Laser Eye Surgery In Birmingham

For those who want to know some of the more technical details about the laser, here they are. Laser surgery changes the shape of your cornea to correct the focus of your eye using a high tech, precise excimer laser.

Read on to find out how LASIK & LASEK are done.

LASIK & LASEK are similar treatments which change the surface curvature of the cornea to correct the focus of the eye. Both are incredibly accurate, blade-free wavefront treatments done with an excimer laser & take about 10 minutes to change your life. The results are equally good but some people prefer or are better suited to one of the types of excimer laser treatments.
The main difference between LASIK & LASEK surgery is that LASEK takes a little longer to recover. If you want more details about each, then read on. But it’s best to come & see us & we’ll let you know if which treatment is best for your eyes.

LASIK is a blade-free laser eye surgery treatment & uses 2 different lasers. First, a femtosecond laser gently creates a layer of bubbles near the surface of your cornea (1). The femtosecond laser is so precise that each laser pulse lasts less than a billionth of a second. A thin flap is lifted (2). 

A second excimer laser gently & accurately reshapes your cornea (3). When the flap is closed the cornea has the right shape to correct the focus of your eye (4). 

LASIK is the best laser eye surgery procedure for a quick recovery. You can see the difference immediately & you can usually drive by the next day.

LASEK, also known as advanced surface treatment, is also a 2-stage laser eye surgery treatment using only the excimer laser. First, the surface skin (epithelial) layer of the central cornea is loosened (1).

Then the underlying surface is reshaped using the same excimer vision correction laser (2) & the epithelial layer heals back with the new shape &  focus.

The treatment is quick, but you recover slower than with LASIK surgery. It’s the best laser treatment for people with thin corneas & is also the best for some sports & occupations.

SMILE or LALEX is a newer treatment using the femtosecond laser only. Two layers of femtosecond laser treatment create a thin layer of tissue which is removed through an incision in the surface of the cornea to reshape the cornea & adjust the focus. The recovery is usually slightly slower than LASIK & quicker than LASEK. SMILE is slightly less accurate & is usually more expensive than LASIK. Also, SMILE is not licensed for hyperopia treatments.

At Laser Eye Surgery Birmingham your eyes will be treated with advanced technology to ensure that your laser eye surgery is as precise, safe & efficient as possible & so that you can achieve the best possible visual outcomes. We use the Schwind AMARIS 750RS excimer laser which is a fantastic laser because …

1.  It’s a fast laser, but not too fast.

The clue is in its name. 750RS means that it produces a 750 laser pulses a second. The Schwind AMARIS 750 takes about half the time to treat your eye as many other lasers. But the speed of the laser is like Goldilock’s porridge. It should not be too fast or too slow. It must be just right.

If the laser is too fast, it heats the cornea causing an unpredictable result. If the laser is too slow the cornea become dry which also causes an unpredictable result. The Schwind AMARIS is fast but uses an intelligent thermal control system which prevents overheating & results in reliable healing.

2. It’s a precise laser.

Our eyes are constantly making tiny, involuntary flickers of movement called saccades. Your eye can saccade horizontally, vertically, move forward & back, roll horizontally & vertically & rotate around a central axis. So, the laser must constantly adjust the direction of the laser pulses to compensate for saccades in all these directions. The laser can then precisely centre the pulse on the correct spot & give you the best result possible. The Schwind ARMARIS is the only laser that tracks (follows) your eye in all these dimensions to precisely correct your vision by compensating for all these movements.

The Schwind AMARIS has earned international awards because of these features.

So, the Schwind ARMARIS is a reliable, precise & gentle laser & you can rest assured that you will be treated with the highest level of precision & accuracy.

You are suitable if:

• You are 18 years or older
• Your glasses prescription is stable
• You want to reduce your dependence on glasses or contact lenses
• You don’t have any general health problems that affect your eyes.
• You don’t have another eye condition such as glaucoma or cataracts
• You’re not pregnant or breastfeeding
• You’ve had vision correction surgery before
• You have realistic expectations of what can be achieved with laser eye surgery & understand the risks

There are other considerations, so come for a full consultation to find out if you’re suitable for this life changing treatment.

