Too Old for Lasik?

I have successfully done LASEK on a man who was 84, all you need to know is you need punctual plugs, Restasis, and Lacrisert to prevent/treat your dry eyes in the postop period (for a few months), and also MonoVision so you won't need readers, afterwards, either!

You can technically have Lasik at any age although it is not the best option for quite a few reasons. Those over the age of 50 often require reading glasses after Lasik, and for this reason I often recommend MonoVision. In addition to Monovision, the real diamond standard for someone over the age of 50 is contact lens implants, preferably the ClearLens exchange. This will prevent you from needing cataract surgery down the road and will hit 2 birds with one stone when it comes to vision correction.

There is no age limit for LASIK. However, most of the time, we prefer Intraocular Lens Surgery for patients beyond the age of 60. On the other hand, we often times perform LASIK for refractive adjustments after performing Intraocular Lens Surgery. We have successfully performed LASIK on patients as old as 85-years-of-age.

Past the age of 40-50 patients lose the ability to accommodate. This means that after LASIK they may still require reading glasses for fine print. About half of these patients are candidates for LASIK with mono-vision, in which case no reading glasses are needed.  Past the age of about 70, patients sometimes develop cataracts in which case they are not a candidate for LASIK.

There is no set maximum age for refractive surgery--it just depends on the patient and the situation.  If cataracts are present, it is usually better to have those removed first.  In order to fine-tune the vision afterwards, refractive surgery is a great option!  Dry eyes may become more of a problem postoperatively, but that is usually transient.

As patients age other visual problems like cataracts and Macular degeneration may be higher priorities. However for healthy patients, LASIK may be suitable regardless of age.