EYE SURGERY / LASER PACKAGES
Health Vacations Inc. can offer: Cataract: package A - 1500$; package B - 4300$ Lasik: package A -1100$; package B - 2800$ What Is a Cataract? A cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye. The lens is a clear oval structure with three layers: the nucleus, the cortex, and the capsule. It may help to think of the lens structure as a peach, where the nucleus is the peach pit, the cortex is the flesh of the peach surrounding the pit, and the capsule is the peach skin, or elastic covering of the lens. You have a cataract when the nucleus becomes opaque (that is, it is no longer clear) or when small opacities develop in the cortex that block or scatter ligh What Are the Different Types of Cataract? There are three types of cataracts that affect different parts of the lens, have different symptoms and cause different vision problems. • Nuclear cataract is the most common type of cataract, and is related to the aging process. The nucleus gradually hardens and becomes opaque, causing difficulty identifying colors and seeing at a distance. • Cortical cataract is the next most common type, often affecting people who have diabetes. Wedge-shaped opacities develop in the cortex, interfering with the passage of light. This can result in problems with glare and loss of contrast, as well as difficulty with distance and near vision. - Subcapsular cataract develops under the back of the capsule or elastic covering of the lens and is common in people with diabetes or high myopia, adults with retinitis pigmentosa, and in people taking cortisone. This type of cataract can cause glare sensitivity and blur. Symptoms: In the early stages, only a doctor can detect a cataract because there may not be any symptoms. When you do start to notice changes in vision, they may include: • blurry distance vision, especially outdoors; • streaks or rays of light seeming to come from headlights and stop lights; • instinctively shading your eyes from the sun or feeling more comfortable wearing a visor; • print appearing faded and lacking in contrast; • colors appearing faded or changed in hue. Blue may appear to be green and yellow may look white. Because these may also be symptoms of other eye conditions, it is important to see your eye doctor annually, or whenever you notice a persistent change in vision. Diagnosis: To detect a cataract, an eye care professional examines the lens. A comprehensive eye examination usually includes: -Visual acuity test This eye test, which measures how well you see at various distances, has two components. It measures accurate vision without correction, as well as best corrected vision confirmed by refraction. -Pupil dilation The pupil is widened with eye drops to allow your eye care professional to see more of the lens and retina and look for other eye problems. -Tonometry This is a standard test to measure fluid pressure inside the eye. Increased pressure may be a sign of glaucoma. One type of the test uses a purple light to measure pressure. Another type, known as the "air puff" test, measures the resistance of the eye to a puff of air. Your eye care professional may also do other tests to learn more about the structure and health of your eye. Risk Factors: Although we do not yet know what causes cataracts, studies have identified the following risk factors: • Aging • Long-term exposure to sunlight • Cigarette smoking • High cholesterol/triglycerides • Diabetes • Certain eye conditions - cataract is often associated with myopia, retinitis pigmentosa, and retinopathy of prematurity • Cortisone medication taken orally for a long time • Eye injury What You Can Do to Reduce Risk: Currently, there is no proven way to prevent the development of cataracts other than controlling medical conditions that may be the cause. Antioxidants like beta carotene and vitamins C and E have been identified as reducing the risk of developing cataracts and slowing their progression. Wearing UV-protected sunglasses to reduce exposure to ultraviolet light can also reduce risk. Treatment: Cataracts are treated with surgery. Surgery can often be postponed until the cataract begins to seriously affect your ability to function. Often in the early stages of a cataract you can get the help you need from a new distance prescription eyeglass, stronger reading glasses, better lighting or specialized optical devices such as magnifiers or telescopes. Continue to see your eye doctor regularly to evaluate how the cataract is progressing. When glasses or magnifiers no longer help, or when you develop cataracts in both eyes, surgery is the only option. There is no medicine or other treatment that can dissolve or remove cataracts. Cataract surgery is an outpatient procedure performed by an ophthalmologist. The process involves removing the lens and replacing it with a plastic lens