What are the Alternative Treatments to Laser Eye Surgery

Vision correction technology has seen great advancements over the past few years.

Using the latest in laser technology, patients who suffer from conditions such as myopia (short-sightedness), hyperopia (long-sightedness), presbyopia (ageing eyes), and astigmatism, can be safe in the knowledge that Laser Eye Surgery is statistically the safest medical procedure in the world.

On top of that, suitability rates have risen to the point that we’re able to treat 98 percent of patients. Unfortunately, though, not all patients are eligible for treatment. And so it’s important to be aware of what alternative options are available to help correct your vision.

In this article, we’re going to take a brief look at a few of those alternative options, as well as at the possibility of Laser Eye Surgery, for some of the most common eye conditions.

Alternative Treatments For Hyperopia

In the video above, Mr Glenn Carp, one of the UK’s most distinguished ophthalmic surgeons, provides us with an insight into treating hyperopia.

The majority of people who suffer from hyperopia are aware that they generally have two options for countering its effects: glasses or contact lenses.

Such people tend to have very flat corneas or shorter eyes. Glasses and contacts offer great temporary solutions to these problems. However, if you would like to address the issue permanently, the only options are to steepen the cornea with Laser Eye Surgery or to insert intraocular lenses into the eye.

At London Vision Clinic, we correct hyperopia using one of two Laser Eye Surgery techniques, LASIK or LASEK/PRK.

Alternative Treatments To Improving Reading Vision

In the above video, Mr Glenn Carp talks about alternative treatments for improving reading vision.

People suffering from poor reading vision probably know too well that glasses and contact lenses can provide a temporary and often impractical solution to combat the issue.

As Glenn Carp explains in the above video, you can have conventional reading glasses, varifocals, multifocals, or bifocals which allow the top half of the glasses to be focused for distance and the lower half for reading. You can also use contact lenses to create a multifocal cornea and give similar effects.

Apart from all the obvious drawbacks of glasses and contacts, the problem with multifocality specificially is that while it improves near vision distance, you tend to lose a bit of quality of vision in the process. Laser Eye Surgery cannot typically treat poor reading vision. However, at the London Vision Clinic, we have developed a revolutionary treatment called PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision especially for that purpose.

Alternatives Treatments For Myopia

Commonly known as short-sightedness, Myopia is another common eye condition which occurs when the eye is slightly rounder and longer than it should be.

This abnormal shaping causes light to converge in front of the retina and make objects at a distance appear blurred and out of focus. There are several forms of myopia including physiological myopia, pathological myopia, and acquired myopia.

In most cases, myopia is treatable by a trip to the optometrists. However, in its more extreme forms, above -12.50 dioptres, it becomes difficult to correct with glasses or contact lenses.

In these cases and even more severe myopic prescriptions (beyond -14 dioptres), you may be told that synthetic lenses are the most effective —and your only — form of treatment. However, here at London Vision Clinic, we have specially developed highly effective laser surgery techniques to treat patients with such high prescriptions.

If you would like to find out more about the different treatment options or book a consultation at London Vision Clinic, leave us a comment or get in touch with one of our clinic coordinators today.