Is Lasik, PRK, or ICL better for high prescriptions?

The development of the ICL has been a blessing for near sighted patients with prescriptions too high for lasik or PRK to treat. For some, however, the decision is a little different. Within a certain range, some people can be candidates for all three procedures! Overwhelming!

Lasik and PRK work quite well for many common prescriptions. Above a certain point, however, side effects of lasik and PRK start to increase. Higher prescriptions will have more halos and more dry eye. More concerning, however, is that eventually you reach a prescription that just isn’t safe to treat with laser eye surgery. Corneas can become weak and change shape over time with too much treatment. Thus, to treat higher prescriptions, patients need high amounts of cornea thickness in order for the treatment to remain safe. With PRK, higher prescriptions also have a greater chance of causing haziness in the cornea.

ICL can actually be used for lower prescriptions. And for many patients who can’t go through laser eye surgery for one reason or another, ICL can frequently be used. However, when ICL and lasik are both options, ICL doesn’t provide a clear benefit over lasik for low prescriptions. It is only when you get to the higher prescriptions that ICL starts to provide a clear visual benefit over lasik. Between the prescription range of -6.00 and -10.00 ICL can potentially have a small benefit over lasik. Above that, ICL starts to rapidly outpace what lasik or PRK can provide and I generally start to recommend ICL for those higher prescriptions.

So in general, with high prescriptions ICL should be the major consideration for vision correction. Ultimately though, everything boils down to comfort level. And so I recommend reading as much as you can to learn about all the options.

Also check out Which Is Better, Lasik vs PRK? and Which Is Better, ICL vs Lasik? on EyeMountain.com

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