PRK - Long Term Safety over Lasik

After reading recent reviews of PRK surgery, it appears that several of the patients who undertook the process possibly should not have been advised to undertake corrective eye surgery. From my understanding, surgery should proceed where vision is significantly impacted (eg -4 or worse) and where alternative options, such as contact lenses and glasses are not viable. Level of eyesight must have been stable for several years and it should not be considered if you already have dry eyes, as the procedure will increase dry eye symptoms. Unfortunately it seems that where patients ask for corrective eye surgery, they will receive it, similarly to any commercial purchase. Those we assume will provide measured and safe recommendations advising or intervening where necessary, appear to perhaps not always fulfill their fiduciary duty to clients.

The recovery was longer than expected, given all of the hype around corrective eye surgery down-time, it took me 2 weeks at home, and 3-6 months with dimmed screens at work to recover. It's 2 years down the track now, and I'm thankful that I chose PRK over Lasik. My eyesight is 20/20, however, as with all corrective eye surgery, my peripheral vision is not as good as when I wore contact lenses and equal to that of wearing glasses. A side effect can be dry eyes, this impacted me for the first year after recovery, I used lubricating eye drops when necessary. At the end of my second year, I have found I only need lubricating eye drops during very hot days in Summer. I did a lot of research before choosing PRK and found that after preliminary recovery, which takes longer than Lasik, the benefits of PRK are significantly greater. With PRK your eye fully heals and subsequent knocks or injury will not impact your eyes differently to that of a pre-surgery state. With Lasik, your eye never fully heals, resulting in heightened vulnerability to knocks, with an elevated possibly of resulting blindness. I found it hard to get unbias recommendations from professionals in the industry, one young surgeon even suggested that 'we go out and party' in the city, should I visit the surgery and have Lasik! I've been advised by friends in the industry, that corrective eye surgery can be seen by providers as a 'cash cow' and that conflict of interest is a problem. My advice for those looking to have corrective eye surgery is to do your own research, consider long-term impacts and to be wary of conflict of interest in the industry. The PRK corrective eye surgery was 100% worth it for me and I am happy to recommend the procedure.