#41 ·
stormystag16 said:Price?
Laser surgery at the hospital is covered by insurance... totally free
As for recovery? If you ask me, just a few days
The first day, maybe even the second, might sting a little, but after that, you're golden
But hey, who knows how it'll go for you...
Just to clear things up—laser vision correction and strabismus surgery (fixing crossed eyes) are two totally different beasts. Strabismus isn't fixed with a laser; instead, surgeons perform traditional surgery on the muscles that hold the eyeball in place to adjust its position. As for laser vision correction, in the US, you generally won't find that covered by standard public health programs—it’s usually handled through private clinics and definitely isn't free. There was actually a thread about this on an old forum here . Also, you have to be at least 18 for the laser stuff. Now, fixing strabismus won't actually improve your visual acuity (how sharp you see), but it can definitely fix the aesthetic side of things by aligning the eyes. That said, the chance of a "perfect" result—where the misalignment goes all the way to zero—is much higher in adults if the angle is small and you still have good vision in that eye (like 80% or more). This is because, once we're adults, the neural pathways in the brain are pretty set; the brain has already learned to process the world a certain way, so sometimes the eyes drift back after surgery.
Laser vision correction almost never helps with issues caused by strabismus. Most of the time, the vision problems associated with crossed eyes happen because, during childhood, the brain never really learned how to "use" that eye properly—so the issue is actually neurological rather than physical. Unless there's a bit of irregular astigmatism involved (which is rare), you won't see a huge jump in clarity. Still, I don't think having just one eye with max vision is such a massive handicap. For instance, I sometimes wear just one contact lens; when I do that, I have about 25% vision in the other eye, and my overall sight feels almost identical to when I'm wearing both lenses. Normally, with my best possible glasses prescription, I'm at 160% in my right eye and 130% in my left.
They say people with two healthy eyes develop binocular vision, which is what gives us that sense of depth perception. I've heard stories from people who lost an eye complaining that they struggle with judging distance or moving around, especially when playing sports—but honestly, everyone is different. Personally, even with just one eye working fully, my sense of depth feels just slightly different than someone using both, but nothing crazy.
