This is a measurement question. It is not a question of how much you want it.
Candidacy is not a formality standing between you and a booking. It is the whole decision. Every serious concern about refractive surgery traces back to someone being treated who should not have been, which is why the evaluation is longer and more involved than people expect.
The shape of your cornea, mapped across its surface. Its thickness. Your pupil size in dim light. Your tear film and how dry your eyes run. Your refraction, confirmed rather than taken from your glasses. And a look at the back of the eye. Each of these can independently change the recommendation, and one of them can end the conversation on its own.
A prescription that is still moving. An irregular corneal shape, or a cornea too thin for the amount of correction being asked of it. Dry eye severe enough that surgery would make it worse. Certain autoimmune conditions and certain medications. Pregnancy and nursing, which affect vision temporarily and are usually a timing issue rather than a permanent no. Some eye conditions rule out laser correction while leaving other options open, and some rule out everything.
A surgeon is correcting the prescription you have now, permanently, in the case of corneal procedures. If that prescription is still drifting, the correction is aimed at a moving target. This is the usual reason a younger patient is asked to wait, and waiting is not a sales tactic. Bring old glasses or contact lens prescriptions to the evaluation if you have them — a documented history is worth more than your recollection.
Contact lenses reshape the cornea slightly, and measurements taken too soon after wearing them can be wrong in a way nobody catches. Every practice has its own required break, and rigid lenses need considerably longer out than soft ones. Ask for their number when you book, and follow it exactly — a rushed measurement is the one thing in this process you can personally ruin.
A candidacy evaluation for surgery is a different appointment from a routine eye exam, a glasses or contact lens prescription, or ongoing eye health care, and it does not replace any of them. If what you actually need is a regular exam, book that instead.
Tell us what you are considering and we will match you with a practice that will measure your eyes and give you a straight answer.
Request a ReferralA rough idea is plenty — we will follow up to match you with a practice.