The laser permanently changes the shape of your cornea & the effect doesn’t “wear off”. But the overall focus of the eye can change. The overall focus of the eye depends on 3 factors:

1. The shape of the cornea where the laser is done.
2. The length of your eye.   
3. The lens inside your eye. 

Once you & your eye have finished growing in length, the focus of your eyes should remain stable for many years. If you’re young & your eye grows a little more in length after you’ve had laser eye surgery, then the focus of your eye will change a little. A little more laser eye surgery can easily be done to correct the focus again. 

 Around middle age, the ageing lens in your eye may change focus slightly so the overall focus of the eye may change a little & has nothing to do with the laser eye surgery.  Once again the focus can be corrected with a little more laser eye surgery or multifocal intraocular lens implants may be a better long term solution. 

As we approach middle age & the lens inside our eyes ages, we develop a condition called presbyopia. People who wear contact lenses or who have never worn glasses start to need glasses to read & see their phones. Short sighted people take their glasses off to read or get varifocal glasses. And others need thicker & heavier glasses for driving & seeing their phones.

Presbyopia can be treated with multifocal intraocular lens surgery or monovision laser eye surgery.

Yes, Mark Wevill has had laser eye surgery himself & over 90% of eye surgeons who do refractive surgery (vision correction) have recommended it to or performed refractive surgery on their immediate family members. Refractive surgeons are five times more likely than the general public to have refractive surgery on their own eyes. Mark has recommended & done refractive surgery on fellow surgeons, optometrists, friends & family, including his sister & wife.

There is a very long list which includes Sir Elton John, Brad Pitt, Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Kim Kardashian, Richard Branson, Jessica Simpson, Nicole Kidman, Cindy Crawford & many others. Mark has treated some well-known personalities.

All surgical operations carry risks which you should carefully considered before having the treatment. Advances in laser eye surgery have resulted in even better results & lower risks than ever before. 

There are also risks with wearing glasses & contact lenses. No vision correction solution is risk free & you should consider the risks of each type of vision correction carefully before deciding which vision correction solution you want. 

 We’ll discuss the laser eye surgery risks in detail at your consultation. But here are some of the more severe & common laser eye surgery risks.

• A severe infection can cause corneal scarring. The risk of developing an infection with LASIK is lower than the risk of an infection from wearing contact lenses & is less than 1/1000.
• There’s a small chance that a few months later you may need more laser surgery to adjust the correction if it isn’t quite right, just like when you receive a new pair of glasses & they aren’t quite right & need adjusting. 
• All optical corrections cause some night vision disturbances which can affect driving at night. LASIK usually causes less night vision problems than glasses & contact lenses. And for some people especially those with higher prescriptions your vision can take longer to settle down. It’s called neuroadaptation & you can read more here.
• LASIK can cause short or occasionally long term dry eye symptoms but usually causes less symptoms than contact lenses.

At your consultation we’ll talk about whether you are suitable for & the risks of laser eye surgery in more detail to help you decide if you want to have laser eye surgery.

Vision correction laser eye surgery has been done for over 30 years, over 50 million procedures have been done & laser eye surgery is one of the best studied of all surgical operations. So laser eye surgery is not new & we know a lot about the short & long term effects & how to treat eyes well.

Most people treated at our Birmingham eye clinic are completely satisfied with their vision correction treatment & many have 20/20 vision or even better! 

When it comes to achieving crisp, clear vision, technology plays a significant role in revolutionizing the field of vision correction eye surgery. One such groundbreaking advancement is wavefront Laser Eye Surgery, a high tech procedure that has transformed the way we correct vision impairments.

