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This may be a long read and may even be a little controversial, as I know a lot of people have strong, polarizing views on this topic. Nevertheless, I hope this thread doesn’t get canned, or if not canned, maybe just moved to the war room. Anyway, here goes …
I had been flirting with the idea of having laser eye surgery for a long time. I even made two threads about this issue here:
In 2013:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/can-you-train-your-eyes-to-get-better.2407947/#post-80493475
In 2019:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/lasik-anyone-had-this.4019869/#post-155340415
Anyway, I decided to do more research on it, I went to a couple of local ophthalmologists to have an eye check and a chat about their opinions on this surgery and then, I went to a clinic that does LASIK for a consultation.
All of these places did a very thorough examination of my eyes. I have mild myopia and a slight astigmatism. My cornea thickness was also in the healthy range and I had zero signs of glaucoma or cataracts or any of that nasty stuff. In short, my eyes were pretty healthy and I was a “good candidate” for LASIK.
However, I couldn’t help but have a niggling feeling that it just didn’t add up. A lot of the statistics of “95% satisfaction rate”, “a less than 1% rate of complications” just seemed off to me. I study statistics and I have a masters degree, I just know when shit seems off.
I searched for “cases gone wrong” on the internet and I discovered a huge rabbit hole here. Entire forums full of people complaining about haloes, starbursts, non-stop pain, dry eyes, having to use eye drops four times a day, blurry vision, double vision, ghosting. There are whole websites dedicated to it:
https://lasikcomplications.com/
Moreover, there are entire videos of people on YouTube describing their lives post-surgery and their regrets, depression, shame, suicidal thoughts, and it is absolutely heartbreaking…
Sure, some patients may have gained 20/20 vision, but issues like their “contrast sensitivity” and “crispness of vision” was weaker than before the surgery … thousands, tens of thousands of people suffering from these symptoms … this rabbit hole goes so deep …
Moreover, apparently, Dr Morris Waxler of the FDA approved of LASIK in the late 90s, but he is now working to try and get it banned:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...isory-urges-agency-BAN-LASIK-eye-surgery.html
Many people have suffered from depression, as this procedure is irreversible. Some people have even committed suicide, shortly after documenting complications of their refractive surgery. According to Dr Waxler, the true statistical rate of complications is actually 30-50%.
A lot of what constitutes a “successful” surgery is the results, immediately after the procedure, however, a lot of the complications can take months or even years to manifest.
Even after reading all of this, I was still kind of considering it, as anecdotally, you always hear non-stop positivity about this procedure and people often saying cliched things like “It’s the best decision of my life”, “My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner!”, “I can see better than 20/20” etc.
The kicker for me, was truly finding out what these doctors actually do to the corneal tissue of your eye. These lasers literally destroy stromal tissue underneath the outer, epithelial layer or your cornea and they basically carve a lens shape into your cornea, removing significant amounts of stromal tissue (which doesn’t grow back!).
From my eye examinations, I found that my corneal thickness was about 540 microns and the healthy range of the average human is about 530-560 microns thick … Corneas below 500 microns are considered thin … well, after LASIK, the cornea thickness can be as thin as 300 microns. Moreover, in the LASiK industry, a lot of doctors say that surgeons should never go as low as 250 microns, as this is “considered dangerous” … however, after doing research, I found that this number “250 microns” is completely f**king ARBITRARY and has no scientific basis. Surely, I would imagine it would surely depend on individual patient factors and the standard “250 microns” would not apply to all people … and, to think some people get this done 2 or 3 times … I can’t imagine what state their eyes are in …
The reason why this increased corneal thinness is a bad idea is because when corneas become too thin, their structural integrity becomes compromised … almost like a bridge that is too thin in the middle … the shape of the cornea, over time can become weak and start to warp in shape, causing nasty diseases like keratakonus (sp?) and ecstasia … even, if initially, you may think the surgery was a success, it could take years of natural wear and tear for these problems to appear.
Moreover, human eyes naturally change shape with age and environmental factors, so what is considered your corrective prescription today, is not always going to stay like that. THUS, despite assuming all of this risk of complications (as described above), it’s not even a permanent solution to myopia. FSMH.
I don’t mean to scare anyone and I am not trying to offend anyone or give medical advice to anyone here. But, just giving the reasons why I, personally, didn’t go through with it and I encourage everyone to do their own research if they are undergoing elective surgery like this.
I also feel the marketing for LASIK is almost predatory, preying on people’s insecurities and low self-esteem for wearing glasses.
