Laser eye surgery complications and diving

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Andersen

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Location
Norway
# of dives
None - Not Certified
Hello! I want to try diving, but I have some concerns because of my vision. In June of 2019 I had an eye laser surgery called Relex Smile and because of it I have some problems with my night vision as well as starbursts and blurry vision in low light. It is partially due to dryness and because my pupil expands and covers more than my treated area. Usually I only have problems with lights in the darkness and subtitles in movies etc.
So, my question is: could this cause a problem because it's generally darker underwater? Does someone have a similar issue?
 
I do not have any personal experience with Relex Smile treatment, though I have dealt with people who had lasik. A couple of things to consider about light and diving. Yes you will find yourself in low light conditions diving. However, most of what you will be looking at will be fairly close, 1-4 m. If vis permits longer distances, you will be looking into the water column, which will moderate the light. It will be an overall shade of blue or green, depending upon whether you are in saltwater or fresh water. You will not be illuminating distant objects.

In low light conditions you will likely be using a dive light. You will be pointing this light away from yourself and illuminating what you want to look at. Again, this will be objects rather close to you. You will also be wearing a dive mask, which due to the magnification effect caused by the refractive index of water, will cause a slight degree of tunnel vision. If you choose a mask with a black skirt, which are very common, it may help shade your eyes from peripheral glare.

Finally, if you undergo dive training, you will likely start out in a swimming pool. Then you will do some supervised dives in an open water environment. All of this can be done with rented equipment. You will be able to decide quite early if your vision issues are problematic. So your initial cost will be fairly low. Hope this helps.
 
I had PRK done in 2003. From the reading I did leading up to my eye surgery, the starbursts you experience at night is a common side affect with all the forms of corrective surgery...the issue from, my understanding, is that in some cases, the area ablated/reshaped by the laser is smaller than the area that pupil can expand....when light passes through the cornea in a low light setting, such as driving at night, some of the light passes through the corrected area and some passes through the area outside the corrected area...the different rate of refraction (this may not be the correct term) is what causes the halos and starbursts.

Typically this is experienced when looking at sources of lights such as street lights, traffic lights, and head and tail lights. I am not familiar with it being experienced when looking at objects unless they are highly reflective and/or very brightly illuminated.

I don't know much about Relex Smile laser surgery except that it is along the lines of Lasik where an incision is made in the cornea and the laser is used to reshape below the incision....one of the advantages to LASIK, and I assume Relex Smile, over PRK is that the ablation occurs below the excitable layer corneal cells where scarring is most likely to develop, this is the reason why some PRK was not recommended to some patients, as if the layer(s) of the cornea that are more apt to scar are disturbed the likely hood of scarring increases. To my knowledge, the flap created for LASIK is made so as not to disturb the excitable layer of the cornea during the ablation process of the surgery.

Dry eye can be an issue post-treatment with all forms of laser surgery but I have heard that it is more prevalent in LASIK for some reason. I have been known to blink a lot and a few years ago I was diagnosed with Aqueous Tear Deficiency...which is a dry eye disorder where my eyes do not produce enough tears and my tears breakdown rapidly, this reduces their lubricative effect....it results in eye irritation which results in me blinking a lot , which results in eye irritation, and so on and so forth.

I was fortunate that I did not experience any issues with halos and starbursts, and am happy to report that I have not had any problems while diving.

Diving is also a full body experience, not just a visual extravaganza....so even if you found you had issues seeing perfectly underwater you may find the adventure below the surface to be a calming and relaxing escape from the hustle and bustle above.

Congrats on your surgery...for me, with -4.50 diopters in one eye, and -4.25 in the other, it was a major game changer from a quality of life standpoint, I would do it again in a heart beat.

-Z
 
PRK in 2003 here.

The only effect on diving it has for me is now baby shampoo is a slight eye irritant for defog.... so I switched defog.
 
Dived with extended wear contacts for about a decade before they ran out of options to correct my vision (astigmatism was the primary culprit).

In about ten years of diving in this configuration only lost one lense, and that was because I lost an ankle weight with my mask off and stuck my head in the water to look for it.

Had Lasik around 1995 or so, and that was a Godsend. Who knew that underwater was that cool?

Don’t recall any of the side effects mentioned above, but as I got older, that correction has gone away, and I now use progressive glasses (also ground into my Seavision mask).

The point I am trying to make is that you need to be aware of the long term implications of vision corrective procedures and plan accordingly.
 
I had Tri Focal Ocular lenses and cataract surgery done in February. It's not laser surgery like lasik as so much as the whole lens is removed and replaced. I had both eyes done.

Yes a bit of glare from headlights at night but for my dives my vision is perfect. I feel like the bionic man.
 
Did Lasik about 10 years ago. Eyes still getting older. Few glare/starburst issues at night (road signs). Not an issue when diving.

You mention dryness. What you have heard about the air you breath from a SCUBA tank being extremely dry is true, the air in the mask is extremely moist. To the point you get fogging issues inside the mask. And we have treatments to get around that.
 
Get certified, go dive, have fun, report back that your relex surgery was not a factor except that it contributed to how well you could see underwater.

Also, recommend reading the book by Dale Carnegie: "How to stop worrying and start living"

-Z
 
I think the op was worried that getting certified might be a waste if he can't see underwater.
Not all diving is done in black water. Most people prefer to dive where there is good ambient light. So there may be some confusion about it being dark down there.
 
He'll be able to see
 
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