The Finest Technology
In the most caring hands
Established in 1985, Brandon Eye Associates and Hearing Center puts today’s finest technology in the most caring hands.
It’s why every day, more people like you come and see some of the regions most respected eye surgeons, performing the most advanced proven Refractive surgery, including LASIK, PRK, LRI and Clear Lens Exchange. Typically a 15 minute procedure, and probably the best 15 minute investment you’ll ever make.
Types of Refractive surgery
Lasik remains the most commonly known form of Refractive surgery, however, at Brandon Eye Associates we provide a complete approach to helping patients find the right solution for their vision needs. While our surgeons perform all types of refractive surgery, including; LASIK, PRK, LRI, and Clear Lens Exchange, the first step is a full medical examination. During this examination your doctor will assess the overall health of your eyes and discuss the best option(s) for your vision needs.
In LASIK, Laser-In-Situ Keratomileusis, the Excimer Laser is utilized for correcting vision. Our surgeon uses a microkeratome to create a corneal flap. The cool laser beam then gently reshapes the cornea, and the flap is closed. LASIK is an extremely effective outpatient procedure that is suitable not only for higher prescriptions but also patients with moderate to low prescriptions. The procedure itself takes only a few minutes to complete and involves minimal discomfort.
In PRK, Photorefractive Keratectomy, the Excimer Laser is also utilized for reshaping the cornea, but prior to the procedure some of the surface cells of the cornea, called the corneal epithelium, are removed. Some patients, due to individual variations in the eye's anatomy, may be better candidates for the PRK eye surgery procedure. These patients typically have a longer recovery time and may need pain medication for a few days.
Ultimately, patients have the same success with Photorefractive Keratectomy, as they do with LASIK.
With both PRK and LASIK, the greater your prescription, the longer your procedure takes. Even the most severe prescriptions require only about one minute of laser time and utilize only a topical anesthetic in the form of eye drops.
Although no procedure is perfect, Excimer Laser Technology allows for an unparalleled degree of precision and predictability. This makes laser vision correction, in our opinion, the best procedure available for suitable candidates. Each pulse of the laser can remove 39-millionths of an inch of tissue in 12-billionths of a second. This enables surgeons to achieve remarkable accuracy while maintaining excellent control throughout the procedure.
A LRI, Limbal Relaxing Incision, is performed by making tiny incisions at the edge of the cornea called the corneal limbus. By adjusting the length, depth, and location of these incisions, our surgeon can induce changes in the cornea. The effect of this procedure is to alleviate the
corneal astigmatism while keeping the average corneal power untouched. This procedure, while often used in combination with cataract or clear lens exchange procedures, can be performed by itself as a means to correct vision in patients with corneal astigmatism.
With the advancements made in intraocular lens technology, a fairly new form of refractive surgery has started to gain in popularity. The clear lens exchange is an outpatient procedure where the eye’s natural lens is removed and an artificial lens is implanted. The advanced intraocular lens implanted is designed to correct for a full range of vision, including reading. This is an added benefit that other refractive surgeries cannot offer. Aging of the eye’s natural lens eventually leads to presbyopia ( loss of accommodation).
This means the eye’s natural lens loses the capability to focus on up close objects. Patients must resort to reading glasses and/or bifocals in order to see clearly up close. With clear lens exchange the intraocular lens implant is permanent which means a lifetime of clear vision.
What is macular degeneration (AMD)?
Macular degeneration is the slow deterioration of the cells in the macula, which affects your central vision, the vision you use for reading, writing, driving, and identifying faces. In some people, AMD advances so slowly that it will have little effect on their vision as they age. But in others, the disease progresses faster and may lead to a loss of vision in one or both eyes.
What is the macula?
The macula-about the size of a pencil eraser-is a tiny, yellowish area near the centre of the retina that allows you to clearly distinguish fine detail.
Common symptoms of AMD include:
Normally straight objects appear bent or wavy. A dark, bland or blurry spot appears in the centre of your vision. When you cover one eye, the object you're looking at changes size or color.
There are two kinds, the dry type and the wet type: 90 percent of people have the dry type, in which small, yellow spots called drusen form underneath the macula. Scientists are still not sure what causes dry AMD. Studies suggest that an area of the retina becomes diseased, leading to the slow breakdown of the light-sensing cells in the macula and a gradual loss of central vision. Dry macular degeneration can progress to the second, more severe type called wet macular degeneration.
Although only 10 percent of all people with AMD have the wet type, it accounts for 90 percent of all blindness from the disease. As dry AMD worsens, new blood vessels may begin to grow and cause "wet" AMD. These new blood vessels tend to be very fragile, and they often leak blood and fluid under the macula, which further deteriorates the macula, causing rapid and severe vision loss.