Wavefront Diagnostic Technology
Perfect Eye Returning Wavefront
Aberrated Eye Returning Wavefront
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT
If you would like to learn more about Wavefront Diagnostic Technology call 1-800-244-9907 to make an appointment at Central Valley Eye Medical Group.
What Is Wavefront Diagnostic Technology?
Until recently, laser vision correction treated patients based strictly on their optical prescription. In other words, if you were a minus-four nearsighted person, glasses with minus-four lenses would allow you to see the best that you could. If you had laser vision correction, that same prescription would be programmed into the excimer laser and the exact amount of tissue would be removed to make a minus-four into a zero. Therefore, anyone with the same prescription was receiving the same treatment which we call conventional laser vision correction.
Perfect Eye Returning Wavefront
Aberrated Eye Returning Wavefront
Today, with the arrival of wavefront diagnostic technology, wavefront-guided excimer lasers can now treat patients according to the uniqueness of their entire optical system, not just their prescription. Wavefront technology was pioneered for astronomy and physics to aid in reducing aberrations or imperfections in the optical systems of telescopes. In much the same way, wavefront-sensing devices produce an accurate picture of the optical imperfections found in the human eye.
How Does Wavefront Technology Work?
Light travels in a procession of flat sheets, also known as wavefronts. These wavefronts enter the eye, pass through the entire optical system including the cornea, lens, and retina, and reflect back. When the optical system has perfect refracting surfaces, these wavefronts exit the eye as flat sheets. But when the cornea is irregular or the lens is imperfect, higher-order aberrations are created, and the wavefronts exit the eye as irregular, curved sheets.
Wavefront technology captures the reflected wavefronts and compares these curved sheets to a perfect wavefront. Then, we create a 3-D map of the eye’s optical irregularities. This map, just like with CustomVue, is a guide to reshape the cornea during laser vision treatment. This technology differs from traditional testing methods in its ability to measure the entire optical system of the eye, instead of simply the front surface of the eye.
Results of Wavefront Technology
Results have shown that custom laser vision correction can reduce some of the unwanted visual effects experienced from conventional laser vision correction, especially those associated with night vision such as glare and halos. By addressing both a person’s prescription and the higher order aberrations within their eye’s optical system, custom laser vision correction has the potential of making patients see better than they could with conventional glasses or conventional laser vision correction.
SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT
If you would like to learn more about Wavefront Diagnostic Technology call 1-800-244-9907 to make an appointment at Central Valley Eye Medical Group.
