LASIK treats a wide variety of problems including nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. During the LASIK procedure, doctors use computer-controlled beams of ultra-violet light to reshape the patient’s cornea. Anesthetic drops are used to numb the patient’s eye before surgery begins, so the surgery is completely painless process.  Most patients resume their daily activities the day after surgery, and while every patient’s healing process varies, most notice remarkable results within a couple days of their procedure.

In LASIK surgery, precise and controlled removal of corneal tissue by a special laser reshapes the cornea changing its focusing power. The cornea is the part of the eye that helps focus light to create an image on the retina, similar to how a camera focuses light to create images on film. Often the shape of the cornea and the eye are not perfect and the image on the retina is blurred or distorted, like when your camera is out of focus. Imperfections in the focusing power of the eye are called refractive errors. Glasses or contact lenses are designed to compensate for the eye's imperfections. Surgical procedures aimed at improving the focusing power of the eye, like LASIK surgery (which is short for "laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis”), are called refractive surgeries.

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