Age Limit for Lasik?

There is no age limit, but a healthy eye is best. Those over 40 need to discuss age related changes such as presbyopia. Reading glasses may be needed.

In general the way I counsel my patients is that you get the most bang for your buck between 18 and 35, if you're a good candidate for LASIK/PRK.  Once you hit 40, your reading vision begins to change and I thoroughly discuss your visual goals.  Do you want pristine distance vision? Have you ever tried monovision with contact lenses? Once you're over 50, I actually counsel against LASIK/PRK unless it's in conjunction with cataract surgery.  The advances we've made in refractive cataract surgery rival LASIK/PRK. Everybody develops a cataract, which is simply a continuously growing lens.  Typically, in the western world people become symptomatic of a cataract somewhere between 60 and 80 years old.  Prior LASIK/PRK can make optimizing your cataract surgical outcomes challenging.  If you had LASIK at 54, your lens would continue to change and the benefit you got from the procedure would be short-lived.  With the newer lens implants we have available to us, your vision may be more versatile after cataract surgery; LASIK/PRK is only needed to correct any residual astigmatism afterwards in some cases.

I've done LASIK on patients as old as 84. You should get monovision if you're over 50 or you'll need reading glasses afterwards.

There is no formal age limit for LASIK. If your vision is correctable with glasses or contact lenses to 20/15 or 20/20 levels AND you don't have even early signs of a cataract then LASIK is a reasonable option. If, however, you have an early cataract, even if the vision is still 20/20, I would encourage you to not have a laser vision procedure and instead wait for cataract surgery. If you have LASIK before having cataract surgery it is notorious for making our future cataract surgery calculations less precise and predictable. The other reason for choosing cataract surgery instead of LASIK is that with our new premium cataract surgery lenses (accommodating and multifocal lenses) we can restore your ability to focus in the distance, intermediate and at near without needing glasses ... with LASIK we can only give you one of those distances and you would need to wear glasses for the others (this only applies to older patients who have presbyopia).

If you have stable, healthy vision and are interested in reducing your dependence on glasses for distance vision then LASIK is an excellent option for you.  Many of my patients are in their 50s when they have LASIK and are very happy with their decision.  

Our eyes do change as we age, of course, and so laser vision treatments also change. Younger patients will find that laser vision surgery may eliminate the need for glasses all together. Patients in their 40s and older, however, will discover they still need readers after surgery unless they have monovision or near vision surgery. Monovision corrects one eye for distance and one eye for near.  The brain adapts and believes that it is seeing both distances with both eyes.  Before deciding if monovision is a good choice for you, speak with your surgeon about your options.

Whether laser vision correction is appropriate for you or not depends less on your age and more on what your desired outcome is.  Schedule a consult with a local surgeon to find our what choices are available for you.

The youngest person I have performed LASIK on is 18 and the oldest is 84! The two things that matter most when determining the proper age for LASIK are whether the eyes are stable(almost certain if you are over age 25) and whether the expectations are appropriate. A patient aged 18-35 does not even need to consider the effect the procedure will have on their reading correction...it will have no effect. After age 40, the patient must be made aware that there will still be some need for reading glasses, though by using a process called blended vision(see my website to learn more about this) the need for readers can be drastically reduced. I had Laser Vision Correction (LVC) at age 38 and I am now 54. I have blended vision in my eyes, and, to this day, only wear over the counter reading glasses(+1.50) about 20-30 minutes a day,  and, many days, do not wear them at all! So, it is not so much the age of the patient, but discussing their occupation, hobbies, sports and expectations. All the more reason to develop a good rapport with your surgeon.