Many people are familiar with the term "laser eye surgery" and know it to be a type of corrective surgery to help improve various vision impairments. Lasik has become a very popular solution for many people, since it became widely available about a decade ago, in the mid 1990s.

Unlike older forms of eye surgery, Lasik does not necessitate cutting the eye with a surgical scalpel. Instead, lasers are used to do the job. Recently, custom wavefront Lasik surgery was introduced as an advancement to the basic Lasik method.

The phrase "custom wavefront" is actually not as new as might be thought. The term "waterfront" has actually been around for almost a century and was commonly used in astronomy, as a concept of using mirrors and various lenses to manipulate rays of light.

However, the term was applied to the Lasik form of laser eye surgery about a decade ago, in the late 1990s. These same principles began to be applied to the corrective procedures to enhance the outcome of Lasik surgeries.

What really makes the custom wavefront Lasik method different from the standard lasik eye surgery is that it provides the Lasik eye doctor with a considerable amount of additional, detailed information to help him better pinpoint the exact problems in the eye that need to be corrected. This is done by a mapping process that uses the way the light passes through the eye to reveal a three-dimensional image of the interior of the eye.

The Lasik custom wavefront procedure essentially "unravels" the way that the light passes through the eye of the patient. Because of this, during the examination of the eye, the doctor is able to see all the way to the retina at the back of the eye, giving him a view of the functioning, or malfunctioning patient's optical system. It is this detail that allows the Lasik eye doctor to identify the minute imperfections and damaged areas of the eye that traditional types of eye examinations often missed completely.

The result of this greatly improved ability to see the inner working of a person's optical system is that the laser eye surgeon can then use this information to perform a much more effective custom wavefront eye surgery. Patients enjoy a greater degree of improvement in their eyesight, when compared to the results of the older Lasik procedure.

The custom wavefront Lasik surgery is still considered relatively new, and it is a more expensive procedure than the standard Lasik vision corrective surgery. However, for many people who are suffering from poor vision problems, the cost of Lasik surgery of any kind is quite small compared to the benefits of improved eye sight that they enjoy with very little risk or complications.