Laser Treatments for almost blind people

[borgqueenx]

Im wondering since i have lasers as hobbys....why lasers can have such a bad effect on eyes(understandable), but also a very good effect on eyes.
They use laser treatments in hospitals to stop people from becoming blinder then they already are.

its such a strange thing...lasers that can make people blind forever, and lasers that can stop making people blind...

I like a discussion about this

 

[ThunderBird89]

If you're thinking of laser eye surgery, they use the laser to ablate microscopic pieces of the cornea to restore vision, or annihilate obstructions in the eye. Which requires considerable control, and precisely focusing it to the surface of the cornea, so all of it is absorbed there.

When you look into your 150mW pointer, the laser enters the eye unfocused, but is focused by the cornea and the lens, so it ends up dumping all its energy into the vitreous humour catalysing chemical changes that result in coagulated pieces, or 'floaters', or into the retina, which results in, well, rather nasty burns, and blindness.

That said, there's supposed to be a discussion about this already in the forum, with some pictures from Rog's(?) site, showing retinal laser damage. Nasty stuff.

 

[themandalorian]

I don't know what type of problems it fixes, but have you seen the contact lenses that have had stem cells inserted in them and they restored some peoples vison?

 

[Schrecken_Licht]

Yes, lasers can restore vision and they can also take it away.

My grandmother had glaucoma and ever so often her doctor used a laser (not sure what kind, some type of YAG, maybe...) to drill tiny holes in the back of her eye to help reduce the fluid pressure within the eye (glaucoma is excess pressure in the eyeball which can cause blindness if not treated). Not sure if they still do that as that was about 25 years ago.

They also use lasers (argon or similar color) to repair and seal off broken blood vessels in the retina.

The most common use would probably be vision correction surgery, which uses a UV excimer laser, the beam of which cannot pass thru most transparent surfaces like the cornea of the eye. This is where the cornea is re-shaped to correct vision problems. I had this sort of surgery done back in '99 and in that case it was a laser that restored my vision (I wasn't blind but I couldn't see well enough w/o glasses or contacts to drive or go to a movie).

 

[themandalorian]

She didn't want to smoke medical marijuana!