It’s safe to say, that if you happen to be in the crowd that wears glasses, most of us receive our first pair of glasses in our preteen years. Blame it on all the reading you had to do for English Lit, or from staring at your phone too much. Some even blame it on your parent’s genes. But one thing remains the same, once we get a eyeglass prescription, we start to think about how we can get rid of it!
Although glasses and contacts may be exciting for some, you’re likely reading this because some part of you wants to get rid of those unwanted frames or lenses once and for all.
“Laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis” or more commonly known as LASIK is a popular, vision correction surgery used to treat near-sightedness, far-sightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia.
While “surgery” sounds like a daunting experience, LASIK is the mostly commonly performed vision correction procedure in the world. The best part (besides LASIK being relatively pain-free) is that you will be in and out of surgical suite in about 10 minutes.
As you do your own research, you might start to wonder, “What is the right age to undergo LASIK?” To put it simply, there isn’t a fixed “best age” to undergo the procedure.
The FDA has approved LASIK procedure for patients 18 and above. If you are ready to start young adulthood with perfect vision, you’ve got the green light.
Even though being an 18 years or older, your eligibility to undergo LASIK surgery does not depend solely on age, but rather on your visual growth (eye stability).
Each individual has a unique set of eyes. Men usually experience stability in visual growth around 18 -19 years, a little later than women, who experience it around 17 – 18 years. It is repoted that 90% of people achieve visual growth stability by the age of 18.
Depending on our lifestyle, however, some of us might experience our eyes continue to change and develop even in our mid 20’s.
For those of us in our mid 20’s who spend our days indoors studying for big exams, all that reading could delay our eyes to stabilize completely and we experience high progression in our eyes. We could notice slight increases in our prescriptions as our eyes continue to change and stabilize.
We all know that exercise heals the mind and body. The same is true for viusal growth. A little sunshine goes a long way toward the health and visual growth of our eyes, especially during youth and young adulthood. So having a more active lifestyle and spending time outdoors continues to prove beneficial for our body, our mind and our eyes .
Are you ready to say goodbye to those little red dents on your nose?
Your next step forward is to schedule a consultation right away. The first thing you should do when thinking about LASIK is to visit your eye doctor and find out if you are a good candidate to undergo a vision correction procedure.