You have a normal eye with 20/20 vision (normal acuity) if the images are focused on the retina correctly by the clear strong tissue of the eye, cornea . Not all of us have normal acuity all through our lives. And there are many reasons why a person loses the normal acuity, but everyone can get a treatment of a kind or the other to get as much vision as possible and the treatments could vary from person to person depending on the condition of the individual's eye.

Laser eye treatments can be safe and effective only when the surgery is personalised for every patient. There is no concept of generic surgical procedure when it comes to laser eye treatments. You must accept to have your eyes laser treated when you understand not only the benefits, but also the risks.

If you are 45 and above and require reading glasses or having a severe focusing error, then laser eye treatment is generally an inappropriate solution, instead you might want to consider looking at non-laser treatments liked Refractive Lens Replacement or Phakic Implantable Contact Lens.

The following gives you a brief idea about what treatment might be suitable for you, but it is recommended that you consult the surgeon to get an advise on your personalised treatment:

Refractive Error	Surgery Options
Myopia
High, more than -8 Diopters	Phakic ICL or RLR
Moderate, up to -8 Diopters	LASIK or LASEK
Hyperopia
Low, < +3 Diopters	LASIK or LASEK
High, > + 3 Diopters	Phakic ICL or RLR
Astigmatism	LASIK or LASEK
Presbyopia	Presbyopic Lens Exchange (PRELEX)

The following are the popular laser eye treatments:

LASIK - Laser Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis , a surgical procedure to correct near-sightedness ( Myopia ), far-sightedness ( Hyperopia ) and Astigmatism by making a flap of the epithelium and reshaping the cornea using an excimer-laser . After the treatment the flap is closed back.

Epi LASIK - LASIK without cutting your eyes.

Wavefront - An enhanced version of LASIK and makes use of wavefront mapping to measure and program the amount of laser to be used for treatment.

PRK - P hotorefractive Keratectomy, a surgical procedure to correct near-sightedness ( Myopia ), far-sightedness ( Hyperopia ) and Astigmatism by scrapping out the epithelium and reshaping the cornea using an excimer-laser .

LASEK -A hybrid of PRK and LASIK treatments, where instead of cutting a flap of epithelium, it is loosened by an alcohol and moved apart to allow the cornea to be reshaped using an excimer laser. After the treatment the epithelium is rolled back to its original position.

RK -"Radial Keratectomy", a surgical procedure to correct up to -5 dioptres of Myopia. The Russian surgeon, Svyatoslav Fyodorov in 1973, first performed this procedure.

Wavefront LASIK - Wavefront LASIK is an enhanced version of LASIK and is the latest procedure available in laser-assisted treatments for refractive eye corrections. In the 1930s, a German physicist named Zernicke first developed the actual wavefront mapping theory and has been in use for aberration mapping and image enhancement in astronomy.