The annual meeting of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery recently concluded. This meeting brings together thousands of ophthalmologists from around the world and is generally considered the most important meeting of the year for laser vision correction studies. Steven J. Dell presented a very interesting study comparing long-term contact lens wear to custom wavefront LASIK. This very large study looked at 1,232 long term contact lens users and 1,351 LASIK patients who were studied for 5 years. The study found that with both eyes used together, LASIK patients had better vision and there was a lower rate of complications with LASIK than with contact lens use. LASIK patients did not show a significant increase in glare, halos, or starbusrts at night compared to contacts, nor did they have more dry eye symptoms than the contact lens wearers. 98.5% of the LASIK patients said their vision actually was better than it had been prior to surgery with glasses or contact lenses. 97.9% of the LASIK patient said the laser eye surgery had definitely improved their quality of life. Just last week, a patient in my Ventura office had asked my how LASIK compares to contact lenses. This study is consistent with several other studies which have shown similar results, including two research studies I’ve conducted on the subject. While neither LASIK nor contact lenses are risk free, modern LASIK represents an excellent alternative to the use of contact lenses.