Some Choosing Eye Braces Over Laser Eye Surgery

Are you tired of wearing glasses but too afraid to have laser eye surgery? Eye braces may be just the thing you’ve been waiting for.

A long time ago, back in the 1960′s, two California doctors when getting feedback from their patients who wore contact lenses, kept hearing the same type of story over and over again. Many times their patients would leave their home, drive to work and then halfway through the day notice that they were not wearing their contact lenses. And they were seeing perfectly well. It appeared that the constant wearing of the contact caused a gradual reshaping of their cornea, improving their ability to see. This chance discovery eventually led to experimentations and studies on shaping the eyes using contact lenses.

Corrective eye braces or CRT (Corneal Refractive Therapy) lenses as they are formally known, are hard contact lenses that act much like a retainer or braces do on your teeth. You put them on at night just before you go to bed. During the night, while you sleep, they reshape the cornea of your eye. When you wake up in the morning, your blurred vision is gone. You can see the pictures on your wall, the buttons on your clothes, and the alarm clock on your dresser. You have 20/20 vision.

Unlike laser eye surgery, the changes are not permanent. The changes to the cornea will last only a day on some people. On others, it has lasted up to a week.

So who are the most likely candidates for these eye braces?

Young teenagers for one. Many good eye surgeons will not operate on a teenager or a person under 18 or 21 because the body, including the eyes. may still be growing and changing. At those ages, they doctor may legitimately determine that the risk is not worth it and rule out corrective eye surgery altogether. In this case, eye braces, may be a good alternative.

The eyes are one of our most important senses and many people are leery of making any type of permanent change to them. Add to that the growing number of malpractice lawsuits involving refractive surgery, and some people, especially those already wary of surgical operations, begin to look for alternative ways of improving their vision. For them, eye braces are a good compromise between permanent contact lenses and laser eye surgery.

Those looking for a bargain will also like eye braces. The cost of CRT lenses is much less than the cost of laser eye surgery.

The news is not all good, however. The braces have to be hard, in order to reshape the cornea. This can make them uncomfortable to wear. And although most people will get used to them, some find they can’t adjust.

Also, although relatively infrequent, the wearing of contact lenses, does increase the risk of microbial infections of the eye.

And thirdly, there have been no long term studies of the effect of wearing eye braces on a nightly basis for an extended period of time.

So if you want CRT lenses how do you get them? You can’t just go into an eye doctor’s office and order them. A CRT lens has to be prescribed by a doctor who has been certified in CRT lenses.

Laser Eye Surgery Orange County- Choosing a Good Practice

Laser eye surgery Orange County has witnessed increasing popularity together with rising demand in recent years. As the technology involved has seen more efficient ways of carrying out the procedures, costs of the surgery have also dropped, rendering it much more affordable to a larger number of people. These same individuals who might benefit from the operation would have baulked at the prices in the past, but now they embrace it as a very practical way of improving their eyesight without having to burn a hole in their pockets.With the natural rise of affluence in Orange County, it has resulted in numerous medical clinics and facilities that specialize in laser eye surgery. They cater to the demand in the region and it would be an understatement to say that Orange County residents are spoilt for choices when it comes to choosing which laser eye surgery clinic to have their vision correction done in. The ready supply of laser eye surgeons and services have also meant that the various practices have engaged in competition in order to get as many patients as they can afford to care for. This has resulted in very competitive prices offered to potential customers.Cheaper laser eye surgery rates are a bonus to patients, but it can also make choosing the best, or most suitable, surgeon, a more difficult task. When it comes to medical services, it is not necessarily a good strategy to opt for cheaper clinics and surgeons. Many of these practices might be lowering their rates to make up for the low number of clients they have, due to their relative lack of experience compared to other established surgeons. There are also many clinics that provide a wider range of laser eye surgeries such as custom Lasik and PRK, and as a result of overhead, might charge higher prices for their advanced procedures. Therefore, you should never allow price to be an overriding factor in your decision of choosing a laser eye surgeon to perform the operation on you.Another important area to analyze would be the track record and success rate of the surgeons that you shortlist during your search. It might be instinctive to go for a laser eye surgeon who has achieved fame through the media and is the recommended name on many people’s lips. However, you should look deeper into his experience and track record, and compare it across other surgeons’ credentials. It might be surprising to find out that a surgeon who might be well known could have done that through one extremely successful operation on someone famous or important, but his or her overall track record might still pale in comparison to other surgeons with lower profiles. At the end of the day, your eyes are your priority, and not the massaging of someone else’s ego. Thus, always do a proper check on a few possible laser eye surgeons, and choose the one with the best success rate and a proven track record.There are many other details which can be used to select the best laser eye surgery practice in Orange County for your needs, but the above two points mentioned are definitely crucial in making the right decision. As it concerns your eyes, one of the most important parts of your body, it justifies more time and care taken to make it.