I remember as a kid coming home from school and seeing my Mom sitting there wearing a pair of glasses. This was new! I asked her what was the deal with the specs and she said she needed them to read. She reminded me she was getting older and that it wasn’t uncommon for a person’s eyes to start going blurry when they hit their forties or fifties.

Dad, on the other hand, had worn glasses as long as I could remember. He didn’t look goofy with them on – he looked funny when they were removed. Actually, he required two separate pairs. One pair was for reading and watching TV and the others were for driving. It seemed like a pain for him to always need these visual aids close at hand to keep from being ‘blind’ and I hoped the wearing of glasses wasn’t in my future.

Two decades later a new treatment arrived called laser eye surgery. It was all the rage and people were choosing this option for vision correction even though it was still unapproved in the U.S. It took nearly ten years for government approval to be official but plenty of people went to Canada or Europe to receive the eye procedure before then.

These days the technology has made vast leaps and laser eye surgery is much different than it was. The new procedures are safer, easier and hold a better success rate. Even so, the old methods are still sometimes used, their main selling point being cost savings.

Often when buying something I’ll do a quick comparison of cost vs. quality. I went to the store for some clothes hangers just the other day and was presented with two choices. I could get the cheap, plastic tube hangers that sold for about a buck (for a dozen) or the nice, strong wood hangers that retailed for five times that price. I chose the cheaper. This cost vs. quality thing can be applied to laser surgeries too. I don’t think when considering having someone burn your eyes with a laser beam you want to give the job to the low bidder!

Mom and Dad both got the eye surgery (LASIK) this past year and both got close to 20/20 vision as a result. They were fortunate in having medical coverage that paid for the whole thing and they got the latest (and most expensive) treatment done. No more going to the optician to pick out new eye glass frames for them… they’ve both thrown their spectacles away. They’re both in their early eighties. Dad looks funny ALL the time now!

I’ve been thinking about having the operation myself. That new bladeless procedure looks painless and easy. Mom was right after all, and I’ve needed to wear glasses since I hit 45. And, as I expected, it’s a pain.

Bob Proctor has been writing articles since 2006 and is an expert on glass frame, however he also likes to write about pamphlet holder