Lasik or similar eye surgery

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4RNB

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4RNB
I am starting to consider this.
What impact will this have on my medical 3rd class?
 
If Basic Med meets your flying needs, you can switch to it and avoid any risk of FAA Aeromed complications.
 
Lindberg said:
If you wait three months and have no adverse side effects, zero.
Click to expand...

You don't need three months. You just have to wait until your vision stabilizes. Read the link in FORANE's post.
 
Had LASIK in the early 2000's. Never affected my Class III issuance.

Be VERY WARY of the side effects. Dry eyes and night halo's are very real. Most people just 'get used to it' but every once in a while you'll notice it.

I had mine done in my early 30s and at 50 I needed glasses again... but my cornea's were at the limit of what they would accept (they had to use the max laser time to correct). Now there are much better systems that may overcome it. My far vision is acceptable by near is trash. Bifocals for this guy.

I do recommend the procedure. Its a game changer.
 
My wife had just about every complication you can imagine with her LASIK, but it's never affected her ability to get her third class, and she's still glad she did it. She went from 20/600 (what chart?) to 20/20.
 
flyingron said:
You don't need three months. You just have to wait until your vision stabilizes. Read the link in FORANE's post.
Click to expand...
I did. Did you?

After 3 months the AME can issue based on his exam in office, as normal. Prior to 3 months you needed detailed clinical progress note from your eye doctor and an additional worksheet for the AME. It's not a big deal, but it's not nothing.
 
I always had much better than 20/20 vision when I was young, and could see things at distance that most people couldn't, and very small things up close that most people couldn't....
Then, when I got old and my arms started getting shorter, and I started leaning on readers more and more, I went to an optometrist to get some clear on top progressives. Well, apparently I needed a slight astigmatism correction as well as a very low distance correction.
Then, over time, that got worse and worse too, as my aging eyes became less capable of working through it.
Got to the point where, without my glasses, I couldn't see which kids were mine at the beach.

Eventually did lasik....fought dry eye for a long time, and still probably have it a little bit, but otherwise no complication
Now many years later, I still test 20/20 for distance....But I can say for sure, LASIK's 20/20 is not nearly the same quality of 20/20 that I had in my youth. Still, I'm glad that I did it.
 
I had it done about 25 years ago, or 10+ years before I started flying. No complications, no issues. But it's surgery, so it's a risk. My pre lasik vision was something like 20/300 nearsighted, so I couldn't even walk around without glasses, so I was comfortable with the risk. I shopped around for a good surgeon to do it...even though the laser was laser, at the time they still had to cut a flap with a knife. Anyway, worked out well and I'm glad I did it. But if I were just barely out of having uncorrected vision, I don't know that I'd take the risk.

Oh, and I'd also heard the stories about vision changing, need it again, etc. Maybe just me, and knock on wood, no problems, no issues at all.
 
The military gave me PRK in 2008. I was down for about 8 weeks, and then back up flying. On my next FAA medical, I disclosed the surgery, submitted to the FAA a report that the Dr. filled out, and never had any issues getting my 3rd class.
 
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