At Stahl Eye Care experts, we think it’s important that anyone who is considering laser vision correction understand what Wavefront technology is. As a pioneer in laser vision correction let us give you some history.
Better one or Better Two??
Anyone who has ever had and eye exam knows that one of the first things we do is check your vision behind an instrument called a phoropter. This is the instrument in which the doctor typically asks “better one or better two?” I don’t think I’ve ever met a patient who likes this. They’re always concerned that they answered incorrectly or they weren’t sure. When you’re using that prescription to give the patient glasses or contact lenses, if the patient makes a little mistake, it is unfortunate but it’s not horrible. However, when you’re taking that prescription and putting it into the laser to correct someone’s eyes, a little mistake is rather unfortunate. Yet this was the way laser vision correction was done approximately 20 years ago.
At the beginning of laser vision correction, we were essentially taking this same information that we used to give you an eyeglass/contact lens prescription, and putting that into the laser! Wavefront technology is a dramatic improvement over this. Although we still check the patient’s prescription in the standard way we now use a Wavefront analyzer to give us a very accurate reading of your prescription. What this machine basically does is shine a light into your eye and measure how the light is returned. The great news is it does not require the patient to say better one or better two. Simply put, it gives us a very objective reading of the eye.
How accurate are the Wavefront readings?
Most patients who wear contact lenses realize that contact lens prescriptions come in quarter diopter increments. A diopter is an optical measurement that quantifies your prescription. For example, if your contact lens prescription is -2.00 diopters, the next highest conventionally available contact lens is -2.25. If you think about it, however, its very unlikely that you are truly a -2.00 or a -2.25. More likely, your prescription is -2.165, but it doesn’t make sense for contact lens manufacturers to offer lenses that are this exact. The GREAT news is, however, when we are doing laser vision correction, the Wavefront analyzers give us the very specific measurement! We are not limited but 0.25 diopter increments. Rather, we can give you a very tailored prescription based on these very exact measurements. This is why its very common for us at Stahl Eye Care Experts to hear our patients say that after LASIK they are seeing better than they every did with glasses or contact lenses!
Are there newer generations of Wavefront technology?
One of the original Wavefront analyzers used for LASIK and PRK was known as CustomVue technology. At Stahl, we were one of the first practices in the country to embrace this technology to provide our patients with optimal results. This Wavefront technology analyzed over 200 points on the patient’s cornea to create customized treatments. This technology, when it was introduced, was 25 times more sensitive than using the phoropter.
In the last year, Abbott introduced an improvement over CustomVue known as iDesign! Instead of capturing 200 points like CustomVue, the iDesign captures over 1200 points to create a 3-D map of your individual imperfections in your cornea. With this kind of technology, many of our patients achieve 20/15 vision, an improvement over 20/20!!
At Stahl Eye Care experts, we are very proud to say that are dedicated to your achieving the best possible results. To get us to that point, our promise to you is that we will provide the outstanding technology and patient care that helps you achieve your greatest potential.
