What Is Spot Size?

With the small size of an Excimer laser used for Laser Eye Surgery, we will think of it as a paintbrush size.  It is very difficult to do fine art with a house paintbrush.  So obviously the smaller the brush you are using the more detail you can paint, you can carve.  Of course the smaller the brush, the longer it will take you to paint an area.  So there is an interplay between the spot size and the speed of the laser and that is all technical stuff but generally speaking small spot lasers are better than broad area lasers.

Spot Size In Laser Eye Surgery Explained Further…

A laser beam will be a certain size and a certain shape. The point where the laser touches the eye is a “spot”. The smaller the spot, the more focused it is, creating a higher intensity beam that moves around the eye at a faster rate. This means the laser only removes the material it needs to, providing a more precise treatment.

At 0.7mm, the MEL 80 has the smallest beam available for most precise treatment; this creates a high intensity (more focused) beam that moves about the eye at a faster rate, necessitating increased reaction time, which the MEL 80 also has. The result is that the laser only removes the material it needs to remove.

Professor Dan Reinstein explains spot size of laser and what it mean for eye surgery.