The pursuit of good vision through various methods has been going on for centuries. When Ben Franklin invented bifocal eye glasses, it revolutionized vision care forever. As time progressed, contact lenses were invented and gave people another alternative to vision correction. Original contacts were actually made of glass, and have evolved to many new and better polymers. In an effort to improve comfort, ocular health, and vision new materials are being invented on a regular basis, and have proven to dramatically help the contact lens industry.

Patients requiring vision correction demanded an alternative to eye glasses and contact lenses, and thus refractive surgery entered the arena. It started with Radial Keratotomy and evolved to PRK and LASIK which are fairly common procedures world wide as this date. The question then is which is better to improve one's vision; contact lenses or LASIK? To answer this question one must examine the pros and cons of each, and then decide which alternative would best suit their needs.

Contact lenses are tried, and true and a known entity. The choice of materials and visual options is great and in most cases, in the hands of a skilled and experienced contact lens doctor, most patients will see well and have all their visual needs met. This includes nearsighted, farsighted and astigmatic patients, and the individual that needs reading glasses because of age or a focusing spasm. Today there are multifocal contact lenses that correct both eyes in the distance, near and intermediate distances with seamless visual comfort. These lenses are available in disposable, non disposable, gas permeable and even hybrid lenses. They possess all the characteristics required to permit clear comfortable vision at all distances with out any sacrifices of vision and binocularity.

Contact lenses do require maintenance and common sense. That is where they fall short in the public eye. The first consideration is minimal since most patients use a single step multi purpose solution that simply requires an individual to rinse and store the lenses daily in a case. Unfortunately, there are compliance issues when a patient does not rinse the lenses, change the solution or even clean the case. They blame the procedure as the reason for not doing it properly, but it is a simple as it gets. Some folks complain that they are tired of having to put the lenses in and the cost of the lenses as well and not being able to see with out them. Nevertheless, being dependent on contact lenses is an understandable reason to seek an alternative.

LASIK and PRK are surgical procedures that reduce, or eliminate the need for eye glasses and contact lenses. For the individuals that want to see without any visual aid, these procedures are the answer. The positives are that they are good, effective therapies and most often will eliminate the use of the glasses. However, there are several issues that must be taken in to consideration. The first is that there are no guarantees that there will be no visual correction after the surgery. A small prescription may be needed for distance or computer use, and there may be some regression. In addition, the eyes tend to become dry and glare and haloes are usually present at night. Most of these symptoms do resolve over time, but can be disturbing until they do. Furthermore, the procedures can correct the vision at one distance only. That means if a patient has the need for distance and near eye glasses they will either have to have both eyes corrected for the distance and then wear reading glasses or correct one eye for the distance and the other for near. This technique is called monovision, and not all patients are happy seeing distance with one eye and near with the other. They lose depth perception and often complain about poor night vision.

In short, both visual aids like contacts and glasses and refractive surgery are acceptable alternatives to vision correction. Which alternative is chosen is a personal choice and careful thought must be taken before undergoing a surgical procedure. Patients can always take off the contact lenses, but can not undo the surgery.