Image enhancement and wavefront aberration mapping has been a part of astronomy for years. The main theory was developed by a German physicist Zernicke in the year 1930. In the year 1994, the first wavefront mapping of the eye was done. In October 2002, Custom Cornea wavefront LASIK was approved by the FDA. Custom Wavefront Lasik has moved one step forward compared to conventional Lasik thus making it more advantageous for peoples. However, in context of surgery and patient view point they are both identical. Sometimes Custom Wavefront Lasik is the appropriate choice for some cases, while it may be unnecessary or a wrong approach for some cases. The factors such as the pupil size, the magnitude of the eye’s higher-order aberrations, the corneal thickness suggest which one to use.

Even though wavefront LASIK is operative now, but conventional Lasik is still very much effective for treating myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. With wavefront Lasik the surgeons have option to provide improved visual results when compared to conventional one. This has been shown in the recent FA study.

The main difference in between the two is that the way the wavefront Lasik measures the eye’s optics. The better the measurement of eye’s optic is done, better is the visual outcome of the Lasik procedure. These procedures needs series of calculations/numbers that are needed to program the laser that will be used for reshaping the cornea. Before the invention of wavefront Lasik, surgeons had to objectively measure the eye with the handheld instruments and then refined the measurements. Conventional Lasik used to average the measurement obtained, whereas custom wavefront Lasik a waveprint of optical system of the eye as a guide for cornea reshaping. This waveprint has much higher accuracy, about 25 times than the average measurement used in conventional one. This is because the data is obtained from hundreds of separate points from the 6 mm area of the cornea. So it is better than taking measurement from 6 mm cornea to reshape the total cornea, observations are taken from hundreds of points. Just like fingerprints of any two persons can’t be similar, any two eye examined and compared this way can’t give same results. Therefore, no two optical systems are identical and the surgeons has personalized cases for each patient and each eye undergoing wavefront Lasik. Similarly no two corrections are same.

The net result is that custom wavefront Lasik provides better visual outcomes and decreases night vision problems related to previous conventional Lasik procedures.