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Have you always wanted a permanent solution to wearing your glasses? Spend just 15 minutes under the laser and you could be saying goodbye to those glasses you've worn for all these years. Laser surgery is popular, largely painless and every effective, but LASIK it still surgery.

LASIK is a 15-minute operation that uses a laser to reshape the cornea, the clear tissue that covers the front of the eye. LASIK can correct nearsightedness (myopia), the inability to see objects that are far, farsightedness (hyperopia), the inability to see objects that are near, and astigmatism, which blurs vision. For most people, the recovery period is at most a few days, which is one of LASIK's big advantages over a previous generation of surgeries for the same purpose.

LASIK, which stands for laser in situ keratomileusis, is popular for a reason: by and large, it is a quick, painless and effective procedure that is better than other surgeries to reshape the cornea to improve the eyesight. But it is not without its share of problems. A study published in the January 1999 Ophthalmology documented complications in 5% of cases. A very small number of people do end up with worse eyesight.

Hang on to your specs:

If you are over 40, LASIK probably doesn't mean goodbye to glasses. You'll still need them for reading or doing close work. Still, for most people, the whole point of the procedure is that they won't need distance glasses. Some people avoid reading glasses by getting just one eye treated, which balances out their vision: one eye for seeing things up close.

Don't expect 20/20 vision: The vast majority of people who undergo LASIK do so to correct nearsightedness. And most of them end up with vision somewhere between 20/20 and 20/40 (20/20, 20/40, and so on are measures of visual acuity: a person with 20/40 vision needs to stand 20 feet away from something that a person with 20/20 vision can see fine from 40 feet away).

Considering that people with even a mild correction tend to have 20/100 vision or worse, that is a huge gain. But if you are used to glasses or contact lenses, as most nearsighted people are, that correct your vision to 20/20, uncorrected vision of 20/40 after LASIK may seem like a setback. Of course, you can always wear glasses or contact lenses to correct your vision to 20/20, but for many people that may defeat the purpose of having LASIK.