Hi, I’m Doctor Michael Mazaheri. ‘Lasik without a flap or cut’ is what I believe is the ultimate experience in our laser room. I had this procedure performed on my own eyes and in a matter of 30 seconds I went from 20/400 to 20/20! I had always told patients the actual procedure is painless, but when I had it done it made me realize it was easier than putting my contact lenses in my eyes. However, I have to say it did make it a lot nicer being involved in my own eyes’ measurements and laser parameter set up. I have had commercial airline pilots, military staff and many doctors come to me for this, because we take out the cutting factor and it relieves a lot of anxiety! Lasik or intralasik involves a flap-making procedure, after removing the flap then you can place the excimer laser to correct the prescription. In the flapless version we do not cut, but instead remove the epithelium and reach the cornea at a much less superficial layer. This also leaves much more cornea tissue available for the patient. Many patients with thin cornea do qualify under this ‘no cut’ Lasik version. This technique was known as ‘PRK’ a decade ago! We refer to it as ‘Lasik without the flap’ because it is just that. When it was called ‘PRK’ we had FDA approval, but our experience, technique, lasers and post-op medicines truly limited this procedure. Today some people call it ‘advanced PRK’ or ‘advanced surface ablation’; or a variation is called lasik. We call it ‘flapless Lasik’, which is easier to understand! Because it’s just a non-cutting lasik and nothing more or less in reality. Now advanced lasers make this the true contender against the cutting version of Lasik surgery. The biggest negative in flapless Lasik is that you need to take more time off from work for the healing and the vision does get blurry for a few days before it gets sharp. Based on the age and prescription it varies. I drove myself home after the procedure and performed Lasik surgery on a congressman 6 days later with no trouble (This Congressman was not a candidate for the cutting Lasik and I agree that he was not a good candidate for the cutting Lasik. However, I performed the flapless Lasik on him with results that exceeded his expectations and he has been a great source of referrals for difficult Lasik patients). However, as I recommended to my patient who was a commercial airline pilot and for you too, it’d be best to take a few extra days off to be absolutely safe and I do recommend that you bring a driver to help you get back home on the day of your flapless Lasik procedure! The no-cut Lasik (flapless Lasik) is approved by the FDA using real human eye’s and there results. Also when it comes to custom Lasik, the cutting makes the custom program inaccurate because the flap-making part of Lasik is after the measurements and that alters the calculations….the flapless lasik (no cut Lasik) does not have that fallacy in its measurement! The two techniques are almost identical; however, in the flapless Lasik the surgeon operates on the superficial layer of the cornea! The same laser is used for the regular Lasik and the non-cutting Lasik.