked to see if you’re a valid candidate, and have the procedure done by a professional ophthalmologist with an “all-laser” setup who has more than a decade or so of experience and also has the $200,000 equipment to do it right and a lifetime contract-backed guarantee, and you will be happy with the choice you made.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Risk management isn't solely based on how bad the outcome is but also on how likely that outcome is.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Honestly that meteorologist that sadly took her own life several years back after having really bad complications from laser eye surgery was more than enough to convince me to not get it done.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 days ago (3 children)

What's the success rate? Oh yeah, over 95%. Get outta here

[–] [email protected] 45 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Xcom players: nah. Fuck that

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

I feel this in my bones...

...unlike the Muton who just Neo'd his way through 4 overwatches.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

meaning around 1 in 20 people who do it end up facing consequences? that sounds like quite a lot actually, at least when its about longterm health.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (2 children)

A little less so when the main consequence 1/20 people face is something like dry eyes.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago

Or halos, which are just a little annoying

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

You've clearly never dealt with dry eyes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

5% is way too high of a chance of getting permanent chronic dry eyes.

Go look at horror stories on the dry eyes subreddit and take note of the people considering a permanent solution.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 6 days ago (2 children)

There's a lot of folks in the comments who are pretty cavalier about the safety, yet the CEO who produces Lasik machines refuses to get the procedure and just wears glasses.

Obviously there's a lot of folks happy with it.

However, many people end up needing glasses within ten years. "Relating to the legal requirements in Germany, sufficient visual acuity was found in 76.7 % of the LASIK group, in 73.9 % of the Ortho-K users and in 85.7 % of the reference group (72.7 % in the adult group, 100 % in the juvenile group)." https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23508754/

"Nearly 5% of subjects were dissatisfied with their vision after Lasik... eyes feeling irritated (50%), glare (43%), halos (41%), and [trouble] seeing in dim light (35.2%)." Source: Mamalis N. Laser vision correction among physicians: "the proof of the pudding is in the eating". J Cataract Refract Surg. 2014 Mar;40(3):343-4.

"Lasik Suicide" is a real thing, most of the folks who have been affected don't take the time to say much about the excruciating pain, they just commit suicide.

https://www.lasikcomplications.com/suicide.htm

Definitely think very carefully, your eyes are something you can't fix if you get this surgery. For some people enough nerves are damaged to cause persistent pain that doesn't go away.

I almost got the surgery a few years ago, if it worked 100% of the time I would have taken the risk. But vision is so important that I didn't want to take the risk. Several of my family members did get it and still have dry eyes and halos ten years later, and two now need glasses again anyway.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The sample size of that study was only ~300 people. A study with 20,000 participants in Singapore found that 90% of patients had 20/40 or higher vision after 10 years. It found that high-myopia (-14+)(the most extreme form of near sightedness) patients had a much higher rate of regression, with 39% of those patients losing 2 points or more from their vision within 10 years of tratment (and likely choosing to wear glasses [not listed in the study] or get retreatment [27%]).

So basically, if you have extreme vision problems before LASIK you're much more likely to have to wear glasses again down the road.

Also, worth pointing out that almost everyone will need reading glasses as they age regardless of LASIK. This conversation only surrounds glasses for near sightedness.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Good points. So roughly 10% chance of needing to get glasses or surgery again, which gets higher the worse your vision is to start.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 days ago (3 children)

I just don't mind my glasses that much that I want to put myself through this/take the risk/pay the cost. I've had them since I was a child, I'm used to them and as far as I know, that's still what has the least side/adverse effects.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

You missed the part where not all LASIK procedures are "bladeless". As in: there is an eye knife and guess which way you gotta look for that to work.

Bonus:

[–] QueenHawlSera 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I don't have eye problems of any kind. Don't even need reading glasses....

And even I cried upon reading this.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Have had it done, bladed. Yes, you look straight at it, but you can't see shit anyway because of the drops they put in your eyes first. I was much less concerning than I expected.

