Photorefractive Keratectomy (PRK)

Improve Your Vision with PRK

And eliminate your need for glasses and contacts!

For more than 20 years, we have been focused on helping people across eastern North Carolina improve their vision and enhance their quality of life through vision correction procedures. To date, hundreds of patients can now see 20/20 or better and no longer rely on glasses or contacts to see clearly, thanks to PRK. With PRK, our goal is to improve your vision and help you achieve reduced or total independence from glasses and contact lenses. If you have been told you do not qualify for LASIK but still desire a life free of glasses and contacts, PRK can help you see vision correction in a whole new light.

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What is PRK Eye Surgery?

For patients that want to eliminate glasses or contacts but have been told they have thin corneas, certain types of corneal diseases, or specific lifestyle constraints, PRK is a vision correction procedure that can drastically improve your vision and is a popular alternative to LASIK.

PRK stands for photorefractive keratectomy. It’s a vision correction procedure that has many similarities to LASIK vision correction. Like LASIK, PRK greatly improves your vision by reshaping your cornea to focus light more directly onto the retina, which leads to clear vision. The way the PRK procedure accesses your cornea is what differentiates the two. Many patients are surprised to learn that PRK has been around longer than LASIK.

PRK is performed generally in the following two steps:

1. The protective layer that covers your cornea (called the epithelial layer) is removed to expose the cornea.
2. Using an excimer laser (the same laser used in LASIK), we reshape the curvature of the cornea, correcting your refractive error and giving you clear vision

The video below provides an in-depth look at the entire PRK procedure.

Is PRK Right For Me?

Hundreds of patients can now see 20/20 or better and no longer rely on glasses or contacts to see clearly, thanks to PRK. To determine if PRK is right for you, a comprehensive evaluation with one of our board-certified surgeons is needed. While PRK is generally an ideal solution for people who have dry eye conditions or thin corneas, several other factors will be carefully considered to determine your true PRK candidacy. Some of these factors include age, prescription-strength, ocular history, and corneal structure.

Here are some additional questions that can generally help you determine your potential candidacy.

• Are you at least 18 years or older?
• Are you generally in good health?
• Do you have a stable prescription for at least a full year?

PRK is Customizable to Your Needs

During your comprehensive PRK consultation, we construct a 3-D map of your eye, mapping any optical imperfections that can affect the quality of your vision. This map serves as the individual road map for your PRK procedure. With this advanced technology, we are able to both quantitatively and qualitatively improve your overall vision following PRK

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