About our Laser

Several things could affect your LASIK procedure:

Your vision and the amount of correction you can realistically expect.
The experience and expertise of the eye surgeon.
The technology of the laser eye surgery system that will be used.

The first two factors may seem clear but the third may come as some surprise. That is certainly understandable since most people are not aware that different laser systems with different features are available. Technology matters because it can impact the accuracy with which your cornea is reshaped.

That's why it is important that you consider the laser vision correction equipment that will be used for your procedure. The technical attributes of laser eye surgery equipment that you should discuss with your doctor are:

tracking capabilities, and
the kind of laser beam
corneal mapping capabilities

The Laser Center for Vision uses the the

excimer laser system. It has two important advantages: the size of the laser beam and a patented eye tracking device. Click on the following links for more information about the LADARVision laser system.

The Importance of the Tracker

The eye tracker is a device that helps direct the laser beam onto your cornea in the correct spot. With the LADARVision® tracker, your eye is followed every second of the procedure, in fact, it's tracked 4,000 times per second. The challenge in laser vision correction is that eyes are never perfectly still. Your eyes can move a hundred times a second without you even being aware of it. Therefore it is important that an eye tracker be fast enough to keep up with eye movements. Although you will need to watch a blinking light for the duration of the procedure, the tracker takes some of that burden off of you, since it compensates for those eye movements you cannot control. Because of the use of the LADARVision® tracker, you can be confident that the laser beam is being applied to precisely the right spot, and that your cornea is being reshaped, with accuracy.

Some laser systems have no trackers at all. Other trackers may not be fast enough to compensate for involuntary eye movements.

Only one system, the LADARVision® 4000, has a laser radar tracker with demonstrated accuracy that has been approved by the FDA to improve the accuracy with which the laser reshapes your cornea.

The reason for this technological superiority in corneal shaping is the LADARVision® laser radar tracker, which measures eye movements 4,000 times a second.

Furthermore, the LADARVision® tracker utilizes closed loop technology, which compensates for eye movement through continuous, constant "feedback" on the location of the eye. In other words, the closed loop tracker not only tells the surgeon where the cornea is now, it also tells the surgeon where the cornea will be at the precise moment when the laser is applied. It may sound a bit technical, but it makes a significant difference in the accuracy with which the cornea is reshaped.

The Importance of the Flying Small-spot Beam

The second technological feature to look for in a laser system is the laser beam itself.

The goal of every laser vision correction procedure is to reshape the cornea as precisely as possible, in microscopic increments.

A painter's brush is a good analogy. The finer, more detailed the workmanship, the smaller the brush.

That's why the LADARVision® 4000 laser system employs a flying small-spot beam less than 1mm wide. That means corneal tissue is removed in very small or "subtle" increments.

The result - a fine, gradual reshaping of the cornea, which leaves the surface of the corrected area smooth.

Eye Tracking Capabilities

The Custom Cornea® System

Our Wavefront Device - the LADARWave® - detects, measures and displays the optical characteristics of an individual eye. It allows you to gain a better understanding of how to treat a patient's vision in a totally customized manner. The LADARWave® device creates the wavefront map that serves as a guide for a patient's treatment and lays the groundwork for registration, an essential prerequisite of truly customized vision correction.

There are three steps to every CustomCornea® procedure; Capture, Match and Treat.

How CustomCornea® Works

Capture
In this first step, the LADARWave™ wavefront device is used to capture your eyes' unique combination of higher and lower aberrations. The device creates a wavefront map of each eye by shining an eye-safe beam of laser light into the eye and measuring the reflected light waves as they pass through your visual system and exit the eye.

Match
In this second stage, a wavefront map for each eye is input to the laser system, and converted to a guide for the laser. When both patient and doctor are ready for surgery to begin, the map is computer-matched with the eye's exact position so the treatment is extremely precise. Since each eye has its own unique wavefront map, treatment with CustomCornea® is truly customized.

Treat
In this third step, the cornea is precisely reshaped using the LADARVision® 4000 excimer laser, guided by the data from the wavefront map. The treatment is designed to correct your unique profile of both lower and higher order aberrations at the same time.