Wavefront technology, also referred to as “wavefront aberrometry,” is a sophisticated diagnostic and treatment tool used in laser eye surgery. The human eye is unique, and it can be short sighted, far sighted and have astigmatism. These are known as lower order aberrations or focus errors that are responsible for most of the blur in your vision if you wear glasses. But your eye can also have subtle imperfections known as higher order aberrations such as spherical aberration which can lead to issues such as glare, halos, and difficulty seeing in low-light conditions. Wavefront aberrations aren’t corrected by your glasses or contact lenses.

Laser eye surgery, especially older lasers that can’t do wavefront treatments can increase these aberrations. The benefit of modern wavefront Laser Eye Surgery is better outcomes, sharper overall vision and better night vision compared to older, traditional laser eye surgeries.

Photographers and astronomers also use this technology to minimise blur and aberrations with special wavefront error, aberration reducing lenses to take crisp, clear photographs or see distant stars & planets more clearly.

And rest assured, here in Birmingham, all our LASIK & LASEK treatments are wavefront optimised treatments because we just don’t do dated, less effective laser eye surgery laser eye surgery treatments. So, the price you pay will be for wavefront LASIK or LASEK.

Wavefront Laser Eye Surgery has ushered in a new era of precision that can address both common refractive errors and subtle higher-order aberrations making it a game-changer for those seeking optimal vision quality for our most precious sense – sight.

Ensuring that the treatment is done safely & well is expensive (find out more on costs here). We have a highly skilled team & the advanced lasers we use for LASIK & LASEK surgery in Birmingham are extremely accurate & cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Yes, you can get laser eye surgery, such as LASIK or PRK, if you have astigmatism. These procedures can effectively treat astigmatism by reshaping the cornea to correct the irregular curvature that causes the condition. However, your suitability for laser eye surgery depends on the degree of your astigmatism and the overall health of your eyes. So have a consultation with an ophthalmologist or eye surgeon to see if you are a suitable candidate for the procedure and recommend the most appropriate treatment to correct your vision.

LASIK and LASEK are similar types of laser eye surgery which can effectively correct vision. LASIK involves creating a thin flap on the cornea, reshaping the underlying tissue with a laser, and then the flap is replaced. The recovery is quicker recovery with minimal discomfort.

No flap is created with LASEK. Instead, the epithelium, the thin superficial layer of the cornea is loosened. After reshaping the cornea with a laser, the epithelium is replaced. LASEK usually has a longer recovery period with more discomfort initially.

There are many factors which determine whether LASIK or LASEK are best for you. One of the important ones is corneal thickness. LASIK is great for people with average to thicker corneas. If you have a thin cornea LASEK may be the better vision correction solution for you. We’ll accurately measure your cornea at your consultation.

Both treatments have excellent results, and most people are suitable for both types of laser eye surgery. But some people are better suited to one or the other so consult an experienced laser eye surgeon to find out what is the best solution to correct your vision.

The effects of laser eye surgery, like LASIK or PRK, are usually long-lasting. Most people have improved vision for decades, and don’t need glasses or contact lenses. However, while laser eye surgery can reduce or eliminate the need for glasses, there is no guarantee that your vision will remain perfect for your entire life.

The cornea, the window on the outside of the eye where the laser eye surgery is done is permanently changed by the laser surgery to correct vision. But the overall focus of the eye can change because other structures inside the eye change which change the overall focus of the eye. Common changes are the age-related change in the internal lens, known as presbyopia, and cataracts. Presbyopia usually develops in your late 40’s and cataracts usually develop in our 70’s or 80’s. Laser surgery to correct focus doesn’t affect these ageing changes, so glasses or further surgery may be necessary in the future.

During a laser eye surgery consultation, your ophthalmologist will review your medical history and assess your current eye health. They will perform a comprehensive eye examination. High tech scans of your eyes, including measurements of your eye’s shape, corneal thickness, and refraction will be done. 

The doctor will discuss your vision goals, expectations, and any questions you may have. They’ll explain the various laser eye surgery options (e.g., LASIK, PRK, LASEK) and help determine your suitability for the procedure. You’ll discuss the likely outcomes and risks and by the end of the consultation you should be able to make an informed decision about whether laser eye surgery is right for you.

