What Is Wavefront Technology In Lasik?

Lasik surgery has greatly improved the vision of millions of people worldwide. It has turned the visually impaired into sighted people who are capable of seeing their children again and contributing to the family's income by working. Two items that millions thought they would never be able to do again.

However, Lasik eye surgery has not been sitting on its laurels. Far from it, Lasik surgery techniques are being improved all the time. One such improvement is Wavefront Technology. Wavefront Technology with relation to Lasik eye surgery is used to more accurately map the patient's eyeball, which makes more accurate surgery feasible.

This is of great importance because eyeballs are not all the same shape. They are like hands, superficially they all look the same, but once you get down to detail, they are not. There are all shapes sizes and dimensions. The same goes for eyes.

The more precise the map of the eye, the more opportunity that the surgeon has of giving you the best eyesight they can, in relation to the specific issues that you have in your particular case. Wavefront Technology assists the surgeon achieve this.

Wavefront Technology is actually a technology that has been adapted from astronomy. in astronomical telescopes it is crucial that the lenses are as flawless as possible, because at high magnification, even the very slightest impairment would lead to colossal distortions, which in turn would render the telescope practically useless.

Astronomers were using this technology in the 1970's, so it was already quite advanced when some bright spark noticed that it could be modified for use in eye surgery too. Wavefront Technology was born and taken on board by Lasik and other eye surgeons with great expectations.

In fact, the bright spark who noticed the potential value of this piece of astronomical technology was a German physician called Josef Bille who started using it in his practice.

He gradually improved and adapted the sensors and announced it to the Lasik manufacturers in 1997. This in turn allowed the manufacturers of Lasik equipment to adapt Wavefront Technology to their own apparatus.

Wavefront Technology is extremely complicated in design and technology but also highly simple to comprehend. The Wavefront machine sends a flat sheet of light (called a wavefront) through the eye to the retina, which reflects it back to the Wavefront device.

The Wavefront machine compares the two, measures the imperfections, decides what has to be done to right them and guides the laser to the right spot in order to accomplish the corrections. As simple as that!

However, the geniuses who created and modified Wavefront Technology did not stop there. They have their machine send in multiple wavefronts from multiple angles so that the computer can build up a three dimensional picture for even more accuracy.

There are now well over 60 patterns that can be automatically corrected by a Lasik laser guided by Wavefront Technology. So, if you have any concerns with long or short sightedness, make an appointment to see your Lasik surgeon as soon as possible.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several subjects, but is now involved with macular degeneration glasses. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Macular Degenerative Disease