594
Anon considers LASIK (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 15 points 17 hours 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] 16 points 17 hours ago

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

[-] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

It's a big factor considering the benefits.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 15 hours ago

My cousin had his done for like $3000 several years ago. No issues. He actually has surprisingly good vision.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago

https://youtu.be/f7IvO_XALAs

https://moskowitz-eye.com/blog/lasik-safety-whistlin-diesel (The original video got taken down)

I'm not going to dissuade people from doing lasik, in theory 99% of candidates should not have any issues. Personally the complications of a failed surgery are a little too scary for me.

The other problem is that not every clinic is a morally good one. They might try to upsell lasik on a not so good candidate, and that risk is not a risk I'm willing to take.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 day 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] 29 points 1 day ago

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

[-] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours 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 1 day ago

Xcom players: nah. Fuck that

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

I feel this in my bones...

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

[-] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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 1 day ago

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

[-] [email protected] 5 points 16 hours ago

You've clearly never dealt with dry eyes.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Or halos, which are just a little annoying

[-] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Yeah! This ^ Lasik doesn't sound worth the risks at all.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

I can think of two specific instances in my life when wearing glasses saved me from serious eye damage, I'm sure there were more.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago

You can still wear glasses, and not need them.

I live in a sunny place, so I'm never outside without wearing my sunglasses. As you've pointed out they've saved my eyes from traumatic injury at least a dozen times over the years.

I wear safety glasses when I'm working around the house with anything that could be considered a power tool (kitchen mixer, drill, etc..) and those have saved me a few times as well.

But not needing glasses, now that could be a lifesaver. I have a close relative who is basically blind without his glasses. He's told me that if he's in an unfamiliar place and is woken up by the fire alarm, there's a good chance he can't find his way out without his glasses.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 day 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] 154 points 2 days ago
  1. I can wake up and glance at the time instead of having to lift something up and put it centimetres from my face to tell the time.
  2. I can do sports without the glasses falling off, getting mashed into my face, etc.
  3. I look a lot better, with a -13 prescription, my glasses were heavy and thick
  4. My nose and ears aren't in pain from carrying the weight of my glasses all the time.
  5. I'm not having to constantly adjust my glasses whenever my nose sweats a bit.
  6. I'm not completely blind any time I have to take off the glasses, like when I take a shower or go in a pool, or especially swim in the ocean where there are big waves.
  7. I'm not utterly helpless because I'm blind if I lose my glasses. If you're blind without your glasses, and your glasses aren't where you expect, you can't really use your eyesight to find them.
  8. I don't have to deal with all the problems of using and potentially losing contacts.
  9. ...

For me, before I got laser surgery, I was once swimming in the ocean at a very big and popular beach. I was wearing contacts because obviously wearing glasses in the water is next to impossible. I got hit by a big wave, tossed around, and lost my contacts. Now I was almost completely blind, in a foreign country where I knew almost nobody, and trying to find my beach towel and bag among thousands of others. I actually can't remember how I resolved that problem, but I do remember the massive stress and panic being blind like that caused. When I got back from the trip, I got my eyes fixed within a year.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

but you didn't have any massive stress or panic thinking about the worms that burrow into your eyes after wearing contacts in the ocean?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

No, I was on vacation on Earth, not Proxima Centari 6.

[-] [email protected] 83 points 2 days ago

Not necessarily useful to you any longer, but you can utilize a pinhole lens for situations like that. You can even use your hands/fingers to make the lens. You’ll look fucking ridiculous, but I doubt it’s bother you too much when it’s that or being blind.

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[-] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

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.

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[-] [email protected] 59 points 1 day ago

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] 29 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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:

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah, the vision during the procedure was not an issue at all. The smell of burnt eye as the laser works away was a bit off putting though. I can attest that burnt eye smells a lot similar to burnt hair.

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[-] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

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 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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

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[-] [email protected] 43 points 1 day ago

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] 32 points 1 day ago

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.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

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 1 day ago

essentially blond

Lasik changed your hair?

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this post was submitted on 05 Jun 2025
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