implant. There are two types of surgery: extra capsular extraction and phacoemulsification. The extra capsular method has been the standard for over a decade, but with advancing technology in surgical equipment and intraocular lens implants for both methods, phacoemulsification has gradually become the procedure of choice in the majority of cases. Phacoemulsification does not usually require stitches, has a shorter recovery period, and is suitable for most individuals. Your doctor will decide which is best for your eye based on the condition of your lens, the history of previous eye surgery, and the ability of the pupil to dilate. The visual outcome is the same for both methods. In general, both types of surgery require local anesthesia and the dilation of the pupil to ensure that the lens is exposed as widely as possible. Since you will be awake during surgery, you can tell the doctor if you are experiencing any discomfort. Usually you will be able to go home in a few hours, but you must bring a family member or friend to accompany you home. After surgery, you will need some time to recover, generally a few days to a few weeks. Your eyes will be examined the next day, and the doctor will give you eye drops to prevent infection and reduce inflammation. You may need to wear an eye shield at night and/or sunglasses when out of doors. If you take medication for other conditions, be sure to discuss this with your doctor, both before and after surgery. Also discuss resuming physical activity and any plans involving air travel. Both before and after surgery it is important to discuss any concerns or worries you have. Do not hesitate to ask questions. What is myopia? Myopia, known more commonly as “nearsightedness”, is a disorder in which the refractive power of the eye’s optical media (i.e., the cornea and lens) is too strong relative to the length of the eyeball. Because of this, the image is focused in front of the retina rather than on it, resulting in a blurred image. There are two types of myopia: 1. Refractive myopia, which results when the optical media refract light too powerfully 2. Axial myopia wherein the eyeball is too long for eye’s high refractive power.
Myopia affects a large percentage of the North American population (approximately 25%) and appears to be affected by both genetic and environmental variables. It runs in families; children with myopic parents tend to have elongated eyeballs, and identical twins are more similar than are fraternal twins. But it also occurs more frequently in groups of people that are educated (i.e., people who do a lot of reading) or do other types of near work. For example, the prevalence of myopia is as high as 70% among Asian children who experience heavy schoolwork demands.
Animals deprived of form perception also tend to develop overly long eyeballs. Together, the research findings suggest that there is a genetically programmed feedback mechanism that is affected by environmental stimuli. They also highlight the importance of early visual experience in the normal development of the eyeball. Individuals with severe myopia are also at higher risk for retinal detachment relative to the general population. How does myopia affect vision? In contrast to the normally emmetropic eye, the myope's eye brings light into focus in front of the retina (pictured right). Because it is optically powerful, the myope’s eye can bring nearby objects to focus; more distant ones, however, are blurred. By bringing more distant objects closer, the focal plane is moved back toward the retina, image blur is reduced. The distance at which stimuli can be brought to focus on the retina is termed the far point (i.e., the farthest distance at which clear vision can be obtained). Treatment
Myopia can be treated with corrective lenses, and more recently, by refractive surgery. To correct myopia optically, the eye care professional (optometrist or ophthalmologist) determines the strength of diverging (convex) lenses needed to move the focal plane back to the retina. Clinically, this type of lens is termed a negative sphere lens. The strength of the lenses (measured in diopters) depends on each eye’s the far point; an eye with a far point at 10 cm would need a –10.0 diopter negative sphere (1/0.10 m) and an eye with a far point at 100 cm (= 1m) would need a negative sphere corrective lens of only a –1.0 D (1.0/1.0 m). Myopia can also be treated surgically by flattening the cornea to reduce its optical power. Several different procedures have been developed in recent years. These include: 1. Radial Keratotomy (RK) in which four to eight cuts are made in the cornea to reduce its refractive power. Caution has to be used with this procedure, as many people will experience over- or under-correction of vision, and for some the myopia may return. 