Word: often
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...1970s Soviet doctors routinely used scalpels to reshape the corneas of nearsighted patients in an operation called radial keratotomy. But the surgery, involving a spokelike ring of incisions, never really caught on in the U.S., because the results were so difficult to predict and the healing process was often slow and painful...
Most of the lasers currently used for LASIK can sculpt an area no wider than 6.5 mm, or a quarter of an inch. So, as you might expect, patients whose pupils grow wider than the average of about 6 mm in the dark often have the biggest problems. An equally critical factor, however, is the amount of correction you need, measured in negative (-) diopters for nearsightedness and positive (+) diopters for farsightedness. The greater your correction, the more abrupt the transition zone between the sculpted and unsculpted portion of the cornea, and the greater the risk of troublesome glare and halos...
...laser resurfacing requires anesthesia and good skin-care follow-up, which usually involves great globs of Vaseline or special creams and a mask. Patients can be left raw and oozing for weeks or, even worse, end up looking like the Phantom of the Opera. Skin heals faster (often in a week) with the newer Erbium lasers, which are cooler and can be used on the thinner surface of the neck and chest as well as the face, as long as the doctor exercises caution. Yet even these supposedly gentler lasers can sting and, in inexperienced hands, burn and scar...
...growth. Whether lasers can remove hair permanently, however, is still an open question. A 1998 report from Harvard, where Dr. Rox Anderson has patented a popular hair-removal laser, showed it can last six months to two years. Results for laser hair removal in general seem to vary widely, often depending on the patient's complexion: those with dark hair and light skin have the most success...
...dazzled by technology. "Patients get excited by the high-tech gadgets, and many physicians exploit them because they have to pay for expensive machines," says Dr. Leslie Baumann, director of cosmetic dermatology at the University of Miami. A walking advertisement for cosmetic procedures herself at age 33, she often favors cheaper chemical peels over lasers. "You have to be savvy. Some chemical peels can give the same effect [as lasers] at much better prices." Physicians who recommend laser work, moreover, are not always objective; some are paid consultants or stockholders in the very laser company whose machine they're using...