Due to the ALLEGRETTO WAVE® providing custom vision correction with the standard Wavefront Optimized™ treatment, the majority of patients may not benefit from a Wavefront-Guided treatment. However, after an extensive analysis of your vision, the doctor will determine whether this treatment will be helpful with the overall laser vision correction outcome.
The Wavefront-Guided treatment involves an additional step where the results of a detailed scan with the WaveLight ALLEGRO Analyzer provides further measurements for the treatment plan, the data is validated, and then it is transferred to the ALLEGRETTO WAVE® laser system. Next, the final treatment profile is calculated, and then the laser treatment begins.
If you are a candidate for Wavefront-Guided treatment, you should be pleased to know that patient outcomes from our clinical study results and important distinctions are impressive. A few of the highlights which may be of interest include:
- Glare, and night driving glare, improved for the majority of patients over the glare they experienced with eyeglasses or contact lenses.
- 93% of patients achieved UCVA 20/20 or better.
- The ALLEGRETTO WAVE® is the first system to allow customized correction for patients with presbyopia (those who need reading glasses).
For a complete list of the clinical outcomes, visit the website www.allegrettowave.com.
One of the most innovative features of the ALLEGRETTO WAVE® is the way it uses Wavefront-Optimized™ technology to automatically compensate for the curvature of the cornea. In earlier laser correction systems, the “optical zone,” or area of correction, was centered on the front of the cornea; the result was a flattened circular area that ended with an abrupt edge, causing unwanted side effects like poor night vision, glare, and halos.
The ALLEGRETTO WAVE® changes all that. The ALLEGRETTO WAVE® sends extra pulses to the peripheral corneal area in order to compensate for the angle of the laser beam. In this manner, the aspherical shape of the cornea is preserved to a degree that older lasers simply could not achieve. This compensation, combined with the incredibly small, 1mm size of the laser, produces a smooth, effective optical zone that results in what can only be described as See Like Never Before.
Imagine a glass ball. If you took a flashlight and aimed it directly at the top of the ball, the light would form a circular shape on the surface of the ball. If you now aimed the flashlight towards the side of the ball, the light would form an elliptical shape and not seem as bright anymore. This is because the same amount of light is suddenly distributed over a larger area and some of the light is reflected away due to the angled surface of the glass ball.
The illustration below demonstrates the use of additional pulses to the corneal periphery in order to compensate for the energy lost through reflection. In this way, the natural cornea shape of each patient can be maintained.
