There are lots of scare stories on the Internet about Laser Eye Surgery, is it safe?

The Internet is an interesting way of reporting information. Anyone around the world can write anything they want, without having to prove it is true. It is for this reason that a lot of what you read on the Internet should be taken with ‘a pinch of salt’, unless it is from a factually correct sight. If you spend time on the Internet, you can find all manner of scare stories for any type of surgical procedure. Sometimes these are urban legends, myths and made up stories. In addition you will only ever hear about the one or two operations that go wrong, as people and the media are not interested in the hundreds of thousands that go right!

Laser eye surgery has been available as a treatment for many years. Since then there have been very few reported problems such as blindness or severe sight loss and the risk of side effects or complications is decreasing rapidly. Many people every year have the operation, it is even available on the high street, if the procedure wasn’t safe, the medical bodies in the UK would not allow it to be performed. 

In short, don’t worry about what you read on the Internet. Unless it is from a reputable source it is likely that the information is false or significantly exaggerated.

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