I found the fol­low­ing arti­cle regard­ing laser eye surg­eries so it might be use­ful as this topic was on the “laser eye treat­ment” post in the forum!

With the mul­ti­tude of cor­rec­tive eye surg­eries on the mar­ket, you should take a closer look at what’s best for you, not at the price tag. While many fac­tors are involved in choos­ing the appro­pri­ate pro­ce­dure, this handy infor­ma­tion, pro­vided with the help of Dr. David Root­man, an asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of oph­thal­mol­ogy at the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto, should help.Keep in mind that most health-insurance plans don’t cover the fol­low­ing surg­eries, because they are con­sid­ered cos­metic. Prices vary by sur­geon, clinic, loca­tion and, in some cases, even which day of the week you’re hav­ing the pro­ce­dure. Some cen­tres offer lower prices mid-week – but don’t be a bar­gain hunter. They may be adver­tis­ing cut-rate prices just to get you in the door, before sug­gest­ing costly add-ons.

 

» PRK: photo-refractive keratectomy

How? The outer layer of the cornea is removed and then the remain­ing layer is reshaped with a laser to cor­rect near­sight­ed­ness, far­sight­ed­ness and astig­ma­tism. You’ll wear soft con­tact lenses for a few days post-op to pro­mote healing.

Ideal if: You have a low to mod­er­ate degree of cor­rec­tion and are hes­i­tant to have a blade cut your eye (see LASIK)

Side effects: Your vision will be blurred, you may have the sen­sa­tion of sand in your eyes over-night and you’ll also be sen­si­tive to light for a few days.

Cost: $800 to $2,000 per eye

 

» LASIK: laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis

How? Anaes­thetic drops are put in your eyes, and then a sharp bladed device called a micro­ker­atome cuts a flap in the cornea. The sur­geon folds the flap back (a “hinge” is left at one end) and a laser removes corneal tis­sue and reshapes it
Ideal if: You don’t mind the blade and don’t want too many uncom­fort­able side effects.
Side effects: Fewer side effects than PRK, but there is a very rare chance of seri­ous com­pli­ca­tions that may require a corneal transplant.

Cost: $2,000 to $3,000 per eye

 

» Epi-LASIK

How? This pro­ce­dure is a vari­a­tion of PRK. A blunt plas­tic blade is used to sep­a­rate the outer layer of the cornea from the eye. A laser removes corneal tis­sue and reshapes it.
Ideal if: You have dry eyes (the laser won’t dam­age the corneal nerves that stim­u­late tears).

Side effects: Sim­i­lar to PRK

Cost: Up to $2,000 per eye

 

» IntraLase LASIK

How? LASIK that uses a laser (instead of a blade) to cut the flap of the cornea. This tech­nol­ogy is still fairly new and more expen­sive than LASIK, so you might find some sur­geons haven’t yet adopted it.

Ideal if: You have thin­ner corneas and are con­cerned about the safety of LASIK.

Side effects: You may have eye irri­ta­tion for less than a day post-op. IntraLase is gen­er­ally con­sid­ered to be safer, more pre­cise and more accu­rate than lasik and Epi-LASIK.

Cost: Up to $3,000 per eye

 

» Wave­front guided LASIK

How? The deluxe ver­sion of LASIK. A com­puter map of the eye is used to per­form a very cus­tomized reshap­ing of the cornea. Aside from cor­rect­ing your vision, it may also cor­rect minor aber­ra­tions (such as glare and night-vision problems).

Ideal if: Aside from improv­ing your vision, you want to cor­rect minor aberrations.

Side effects: Sen­si­tiv­ity to light and blurred vision for the first day or so.

Cost: Up to $3,000 per eye