I have crappy eyesight. Terrible, in fact. Lasik surgery could change this.
However, I also enjoy boxing and other combative sports. You know, ones where you get punched. In the face.
Anyway, I’ve done a bit of research, and haven’t been able to find too much on Lasik oriented sites about eye-sensitivity increasing after surgery.
But… on a few mixed-martial art type sites, some have said that doctors have told them that Lasik surgery will increase the sensitivity of their eyes. The problem being that, if they get the surgery, and then repeatedly get punched in the face, they might go blind.
Blindness is something I wouldn’t exactly be comfortable with.
Anyhow, my question is this- is there any evidence of increased sensitivity of the eyes after Lasik surgery? Any cases wherein people have lost vision due to trauma to the face-area post surgery, etc? I’d appreciate such info greatly.
Its possible to go blind just from being repeatedly punched in the face. I don’t suppose the actual risk is much more. Its a matter of risk vs. reward. In this case, you probably shouldn’t be getting punched in the face that much.
When the perform LASIK, they correct your vision by re-shaping the front of your eye. They do this by cutting and burning, which removes a small portion of the eyeball structure. This leaves the front of your eye physically slightly thinner.
This means you are slightly more likely to have your eyeball rupture if it is impacted. This, of course, is catastrophic vision-wise.
So… if you are more likely than average to get whacked in the eye region you may want to consider this side-effect carefully before proceeding with LASIK.
The older form of vision correction, RK, also weakens the eyeball as well.
Is this a common side effect? No… fortunately… but it is a possible consequence. Please consider carefully before proceeding.
if you’re strongly myopic, you’d best avoid face hits. Nearsigtedness involves the eye growing too much and getting thin. This makes the eye more fragile. The retina will tear more easily, which is a bad thing.
i got lasik done a little over a year ago. i was -4.00 in each eye. the only side effects i’ve really noticed are a slight night blindness and dry eyes. really dry eyes. i still wake up in the middle of the night to put in refresher eye drops.
i don’t know exactly what the side effects would be for being hit in the face constantly, but i do know that you would have to give up boxing for a couple of weeks. about a week or two after the surgery you’re not allowed to touch your eyes or even really get your face wet because of the flaps they cut in your cornea. i still have the occasional visit to the doctor’s to make sure they’re in place.
your best bet is to actually talk to a doctor that performs the surgery to see how this could possibly effect you or if you even qualify for the surgery. i do know that your vision has had to be stable for at least a year and you have to have a certain thickness to your cornea
Well, I don’t actually get punched in the face too much, as I do all I can to avoid it, what with the blocking and the ducking and the slipping, bobbing, and weaving. It seems I’m going to have to choose one or the other. But, probably the best thing for me to do is talk to my doctor. Thanks for the replies and information. I shall become as well informed as I can from medical professionals and then carefully, carefully consider.
I don’t have the cite handy, but at one point, the US military considered LASIK a disqualifier for service. The concern was that the corneal flap could be dislodged in combat, effectively blinding the person. They’ve since realized that after approximately 2 seconds post-op, the flap’s really not going anywhere.
For pilots, LASIK is a whole different can of worms. Restrictions vary from company to company, but in general, a commercial pilot that’s had LASIK becomes unhireable.
As for getting hit in the face, that’s just not good for you with or without having had LASIK.
I had LASIK done a year ago, and recall having to go one month without getting into hot tubs or swimming. This was an infection concern, rather than a flap-dislodging worry.
I’ve not heard of any issues of increased chances of eyeball rupture related to LASIK.
A site that promotes itself as “The Definitive Source in LASIK Information” is The LASIK Institute
I’ve never heard of a significant chance of the front of the eye rupturing after LASIK, although I can see that flap detachment, though unlikely, is probably still a risk.
When people talk about “increased sensitivity” after LASIK, they’re usually talking about sensitivity to light - mostly caused by light scattering from a poorly healed flap.
Really? I am not disbelieving you, I just never heard this before. In terms of myopic people, the lens is actually too strong, so if anything it should be thicker than thinner, though I believe what generally happens is the eyeball gets longer, so the image focuses short (ie in front) of your retina.
There may perhaps be a condition where the eye (which part?) gets thin, but I have never ever heard this in relation to myopia.
The only thing that I know myopics have to watch out for is glaucoma. There is no known causal link as such, but you are more statistically likely to develop glaucoma if you have medium-severe myopia.
Extreme myopia can lead to retina tears. It’s not the lens, but the cornea’s ratio to the eyeball. It’s the ratio of the cornea to the length of the eyeball (distance from the cornea to the lens, and the refracting distance from the lens to the retina) that determines your vision. If the distance from the lens to the retina is too long, the focus will be in front of the lens: myopia.
