Less than 1% of lasik patients develop complications post surgery , but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t exercise caution before opting for it. Here’s what you need to know.

• Go with realistic expectations. While most people achieve somewhere between 20/20 and 20/40 vision without corrective lenses, you may still need glasses for reading or driving at night. People who are treated for far sightedness will probably need glasses or surgery again in about 10 years, as the eye continues to change with age. And lasik surgery won’t prevent the need for reading glasses caused by presbyopia – the inability to focus up close that occurs as we get older.
• Make sure this is your decision. Don’t be influenced by glib promises in ads or others who have had the procedure.
• Consider doing one eye at a time. Some complications don’t show up for a week.
• Get a second opinion before going through with the surgery. And request all records, including corneal thickness measurements and a standard test known as topography, prior to having lasik done.

Ask your doctor about these risk factors

• Patients with large pupils may experience symptoms such as glare, hollows, star bursts, and double vision following surgery.
• Patients with thick corneas do better than patients with thin corneas, which limit how much cornea can be removed. Most refractive procedures change the eye’s focusing power by reshaping the cornea.
• The amount of correction is important. Low corrections (-2 to –3) are more likely to get good results than higher ones (-9 or -10).
• Patients with dry eyes prior to surgery may be poor candidates.
• A presurgical exam should detect keratoconus, the weakening and thinning of the cornea that’s usually accompanied by an increasing amount of astigmatism that can’t be corrected by glasses and requires wearing hard contact lenses.

Also read: Potential Patient for LASIK Surgery, Advantages and Disadvantages of LASIK, and Recover From and Side Effects of LASIK Surgery.