Hello.
Have any other drivers had laser eye surgery?
I’m thinking of having it done and just wondered about the legal implications, and have heard it may affect night vision.
I heard a bloke on the radio a couple of years ago.
He went to see about laser surgery but walked out when he noticed that all the doctors were wearing glasses!
I have had it done, and there is no legal implications that I know of.
It does affect your night vision for a little while after the operation, but your eyes should adapt to the changes, well mine did anyway.
Had it done 4 years ago, still got 20/20 vision.
i had mine done around 4 years ago too still have 20/20 vision when i went for
my hgv medical last year
well worth the money
i used optimax in leeds after a lot of research optimax.co.uk
my sister used ultralase but it cost a lot more, she’s nearly fifty and had it done 5 years ago after using glasses and contact lens since she was ten
ultralase.com
check this site out lasik-eyes.co.uk/
david
I too asked the same question, so I emailed the DVLA for a definative answer and this is their reply
Dear Mr to who it may concern
Driving licences carry a code 01 against those categories for the person if they require glasses or corrective lenses, in order to meet the legal requirements for driving large goods and public service vehicles. this is found in section 12 on the reverse of your photo card licence
Providing that the code is showing against the appropreate catagory. no further action needs to be taken by the driver.
If you have corrective corrective laser treatment in the future, and no longer require correction for driving, please retun both parts of your licence to us, with a covering letter to that effect from the surgeon, so that arrangements can be made to remove the code from your licence
so in a nutshell if you have laser surgery, get a covering letter from the surgeon stating that they are happy to say your eyes are now pufect 
and send it off to DVLA along with the appropreate fee and they will remove the 01 code
love the tryping error on the last sentence. “drom”
r slicker:
love the tryping error on the last sentence. “drom”
fat fingers and bleary eyes …not a good combo
Personally I’m not too bothered about wearing glasses and too tight to pay for the surgery anyway but three things put me off in particular;
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It’s been around for a while now so is a low risk procedure and there’s more knowledge of the effects over time but things can still go wrong and long term effects are still unknown. Anyone should consider how they’d feel if their eyesight worsened as a result, knowing it was a result of their decision but a driver has the extra worry that this could lead to the loss of licence and livelihood.
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I haven’t cheked this fact but apparently the standard they aim for is enough to pass the car numberplate reading test. Is this good enough for a medical? If not you might still find yourself wearing glasses to drive, having spent all that money.
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The surgery doesn’t actually cure the cause of the problem, all it does is etches your current prescription into your eyes…and that’s the problem. If my prescription changes I can buy a new pair of glasses. A contact lens wearer just buys a different strengh pack next time but the Lasered person can’t simply change theirs so will have to either get some glasses / contacts or have another lot of surgery, if that’s possible.
davidj247:
I heard a bloke on the radio a couple of years ago.
He went to see about laser surgery but walked out when he noticed that all the doctors were wearing glasses!
(or should that be) 
I had mine done in 1994.It was when it first came out & before it started getting really popular (It cost me £600 for both eyes, so that’ll give you an indication of how popular it has become!) I had a slight astigmatism in one eye, so had to go to London to have it done, as at the time there was only 1 machine in the whole of the UK which could deal with it.All went well, & I went from never being able to leave home without contact lenses/glasses to perfect vision.
Now, 13 years on, I have had no problems with it at all, my only niggle is that sometimes I get a halo-ing affect around car headlights & streetlights in the dark.It doesn’t really bother me, & oddly, its not all the time, but I believe that newer machinmes don’t cause this so much, I guess its just technology getting better all the time.It certainly isn’t a worry for me whilst driving, like I say, its just a bit of a niggle.
I had to mention it when I had my medical to apply for my class 1, but the doctor said that it was fine & not to worry about it.
Its the best thing I’ve ever done, & if you get a chance of it, go for it! 
T.x
Thanks for replies everyone. Have cooled on the idea a bit after reading that Lasik forum 