That was only for one eye though. The other was not a candidate for LASIK, so I had the alternative procedure known as PRK. This one is super fun because instead of cutting the cornea off then put it back on (LASIK), they just scrape off the outer layer of the cornea.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

Bob's Discount LASIK Barn or whatever it is called down by the Confederate flag monument on the 5 had a big sign for the Nazi "America first" congressman and I feel like I wasn't about to trust my eyes to them anyway but I especially want to avoid them now, Jesus fuck

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I did it because I was blind. Hella blind. -6 and -9. When covid hit I suddenly realized that if supply shortages ever hit hard and I lost my glasses, I was absolutely fucked.

I could not drive, I could not use two monitors, I would be functionally blind... I always joked I would be dead weight in the apocalypse but in the midst of a hurricane, a wildfire, I could be absolutely fucked. With months before a replacement pair could be acquired. And with all the shit that went wrong with covid... I just wanted to hedge my bets.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

if supply shortages ever hit hard and I lost my glasses, I was absolutely fucked.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I was a very early adopter, as soon as lasik came out I got it, the radial-k that preceded it couldn't handle my prescription. It's regressed over the intervening 30 years, but even now I wear thin light glasses and can at least sort of see without them.

You know what sold me on this, even though the vision isn't as good as I could get with hard contacts? My mom had to go back to glasses after wearing contacts for years because the contacts wore away her corneas! At least the glasses I have to wear at this age are only like a -2 prescription, that's much more comfortable than what they would have been.

[–] lka1988 10 points 6 days ago (2 children)

My mom had to go back to glasses after wearing contacts for years because the contacts wore away her corneas!

That's a slightly horrifying thought... My wife has keratoconus and has to wear hard contacts (scleral lenses, but functionally the same thing) in order to see at all.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yeah it was unsettling.

My hope lies with science. Two women at my work had to have cornea replacement and both of them don't need glasses at all anymore - one is 65 and one is 70.

And oh yes I was profoundly nearsighted and hard contacts gave me superhuman vision. They are the best correction by far. But I am really hoping that good artificial corneas are available soon.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Welcome to the USA.

She is planning to retire in a couple of years. Both of them say this is their last job.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There definitely are risks and i feel doctors can be too cavalier about those risks

Having said that, i got the procedure done 5 years ago, and install have better than 20/20 vision. The only issue inhad afterwards was that i could see things up to 1cm away from my eye ball, now that is 30cm at the least and since the last year or so i cannot read the 2 pixel size texts on medicine bottles anymore

Beyond that, I'm super happy with the result

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 days ago (4 children)

That's a lot of typos for someone with perfect vision.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Seeing well doesn't equate to intelligence. In fact you lose +1 INT when you take off your glasses.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

One of the best decisions I every made, going from essentially blond without glasses to not needing them. Especially as someone who enjoys a lot of outdoor activities, not being made helpless by a lost or broken pair of glasses is a huge weight off my mind

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago (2 children)

essentially blond

Lasik changed your hair?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

Right? This is an absolutely awesome autocorrect fail.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I don't plan to do LASIK, unless:

  • I am not able to put my glasses on;

  • When my glasses break, I am not able to go outside and drive by bus to the nearest glasses repair shop.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago

Please try to ride the bus instead of drive it if your glasses break.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

also people with damage to thier cornea, like from shingles even if it made a small scar on the sclera, makes in ineligble for lasik.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

tbf every medical intervention has its risks but it doesn't often go wrong (assuming the surgeon knows what they're doing)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

It is nasty if it goes wrong. I know someone where it did and he was knocked out in a pretty bad way for a while until it could be fixed (though it was fixed).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (5 children)

night lenses,

game changer

no idea why they are so obscure (besides conspiracy theories)

wear them while sleeping. perfect eyesight.

used to wear them for a few years, stopped, because one possible side effect is that it will improve your eye sight.

I no longer need glasses.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Wife got lasik over ten years ago. Vision is great. We live in one of the moist parts of Texas, so dry eyes have never really been an issue. Absolutely none of that other stuff is relevant.

That said, she's no longer perpetually wearing a semi-efficient pair of goggles, so when our son tries to grab for her face his fingers go directly into her eyeball rather than being deflected harmlessly away by super-hard transparent glass. Also, completely fucked when it comes to cutting onions.

I'll keep my glasses, thank you.

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