Corrective eye surgery for myopia?

Ive heard that if your vision is extremely bad they wont perform the surgery because you face a huge risk of losing your vision. I want to know until when someone is still eligible for surgery. I have very advanced myopia right now im at -7.00 and im considering corrective surgery but i want to wait until im 21 and im currently 19. I guess im afraid that by the time i am 21 it might be to late.

Before my PRK, I was a moderate myope at -7.75 and -8. I wasn't eligible for the LASIK surgery because of thinner corneas. It isn't the fact that doctors won't perform the surgery unless you're risking losing your vision...that actually would be an arguement against performing it.

Generally, surgeons would like to wait until you have stopped growing (hence the 18-21 age limit), have a stable refraction (stable glasses or contacts prescription for at least 2-3 years), and have no other ocular problems like cataracts, glaucoma, and corneal conditions.

Waiting until you're 21 is a good idea...just to make sure your correction doesn't change for the next couple of years. It won't be too late unless you have another ocular problem that is affecting your vision, in which case correction surgery probably would not be a good option.

The only way to tell if you are even a candidate is to have a consultation. Check with your optometrist and see if he/she can give you names when you are ready...then research! The surgeons can answer questions specific to YOUR eyes after a thorough dilated eye exam, corneal mapping, and refraction.

You do have a higher than average degree of myopia, but most doctors would not consider it excessively so (they see patients with -14.00 prescriptions!). You could be a candidate for laser surgery, but there are several factors that would be checked into.

**Stable prescription: The doctor would want to ensure you haven't had significant prescription change for a couple of years. Eyes can still change when young, so that's why some doctors reccommend waiting til you're a couple years out of your teens.

**Corneal thickness: Since the process of LASIK involves cutting a flap of cornea, lifting it, and reshaping with laser the corneal area underneath the flap, your doctor can do an easy measurement called pachymetry (pack-chem-a-tree) to determine your cornea's thickness. People who have thin corneas may consider PRK (which is laser without the flap). PRK results end up about the same as LASIK, but it takes longer to get those results, and it is a more uncomfortable post-op recovery.

It is never too late to have laser surgery. The advantage to waiting is that there may even be an improved version at that time. Just over the last few years, CUSTOM LASIK has been made available.

I had LASIK five years ago, with a -5.50 prescription. So far, doing great!