• Question: How does laser eye surgery work?

    Asked by wentwardroyalchant to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 28 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by glencoco, pates837, hollabackgurl, thivyaa, thebluemessiah, hophappy.
    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      There are probably some good videos on Youtube, if you are not too squeamish.

      Corrective vision is done by slicing off the top of the cornea (the outer covering of the eye, the bit that does most of the focussing) and then reshaping underneath it with the laser before placing that outer covering back over. The laser works by ripping electrons away from their atoms, creating a highly charged plasma that explodes away from the eye (and leaves you with lots of very precisely cut holes).

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      If the lenses in your eyes aren’t quite the right shape to focus images onto your retina, you either need glasses or could choose to have the lenses shaped with a laser.

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