The biggest advancement in laser vision correction surgery is the creation of blade-free technology by Intralase. In the past, a flap in the cornea was created using a metal blade as the first step of LASIK. Blade-free lasik does not use a metal blade. Instead, tiny pulses of laser light are painlessly passed into your cornea to a very precise depth and position. At this location, a small bubble about one ten-thousandth at inch in diameter is created. The laser rapidly scans across the cornea creating thousands of these bubbles in a layer designed by your surgeon.
IntraLase refers to the exciting new technology used to preform blade-free LASIK, or intraLASIK. A femtosecond laser is used to create a corneal flap at a pre-programmed depth and position from the inside-out. First the eye is fixated with a low-pressure soft suction ring. This prevents the patient from moving the eye in an unpredictable manner. Then the laser separates the corneal tissue at the predetermined depth forming bubbles of water and carbon dioxide at that plane. In less than half a minute, the laser has created enough bubbles to create a smooth surface that will become the interface between the flap and the corneal bed. Just prior to applying laser vision correction, the doctor creates your corneal flap by gently separating the tissue where these bubbles have formed. The surgeon is able to use the layer of bubbles to gently separate a cornea flap along the natural divisions that already exist in the cornea. The corneal flap is then folded back so the doctor can complete your LASIK treatment.
The 3-micron laser spot size is able to create a customized flap with pinpoint accuracy. The amazing accuracy of this device has allowed many individual who did not qualify for LASIK to now become successful LASIK pateints! IntraLase achieves this all without altering the corneal curvature nor damaging any surrounding tissue.
With IntraLase, the risk of a flap complication such as corneal abrasion, thin flap, thick flap, partial flap, incorrect diameter, or buttonhole flap becomes much less than that of a traditional microkeratome. Additionally, the flap is shaped differently from a microkeratome flap. Unlike the one-dimension flap of a microkeratome, IntraLase creates a flap of uniform thickness with veritical edges. This "manhole cover" architecture helps prevent additional complications such as flap slippage or wrinkling if accidentally rubbed or bumped when healing after surgery. IntraLase can be used to treat almost any prescription with a greater degree of accuracy and safety.
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