In brief: The treatment takes about 10 minutes, it’s painless, you’ll be in the clinic for a coupe of hours & you should see better within minutes. Click here if you want to know more.

The recovery time for LASIK and lens replacement surgery varies. LASIK typically has a quicker recovery, with most patients experiencing improved vision within 24-48 hours. Full recovery may take a few weeks as the cornea heals.

In contrast, lens replacement surgery also known as refractive lens exchange, has a slightly longer recovery period. Vision may improve within a few days, but complete healing and adjustment to the new intraocular lens can take several weeks to a few months. The specific timeline depends on individual factors, so it’s essential to follow your surgeon’s post-operative instructions for the best outcome in either case.

Choosing the best laser eye surgeon for vision correction is very important to get the best possible result for laser eye surgery. Start by reading patient reviews and watching video testimonials, which can provide valuable insights into their reputation. Then research their qualifications and experience. Look for surgeons who have additional vision correction qualifications and registrations. Mark Wevill has been awarded the fellowship of the World College of Refractive Surgery, the certificate of laser refractive surgery of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (PgCertLRS RCO) and the Postgraduate diploma in Refractive Surgery from the University of Ulster (PgDipCRS).  

At the consultation see if they are interested in hearing about your specific needs and concerns. Ask if they are skilled at using different techniques to correct vision. If they can only do one technique then it’s like only having a hammer. Every piece of wood must be nailed to the other even if there’s a better way to join the wood. 

Ask if advanced technology is used. Is the surgeon staying well informed about the latest advances in the field of refractive surgery? Is the surgeon transparent in discussing the potential risks and expected outcomes? And most importantly, trust your instincts and choose a surgeon who instils confidence and prioritises your well-being throughout the vision correction process.

LASIK & LASEK (or PRK) are types of laser refractive eye surgery that corrects vision problems like near-sightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), & astigmatism (rugby ball shaped eyes). During LASIK, a surgeon creates a thin flap or layer of tissue on the cornea’s surface, then reshapes the underlying tissue using an excimer laser to subtly change the curvature & correct the focus of the eye. The flap is then repositioned, & the vision improves quickly.

LASIK differs subtly from other laser eye surgeries like PRK & LASEK. In PRK & LASEK, the corneal epithelium (skin layer on the surface of the eye) is removed before reshaping the underlying tissue. Healing takes a little longer than LASIK.

PTK is like LASEK & PRK but is used to smooth out irregularities on the surface of the eye and improve vision with an excimer laser.

Other lasers are also use in eye surgery. These include the YAG laser which is used after lens replacement surgery. If a cloudy layer develops behind the lens it is gently removed with the YAG laser. People with diabetic eye conditions or tears in their retinas (the delicate layer at the back of the eye) can have Argon laser treatment to repair the problem.

SMILE (Small Incision Lenticule Extraction) is a new procedure which is specific to the Zeiss company laser. Other laser companies have their own names for the same procedure. To try to reduce confusion, surgeons have named the procedure KLEx (Keratorefractive Lenticule Extraction), pronounced Kay-Lex irrespective of whichever laser is used.

The two procedures are similar and achieve similar results. The difference between KLEX / SMILE and LASIK is mainly that KLEX / SMILE creates 2 layers of tiny bubbles under the surface of the cornea and a small incision. The thin layer of tissue between the bubble layers (lenticule) is removed through the incision to reshape the cornea. LASIK, on the other hand, involves creating a single layer of bubbles in the cornea and the overlying layer is lifted as a flap. Another laser reshape the underlying cornea.

Both are precise and recovery is quick. LASIK is better for some prescriptions, more precise and visual recovery may be a little quicker. KLEX / SMILE may be slightly better for dry eyes and for contact sports. And it’s even more important to keep very still during KLEX than during LASIK.

Choosing between them depends on individual factors and preferences and should be done in discussion with your eye surgeon.