Life’s milestones – college graduation, a new job, wedding, a significant birthday, parenthood – often leave us reflecting about our goals and thinking about achieving our best selves. It’s also a good time for considering LASIK eye surgery.
Getting married? You want to look and feel your best. Or if you are embarking on a new travel adventure, you want to be unencumbered to be open to every new experience. Are you one of the millions of people who manage your eyesight every day with glasses and contacts to correct your vision for your daily lifestyle? If so, you’re likely to think about LASIK or another laser vision correction procedure as you approach one of these life’s milestones.
But are life’s milestones the best time for considering LASIK eye surgery? For people dealing with nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism –blurry vision – this is an important question. They know that LASIK, which uses laser technology to reshape the cornea, offers a permanent way to improve their vision. Prescription eye glasses or contact lenses, however, only temporarily bring life into focus by putting another lens in front of or in the eye.
“LASIK helps remove the layer of glasses and contacts between you, your life and the world around you. This is why a lot of people consider LASIK when approaching a milestone in their life,” said Dr. Greg Parkhurst, FACS, member of the American Refractive Surgery Council (ARSC). “These are the times a person is more open to making major changes and having LASIK, and the improved quality of life excellent vision provides, can make the next phase in their life even more appealing.”
The following life events are a good time for people to re-evaluate their vision correction and perhaps consider LASIK eye surgery by researching the procedure and scheduling a consultation to determine if you’re a good candidate.
Life Milestone: College Graduation
For most young people, graduating from college is a major life achievement. They’re on the threshold of the adult world. Many look forward to career, relationships and travel. They are now free and independent. They can make their own decisions. It’s the perfect occasion to think about discarding the glasses or contacts they’ve worn up until this point and consider having LASIK. Often parents will pay for their son or daughter’s LASIK surgery as a reward for their academic achievements. Provided the graduate is a good candidate for laser vision correction and it’s good for their lifestyle, it makes for a terrific gift.
Life Milestone: Career
For some careers, excellent vision is a matter of life and death. This is particularly true for military personnel, emergency responders or law enforcement. Their jobs are to keep others safe. They can’t afford to have their vision correction impair their performance. For commercial pilots, they have specific vision requirements to maintain their license to fly. Professional athletes too rely heavily on vision to provide a competitive edge in hand-eye coordination, reaction time and play strategy. And, professional photographers and cameramen depend on their vision’s ability to capture the moment through the lens, which is made that much more difficult when you rely on a lens to see well in the first place.
Young adults often feel a lot of pressure as they make their way into the working world and adjust to the demands and responsibilities of a full-time job. Dealing with the challenges of wearing corrective lenses can add to their stress. Glasses can become dislodged, fall off and even break. Contacts fall out and get lost at the worst possible times. While not all careers require excellent vision as a requirement, having it helps people perform at the top of their abilities with less to worry about. The reality is that whatever career people choose, considering LASIK eye surgery can help make their professional life much easier to navigate.
Life Milestone: Wedding
Weddings are a very special life milestone. The couple not only wants to look their best; but they want to see every moment so their memories last a lifetime. Everything from the happiness on the faces of their loved ones, to the wedding outfits, flowers and decorations. That’s hard to do when they have to constantly worry about eyeglasses or contacts getting in the way or their vision becoming blurry. Considering LASIK eye surgery before the big day can help people create the vision they want, not just one for day but for many years to come.
Life Milestone: Parenting
As anyone with kids who relies on corrective lenses knows, parenting while wearing glasses or contacts can add to the stress and drama created when you decide to create a family. The hassles of poor vision become that much more real with babies and young kids grab, smear, scratch or break their glasses or getting poked in the eye, dislodging contacts. And what busy parent hasn’t skipped cleaning or fallen asleep in their contacts? The truth is that taking care of young kids is much easier when parents can see well without relying on glasses and contact lenses. The great vision with LASIK means parents can keep their focus where it belongs; on their kids.
Life Milestone: Travel
Traveling and seeing the world is something most people want to experience. And they want to be 100 percent focused on their adventure; seeing the sites, hiking, camping and exploring. They want their vision to be able to take in everything – vivid colors, stunning scenery, landmark buildings, people and animals. But wearing corrective lenses can spoil their enjoyment. It is challenging to take that perfect shot when wearing glasses, for instance, especially if the camera has a small screen or viewfinder. Sand, dust or water can get on contacts, resulting in blurry vision. Considering LASIK eye surgery can give people their visual freedom and open up the world in new and exciting ways.
If you are approaching life milestones then LASIK eye surgery is something you need to give some serious thought.
This post originally appeared on American Refractive Surgery Council.
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