What If I Have Prescription Remaining After ICL?

So what happens if I end up off target after ICL? Nothing in life is perfect, ICL included. However, ICL comes pretty close. But if you do end up in the camp of having some residual prescription, all is not lost.

With lasik and PRK, we have the capability to do an enhancement by simply doing another treatment. In PRK, we do an enhancement by just simply doing another PRK treatment. With lasik, frequently we lift up the lasik flap, do a treatment and return everything back to normal. For ICL, it’s also very easy and straightforward. We simply do a lasik or PRK enhancement. This can easily be done over ICL as the cornea remains mostly unchanged (note: prior to ICL, I always make sure the cornea looks regular just in case an enhancement may be needed).

Fortunately, ICL is pretty accurate. ICL is especially accurate if you are correcting prescription without astigmatism. I can’t ever remember having to do an enhancement that didn’t involve astigmatism. However, patients with severe nearsightedness frequently also have bad astigmatism. And anytime we correct astigmatism with any procedure, accuracy drops a little. It’s still good, however, there are some patients who may need enhancements to fully correct their astigmatism. (Some patients even have more astigmatism than the max powered ICL! and thus ICL + enhancement is the only way to fully correct their vision).

Anytime we talk about enhancements, we are talking about very small treatments. Small treatments with lasik or PRK are also pretty accurate. It’s rare if someone isn’t fully corrected after an enhancement. What is also nice about small prescriptions is that there are less side effects of dryness or halos after lasik or PRK. So ultimately it is nothing to fear at all.

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