Is my contact prescription too low for laser eye surgery?

I have been looking forward to getting the surgery because I am so sick of wearing contacts and glasses give me headaches. However, when I called this morning the nurse said my prescription may be too low - the left eye PWR is -1.25 and CYL is -1.00 and the right eye PWR & CYL are both -1.00. I haven't had an exam for 2 years and the prescription hasn't changed for at least 4 years. She still made the appt., but she didn't sound too hopeful. Anyone know what the limits are?

They have to test to see how thick your cornea is (they scrape off your cornea according to your prescription). So your cornea has to be thick enough to have enough left after they scrape some off. There is no quick answer and the doctor really has to run the tests to see if you qualify for it.

Good Luck!

oh mercy dude. my contact prescription is -6.50 and I STILL can't see perfect.

they do not scrape away any of your cornea. The reason why they check the thickness of your cornea is because sometimes if a lasik candidate has corneas that are too thin it can cause more problems with prescription such as Keratoconus.. which YOU DO NOT WANT! .. secondly, your prescription should not be too low.. that should be fine.
Things that factor:
corneal thickness (see above)
dryness pre-op (after lasik, your eyes tend to be more dry)
previous prescription (is it stable?, If not, how often does it change?)

There are a lot of factors in deciding if your going to get lasik or not, but they dont scrape off your cornea.

Good luck!

I had LASIk 5 weeks ago and my eyes weren't too bad. They will check the thickness of your cornea and it has to be over 5 to be considered for LASIK. My advice is to go for the free consultation and get the answers from the doctor.

Call an ophthalmologist in your area and ask if they do the surgery. If so, have a consultation with the doctor and that should end your speculation. Otherwise ask for a referral to a doctor who has done this procedure. Consider the cost as well, most insurances won't cover the surgery, which could cost a couple thousand dollars.