Richard Riley wrote on 08/14/05 19:14:

On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 18:53:19 -0500, Nick Funk
wrote:

:Is LASIK approved procedure for third class medical?
:Sooner or later, I might have LASIK (wavefront) done to my left eye for
:correcting vision problems. But if it causes problem with maintaining a
: third class medical, I will just stick with my glasses.
:
I had PRK - not LASIK, but similar - last year. One eye in April, one
in December.

I had my physical in March. There was a form for my Ophthalmologist
to fill out, asking about halos, visual accuity, a couple of charts,
that kind of thing. He did, I sent it in, they sent it back wanting
more detail that he thought was silly and already answered, but he did
it anyway. They approved with the notation that if anything changed
I'd have to notify my AME.


Same here, also with PRK, 13 years back. When I went for my first
Medical in 93, they sent me this nice letter saying that if anything
changes, I'd have to notify the AME.

I'd suggest you ask about PRK. It's a somewhat older procedure. It

uses the same laser to change the shape of the surface of the cornea,
instead of the inside of a flap. The recovery is longer, but the
complication rate is lower. The complications from LASIK are pretty
low to begin with, but I figure they're my eyes, I want the rate to be
zero. PRK is pretty close to zero.


I agree. Didn't have any problems in the 13 years since I had PRK.

-Joe