THE WAVELIGHT LASER SYSTEM
The results of laser surgery are dependent on the experience of the surgeon and the quality of the equipment used. Our Laser Suite in the Peninsula Eye Hospital is shared with 15 other eye surgeons. This has allowed us to invest heavily in the most advanced laser equipment.
Wavelight is the fastest growing laser system both in Europe and the USA. We are constantly upgrading our equipment and are proud to have the most up-to-date laser system, the Wavelight EX-500.
What is Customized and Wavefront Optimized Treatment?
Older laser systems correct shortsightedness and astigmatism in the same way as spectacles and contact lenses. Technology now allows the measurement of Higher Order Aberration (HOA). These are additional irregularities of the corneal shape that cannot be measured with conventional glasses testing.
Higher Order Aberration is measured in two ways: Wavefront analysis looks at the way reflected light passes through the eye. Topographic imaging creates 3-D maps of the corneal shape. This allows your treatment to be customized if there is any irregularity of the corneal shape.
The most important aberration is spherical aberration, which is a mismatch between the curvature at the centre of the cornea and the curvature at the periphery. Older lasers tend to increase spherical aberration by flattening the centre of the cornea more than the peripheral cornea; this can affect the quality of vision and affect night vision. The Wavelight EX500 does a wavefront optimized ablation on all patients. This reduces spherical aberration and is believed to account for the superior results.
Can my eye move during the laser treatment?
The Wavelight EX500 is the fastest laser system currently available with treatment times typically being less than 10 seconds. The high-speed tracking system allows the laser to follow the eye position so that treatment is not affected by eye movement.
A new feature of the EX500 is the iris registration system which uses iris recognition technology to monitor rotation of the eye and changes in pupil size. This gives greater accuracy to the alignment of the laser and improves astigmatism corrections.
Image: Video from www.youtube.com/watch?v=4heqBbZueho