LASIK technology has come a long way. Discover the little known facts about laser eye surgery you may not have known.

Did you know that LASIK has been available since 1990? And that since then millions of people—mostly from the US—have undergone the procedure?

Or did you know that before the invention of eyeglasses and refractive surgery nearsighted people simply had to squint (our word for nearsightedness actually comes from the Greek meaning to squint). Times have changed of course and now we have contact lenses and corrective solutions like LASIK.

But long before we had the ease and accessibility of LASIK, Jose Barraquer, an ophthalmologist in Bogota, Colombia, was working on his own solution for vision correction. Barraquer invented a device called a microkeratome, which could slice off a thin layer of the cornea. Then he would freeze the flap and shape it with an extremely accurate lathe. While this procedure may have paved the way for today’s more advanced techniques, LASIK is a much safer way to go. Modern LASIK procedures use an excimer laser, which employs ultraviolet light to vaporize tissue without affecting the area around it.

There are many interesting facts about LASIK that you may not know. Another interesting fact is that LASIK takes only a few minutes from start to finish. That’s because the excimer laser used in LASIK surgery removes thin layers of corneal tissue that are 1/200th thickness of a human hair and each slice is removed in about 12 billionths of a second. It’s literally faster than the blink of an eye (about 3/10ths to 4/10ths of a second).

And here’s one more fact you may not know. Commonwealth Eyes was the first practice in the Commonwealth to use the Technolas® 217z Excimer Laser, the best laser for LASIK available today. Technolas dynamically tracks all movement of the eye 100 times per second during the procedure, virtually eliminating concerns of suboptimal treatment due to misalignment. And what’s even more impressive is that the Technolas through Zyoptix software maps the unique wavefront of your eye, creating a true custom treatment pattern. We think that’s pretty awesome.

Learn more about LASIK and find out if you’re a candidate.