A lot of people have no idea of the long term risks involved and what these doctors actually do to the corneal tissue of your eyes. The Hippocratic oath states “First do no harm”. Personally, I feel like I dodged a bullet here.
I had been flirting with the idea of having laser eye surgery for a long time. I even made two threads about this issue here:
In 2013:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/can-you-train-your-eyes-to-get-better.2407947/#post-80493475
In 2019:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/lasik-anyone-had-this.4019869/#post-155340415
Anyway, I decided to do more research on it, I went to a couple of local ophthalmologists to have an eye check and a chat about their opinions on this surgery and then, I went to a clinic that does LASIK for a consultation.
All of these places did a very thorough examination of my eyes. I have mild myopia and a slight astigmatism. My cornea thickness was also in the healthy range and I had zero signs of glaucoma or cataracts or any of that nasty stuff. In short, my eyes were pretty healthy and I was a “good candidate” for LASIK.
However, I couldn’t help but have a niggling feeling that it just didn’t add up. A lot of the statistics of “95% satisfaction rate”, “a less than 1% rate of complications” just seemed off to me. I study statistics and I have a masters degree, I just know when shit seems off.
I searched for “cases gone wrong” on the internet and I discovered a huge rabbit hole here. Entire forums full of people complaining about haloes, starbursts, non-stop pain, dry eyes, having to use eye drops four times a day, blurry vision, double vision, ghosting. There are whole websites dedicated to it:
https://lasikcomplications.com/
Moreover, there are entire videos of people on YouTube describing their lives post-surgery and their regrets, depression, shame, suicidal thoughts, and it is absolutely heartbreaking…
Sure, some patients may have gained 20/20 vision, but issues like their “contrast sensitivity” and “crispness of vision” was weaker than before the surgery … thousands, tens of thousands of people suffering from these symptoms … this rabbit hole goes so deep …
Moreover, apparently, Dr Morris Waxler of the FDA approved of LASIK in the late 90s, but he is now working to try and get it banned:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...isory-urges-agency-BAN-LASIK-eye-surgery.html
Many people have suffered from depression, as this procedure is irreversible. Some people have even committed suicide, shortly after documenting complications of their refractive surgery. According to Dr Waxler, the true statistical rate of complications is actually 30-50%.
A lot of what constitutes a “successful” surgery is the results, immediately after the procedure, however, a lot of the complications can take months or even years to manifest.
Even after reading all of this, I was still kind of considering it, as anecdotally, you always hear non-stop positivity about this procedure and people often saying cliched things like “It’s the best decision of my life”, “My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner!”, “I can see better than 20/20” etc.
The kicker for me, was truly finding out what these doctors actually do to the corneal tissue of your eye. These lasers literally destroy stromal tissue underneath the outer, epithelial layer or your cornea and they basically carve a lens shape into your cornea, removing significant amounts of stromal tissue (which doesn’t grow back!).
From my eye examinations, I found that my corneal thickness was about 540 microns and the healthy range of the average human is about 530-560 microns thick … Corneas below 500 microns are considered thin … well, after LASIK, the cornea thickness can be as thin as 300 microns. Moreover, in the LASiK industry, a lot of doctors say that surgeons should never go as low as 250 microns, as this is “considered dangerous” … however, after doing research, I found that this number “250 microns” is completely f**king ARBITRARY and has no scientific basis. Surely, I would imagine it would surely depend on individual patient factors and the standard “250 microns” would not apply to all people … and, to think some people get this done 2 or 3 times … I can’t imagine what state their eyes are in …
The reason why this increased corneal thinness is a bad idea is because when corneas become too thin, their structural integrity becomes compromised … almost like a bridge that is too thin in the middle … the shape of the cornea, over time can become weak and start to warp in shape, causing nasty diseases like keratakonus (sp?) and ecstasia … even, if initially, you may think the surgery was a success, it could take years of natural wear and tear for these problems to appear.
Moreover, human eyes naturally change shape with age and environmental factors, so what is considered your corrective prescription today, is not always going to stay like that. THUS, despite assuming all of this risk of complications (as described above), it’s not even a permanent solution to myopia. FSMH.
I don’t mean to scare anyone and I am not trying to offend anyone or give medical advice to anyone here. But, just giving the reasons why I, personally, didn’t go through with it and I encourage everyone to do their own research if they are undergoing elective surgery like this.
I also feel the marketing for LASIK is almost predatory, preying on people’s insecurities and low self-esteem for wearing glasses.
A lot of people have no idea of the long term risks involved and what these doctors actually do to the corneal tissue of your eyes. The Hippocratic oath states “First do no harm”. Personally, I feel like I dodged a bullet here.
