LASIK — See How Good Your Life Can Be
If you’re one of the 140 million Americans who are afflicted with a refractive disorder such as being nearsighted, farsighted or having astigmatism, LASIK surgery may offer the vision you want without the constraints of glasses or contacts. With more than 20 years of experience and thousands of refractive surgeries performed, no one in Iowa is more qualified to provide LASIK surgery than the physicians at Wolfe Eye Clinic. Serving communities throughout Iowa, including Ames, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, Fort Dodge, Marshalltown, Waterloo and West Des Moines, our local physicians continue to combine their experience with advanced technology to provide you the best sight possible.
There are a variety of important factors to consider when deciding on a refractive surgeon. Experience and training should be two of the most important considerations. For years, the physicians at Wolfe Eye Clinic have been leaders in LASIK laser vision correction. In fact, our physicians have been leaders in the development of laser vision correction and were the first to bring this technology to Iowa. They have been performing refractive surgery since 1984. Our physicians have been published in medical journals and textbooks and have helped educate many other physicians in the field of laser vision correction. And, many of our physicians have special fellowship training. Wolfe Eye Clinic has a long history of advancing eye care in Iowa and has continued in this tradition with refractive surgery.
LASIK Surgery
LASIK surgery is a procedure designed to reduce or eliminate the need for glasses or contacts. An excimer laser gently reshapes the cornea with computer-controlled precision to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. At the beginning of the procedure, the patient is given a mild sedative and the eye is anesthetized with eye drops. LASIK surgery is then performed in two steps.
Step 1 — IntraLase® Precision
Creation of the corneal flap: Wolfe Eye Clinic surgeons perform the first step through the use of IntraLase technology. In this method, a very precise, thin flap of tissue, about a few human hairs thick on the front surface of the cornea, is created using a laser instead of the metal blade used in other LASIK procedures. By eliminating the metal blade, surgeons are able to virtually eliminate potential corneal flap complications. The use of IntraLase technology to create the corneal flap provides a safer, more accurate procedure for our patients. With IntraLase, your doctor can create a corneal flap of exact specification. Such accuracy and precision are nearly impossible with the traditional hand-held metal blade method. Wolfe Eye Clinic introduced IntraLase to Iowa in 2002 and is still Iowa’s premier IntraLase provider.
Step 2 — The Excimer Laser
The second step in LASIK surgery is the actual reshaping of the cornea. This is achieved through the use of an excimer laser. The excimer laser is a “cold laser” that does not burn or cut tissue. Instead, it gently breaks molecular bonds between cells so that controlled amounts of tissue can be vaporized away one microscopic layer at a time. The process gently reshapes the cornea, resulting in a corneal curvature much like that of a contact lens, correcting the underlying refractive error. Typically, the actual laser treatment takes less than two minutes per eye. Most patients experience dramatic improvement in vision within hours or even minutes.
