Open the ‘Window to the Soul’ with Lasik
So I have something I need to confess to you. Sometimes I like to read, well, “girlie” magazines. You know, stuff like “Glamour” and “Cosmopolitan.” I can’t help it, they’re kind of fun to check out. One of the regular features found in those magazines is an explanation of what’s hot or sexy now. Sometimes it’s shoes, sometimes it’s confidence, sometimes it’s eyes. That’s understandable. After all, eyes have long been a source of fascination for people all around the world, and the ancient Greeks even considered the eyes the window to the soul. Maybe that’s why many people have done whatever they could to keep their eyes looking – and working – as well as possible, including having Lasik surgery.
Believe it or not, Lasik has been around in one shape or another since the 1950s. It was first made possible through the work of a Spanish ophthalmologist named Jose Barraquer. Based in Colombia, Dr. Barraquer developed a revolutionary surgical technique that involved cutting thin flaps in the cornea to change its shape. This operation, called keratomileusis, was made possible by the invention of the microkeratome, also invented by Dr. Barraquer. It was this work that laid the foundation for the modern day Lasik procedure.
Of course, once Dr. Barraquer figured out a way alter the shape of the cornea in an effort to improve eyesight, others quickly refined the process in order to make it longer lasting and more successful. For example, the Russian doctor Svyatoslav Fyodrov and Dr. Steven Trokel at Columbia University each experimented with eye operations, and each reached a level of success only imagined by Dr. Barraquer. In fact, Dr. Trokel was so successful in his work that he was given the first U.S. patents on laser surgery and is now known as “the father of laser vision correction.” And now, laser surgery is almost routine, and you can find great Lasik surgeons in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and just about everywhere else in the world.
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