Eyeworld

52 A related myth is that LASIK can't help reading vision. This is un- true. "There are a lot of people for whom we can help their reading vi- sion tremendously," Dr. Maloney said. "If they're emmetropes, we can make one eye nearsighted, and if they're younger hyperopes we can correct their hyperopia." One big myth that he comes across is the idea that LASIK can't correct astigmatism. "In the mid 90s we couldn't correct astigmatism, but by the late 90s it was routine," Dr. Maloney said. "But somehow that's still out there." Daniel S. Durrie, M.D., clinical professor of ophthalmology, Univer- sity of Kansas, Overland Park, often comes up against this myth. "Out of ten people who come in with a mis- conception, nine of them will say that we can't correct astigmatism," Dr. Durrie said. He finds that some- times it is the person who is selling them glasses or contact lenses who is the source of the misinformation. The irony is that he finds that these patients are particularly well suited to LASIK. "My feeling is the more astigmatism the better because astig- matism makes it hard to wear glasses and contact lenses," he said. He frequently encounters the myth that laser surgery will lead to the use of reading glasses at an ear- lier age. "I can understand how they got the misconception because we do not correct presbyopia," Dr. Durrie said. However, monovision can sometimes enable patients to forgo reading glasses for a time. "It may not keep people completely out of reading glasses as they get older, but it certainly doesn't make them need these at an earlier age," Dr. Durrie said. A third myth that Dr. Durrie comes across is the idea that LASIK performed a decade before has worn off. This is generally spurred by the fact that middle-aged patients have begun running into problems with presbyopia. "I think that we have done a poor job of educating pa- tients, even patients who have had laser surgery, about what to expect in the future and what's going to happen to their eyes," Dr. Durrie said. "Once I tell people that their lens has a problem but there are things that we can do about it, they're very relieved." Dr. Maloney frequently encoun- ters this same myth. "A lot of people think that it's like a face lift, you fix it and then it droops back after 5 or 10 years," he said. "I have to reas- sure them that it doesn't wear off— vision doesn't change obviously, but the effect doesn't wear off, or at least that's rare." To help combat such myths, Dr. Durrie relies on modern media. "I think that the internet is fabulous," he said. "With Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and websites we have great tools to get information to not only our patients but also to the public." In his view, too much time is spent trying to educate the public on nu- ances in technology instead of what they really want to know, such as whether they can rid themselves of their astigmatism. He strives to ad- dress this. "We just put out a broad- cast email to our patient base and the headline was, 'Do you have astigmatism? Yes, it can be cor- rected,'" Dr. Durrie said. "I think that's the type of message that we need to get out there." EW Editors' note: Dr. Durrie has financial interests with Abbott Medical Optics (AMO, Santa Ana, Calif.) and Alcon (Fort Worth, Texas). Dr. Maloney has financial interests with AMO. Dr. Probst has financial interests with AMO and TLC Vision. Contact information Durrie: 913-491-3737, Ddurrie@Durrievision.com Maloney: 310-208-3937, rm@maloneyvision.com Probst: leprobst@gmail.com EW REFRACTIVE SURGERY 52 September 2011 Toppling continued from page 51

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