Jon Dishler, MD

We are often asked about how long LASIK will last, and there is no absolute answer.  In the fifteen years we have been performing this procedure it is permanent for most patients.  A small percentage of patients will have some decrease in the effect over many years, but in most cases the remaining vision is still very good and although it may be noticed by the patient, objectively almost all of the effect of the LASIK remains.

The most important factors are that the vision is stable to start with.  At age 24 a person usually has a fully mature eyeball and thus the vision is unlikely to change, but it is certainly possible that the natural amount of correction could still increase for the next few years.  Therefore the question that we would ask in response is whether there has been any change in the prescription for the last few years.

Sometimes patients also have a corneal structure which is not as strong as it should be and LASIK can weaken this structure even further, resulting in a loss of effect of the procedure and in rare cases the vision being made worse than it was to start with.  We look at scans of the eyes carefully and avoid doing LASIK in these particular cases.  It is sometimes difficult to pick out the cases where the LASIK may not be as effective or as permanent, and as such it is possible to have LASIK and still have regression of the result.

For most patients, LASIK creates a permanent change in the shape of the eye.  Until advancing age requires reading glasses, or other problems such as cataracts occur, the results from LASIK are very long lasting.  In the unusual case where there is a change in the vision most of the time a "touch up" or "enhancement" can be performed to further improve the results.