2. Photorefractive Keratotomy (PRK) wherein the epithelium (outer layer) of the cornea is removed and an excimer laser is used to reduce the curvature of the cornea. 3. Laser Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) in which a hinged “flap” is lifted back from the outermost layer of the cornea and an excimer laser is used to reshape the underlying cornea. The flap is then put back in place. By lifting and returning this outer corneal flap, visual symptoms are minimized and recovery is more rapid. LASIK: LASIK has become one of the most popular elective procedures in the world. Over 5 million people have undergone LASIK in North America over the last 15 years! People are choosing LASIK to free themselves from glasses and contacts and regain an active lifestyle. LASIK is a form of corrective eye surgery in which a surgeon creates a thin flap of corneal tissue with a precise flap-making instrument, called a keratome. This flap is raised and laid back while still attached to the cornea. The surgeon then uses a state-of-the-art excimer laser to remove a pre-determined amount of corneal tissue from the exposed bed of the cornea. The amount of tissue to be removed is calculated based on the pre-operative determination of the power of your eye. These measurements are usually in agreement with recent prescriptions for your glasses and/or contact lenses. The flap is replaced and within minutes natural forces hold the flap down on the cornea. Within a few hours, the surface layer of the cornea (epithelium) begins to grow over the cut edge of the flap to seal it into position. Within days, collagen bonds form within the cornea around the edge of the flap, permanently sealing it. LASIK can be used to correct nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism. Astigmatism: What is a stigmatism?" is a question that optometrists hear every day, but actually it's spelled "astigmatism." Astigmatism is the most common vision problem, but most people don't know what it is. It may accompany nearsightedness or farsightedness. Usually it is caused by an irregularly shaped cornea (called corneal astigmatism). But sometimes it is the result of an irregularly shaped lens, which is located behind the cornea; this is called lenticular astigmatism. Either kind of astigmatism can usually be corrected with eyeglasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery. Astigmatism Symptoms and Signs: If you have only a small amount of astigmatism, you may not notice it or have just slightly blurred vision. But sometimes uncorrected astigmatism can give you headaches or eyestrain, and distort or blur your vision at all distances. What Causes Astigmatism? Astigmatism occurs when the cornea is shaped more like an oblong football than a spherical baseball, which is the normal shape. In most astigmatic eyes, the oblong or oval shape causes light rays to focus on two points in the back of your eye, rather than on just one. This is because, like a football, an astigmatic cornea has a steeper curve and a flatter one. In regular astigmatism, the meridians in which the two different curves lie are located 180 degrees apart. In irregular astigmatism, the two meridians may be located at something other than 180 degrees apart; or there are more than two meridians. Regular astigmatism is usually easy to correct (see treatments below), but irregular astigmatism can be complicated and more difficult to correct, depending on the extent of the irregularity and its cause. Usually astigmatism is hereditary: many people are born with an oblong cornea, and the resulting vision problem may get worse over time. But astigmatism may also result from an eye injury that has caused scarring on the cornea, from certain types of eye surgery, or from keratoconus, a disease that causes a gradual thinning of the cornea. Astigmatism Treatment: Unless it is extreme, astigmatism can be compensated for satisfactorily with eyeglasses or contact lenses. If your eyeglass or contact lens prescription contains three parts rather than one, your eyecare practitioner has found some astigmatism in one or both of your eyes. A prescription with three parts looks like this: -2.75 -1.25 x 90. - The first part indicates your main spherical correction, meaning the amount of power (in diopters) required in a lens to sharpen your visual acuity to an acceptable level, usually 20/20. In this example, the person has myopia and requires a negative (concave) lens to correct it. - Part two shows the extent of the astigmatism in diopters. Again, the minus sign means a concave lens is needed. - Part three is the axis (in degrees) of the cylinder required to bend certain light rays to compensate for the cornea's oval shape. Many people with astigmatism believe that they can't wear contact lenses, or that only rigid contact lenses (RGPs, also called GP lenses) can correct astigmatism. |
