Refractive laser surgery is generally performed from the age of 18 due to a series of factors including:
The surgery requires some cooperation from the patient to avoid intraoperative complications. It is a surgical procedure that is normally performed under local anaesthetic while general anaesthesia should be used on a child.
Refractive errors like myopia must be stable to have this surgery. Let's recall that the operation corrects myopia but does not stop its progression, therefore, the patient's myopia must not have increased for a minimum of two years, which usually happens, in the majority of cases, from the age of 18. Otherwise, the myopia could continue developing meaning the child would need glasses once again.
Therefore, in general, it is recommended that the myopia and/or hypermetropia is corrected using glasses or contact lenses until the error is stable. In very select cases where the child has a significant different in prescription between one eye and the other, and because of very different circumstances conservative treatment to avoid amblyopia and/or lazy eye cannot be performed, surgery has been undertaken with varying results.