Wavefront Lasik | Adaptive Optics Make Wavefront Lasik Surgery Possible

Adaptive Optics Make Wavefront Lasik Surgery Possible

Wavefront technology is derived from adaptive optics, something originally conceived to account for errors in telescope imagery. This has provided huge scope for the improvement of current LASIK procedures meaning that the LASIK business is growing and changing at a fast pace. Demonstrating this is the fact that in 1997 there were 190,000 national treatments while in 2000 there were 1.5 million treatments.

Wavefronts are groups of waves which travel together through space with their combined surface being the front. In terms of telescopes, when these wavefronts pass through the atmosphere and also through telescope lenses the wavefront surfaces can become slightly misaligned, resulting in a distorted image at the destination. This runs parallel to the problem with human eyes, as when wavefronts pass through a cornea with irregularities, the surface alters and results in a distorted final image.  This is the basic origin of wavefront lasik surgery.

This is where adaptive optics comes in. The technology was designed to compensate for distortion of telescope imagery but has since been adapted by those in the optical sciences in order to provide greater ability to correct minor corneal surface aberrations.  Flat wavefronts are sent into the eye, and reflections from this are monitored closely which enables a map of the eye’s surface to be developed in minute detail. This technological advance has also allowed for human eyes to potentially be corrected beyond their natural state, enhancing vision to “superhuman” levels. This is called 20/10 vision.

Adaptive optics allows far superior LASIK treatments due to the level of detail each individual eye can be mapped to. This allows the programmable laser to provide far superior correction to the cornea. While 20/10 vision is currently unachievable, it is predicted that by 2010 it will be a fully realised feature of LASIK treatments.  Read more about Wavefront LASIK.

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