Years ago I complained of strange designs I would sometimes see at the bottom of my vision. My opthalmologist had just examined my retina and said that he found no defect, but did say that people who are extremely myopia tend to get retina tears. He rechecked and found nothing amiss.
Actually, the armed forces recently decided that cadets could have LASIK surgery to correct myopia and then become flight certified. In The surgery is all the rage at the military academies now.
With flight, there were basically two issues. First, the FAA has long required that you be grounded a minimum of 6 months after any form of eye surgery to make sure your vision has stabilized and there are no disqualifying side effects and presumably the military has similar concerns. Second, those who have had either LASIK or RK can undergo vision changes under extreme barometric pressure changes. This is not something that would be encountered under normal living conditions, but military pilots may, in the course of their duties, be exposed to extremely low pressures. So could civilian pilots in a depressurization episode. Seaborne Beck Weathers, who had had refractive eye surgery, did in fact experience significant vision changes while climbing Everest, a fact documented in both Into Thin Air and the book (whose title escapes me at the moment) that Beck wrote himself about his exeperiences.
Unless you’re a pilot operating at high altitudes, or a mountain climber, this is not likely to be a worry.
As for commercial pilot hiring rules - this varies enormously with the employer. United Airlines, for instace, will not hire anyone whose uncorrected vision is less than 20/20 at time of hire (if it gets worse afterward that’s a different story). Southwest, I have been told, is only concerned that your corrected vision is 20/20 and will hire post-LASIK. In general, the airlines have the strictist rules - other forms of commercial flying will hire post-LASIK, one-eyed pilots, and so forth that meet minimum FAA requirements.
I have. It’s a rare side effect. Traumatic eye ruptures can occur even to normal, healthy eyes, of course - this is just a matter of slightly increasing your chances of something that very rarely occurs anyway. The greater the amount of correction you require, the more of a problem this may be. If you’re only slightly myopic there is much less removed from the cornea than if you are in the -5 to -7 diopter range.
On the issue of serious complications of myopia itself - it is true that those with myopia are statistically more likely to develop glaucoma than those with normal vision or hyperopia, but the risk does depends on the severity of myopia. If you’re -1 or -2 diopters it’s nothing to worry about. If you’re -8 or -10 it starts to be of more concern and you really must get glaucoma screening on a regular basis. Likewise, yes, myopics are more likely to have retinal tears, both from trauma and spontaneously, than other folks, but again, it’s dependent on just how myopic you are. -2 or so - not much different from average. -8, your risk is definitely increasing.
Since most myopics are only slightly myopic these increased risks are very small. Which is why a lot of folks haven’t heard about them. In general, it’s not something to keep you awake at night unless you’re in an extreme situation.
This isn’t science, but I had a couple of drinks with an eye doctor the other day. She said that she will not do vision correction surgery for people who play … I can never spell this … raquetball. It seems many men are too macho to use eye gear and even getting bopped in a normal eye is a mess.
“You actively participate in contact sports. You participate in boxing, wrestling, martial arts or other activities in which blows to the face and eyes are a normal occurrence.”
barbitu8 - at my gym, there are clearly posted signs (including one with a graphic picture of a maimed eyeball) about eyegear, and clearly posted signs about wearing shower shoes. The people at my gym are naughty, and do not seem to follow these rules all the time. I, myself, have stayed in the steam room way past the legal time limit!
Incidentally, the whole converstation started because we were reading the paper looking for a band, and came across an entire page of lasiks ads.As you can guess, she takes a dim view of doctors who advertise.
barbitu8 - at my gym, there are clearly posted signs (including one with a graphic picture of a maimed eyeball) about eyegear, and clearly posted signs about wearing shower shoes. The people at my gym are naughty, and do not seem to follow these rules all the time. I, myself, have stayed in the steam room way past the legal time limit!
Incidentally, the whole converstation started because we were reading the paper looking for a band, and came across an entire page of lasiks ads.As you can guess, she takes a dim view of doctors who advertise.
I had lasik about 2 1/2 years ago and the only thing I have noticed is that I am slightly more sensitive to sunlight but my night vision has actually improved. I’ve heard that a fairly common side effect of lasik is dryness of the eyes but I haven’t been bothered with that at all.
I was severly myopic and my doctor told me that even after surgery I still have near-sighted eyes which are more subject to detached retina from blows to the head than normal eyes. As has already been mentioned the only thing that changes is the surface of the eyeball.