Laser treatment and night vision

I had laser treatment on both eyes many years ago. I don't drive but have lost night vision and peripheral vision on both eyes. My ophthalmologist did warn me this could happen. I was learning to drive at the time but stopped after this. My optician told me that if it was a cloudy day, I would struggle even to pass the number plate reading test. You can contact the DVLA and they can arrange a sight test to see if you can still drive. I also get dazzled by night lights now and they all look like they have sparkles around them but this is 20 years later and I now have cataracts caused by the diabetes which I have had for 40 years. I need lights on Inthe house in the day now. Where I live, if you cannot drive for medical reasons, you can get a free bus pass for use locally and to the next town. You can also get the train free to the next time. I downloaded a form from dial in and got my consultant to sign.

Laser treatment is well-known to cause poor night vision. I've certainly noticed a difference since having laser, but with headlights on I can manage. I'm useless walking in unlit alleyways/roads and use my phone's torch to get me through them!

As for driving - you would have needed to declare to the DVLA that you'd had laser treatment to your eyes anyway, they'd make you have a formal visual field test before letting you drive again.

Granny_grump_ said:

Hi has anyone who's had laser treatment for various reasons on there eyes found after the laser treatment there night driving vision became bad, both my grandson who's type1 have had laser treatment he for bleeding behind his eyes. I'm type2 and had laser treatment after having cateract surgery on both eyes,and noticed I could not see has well on unlighted roads,like a form of night blindness, so I've chosen to not drive at night but what for others who need to drive because of there job etc.
Would be interesting to hear of how laser treatment effects others?K

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Both my wife and I have had laser treatment in 2017.
I had my lens shapes altered because of presbyopia so that I am now short-sighted in one eye and long-sighted in the other. My brain sorts this out so I can see OK at all distances. However, with night driving, there is a definite problem with glare and starbursts from headlights. I have therefore had some specs made up with a correction to make both eyes long-sighted and a coating to reduce glare. These work fine and I only need the glasses for night driving.
My wife had cataract surgery with special lenses implanted that have concentric rings of focus, which the brain automatically selects from. She initially suffered from glare and halos when night driving, although this has abated with time. A problem we found with this is that your brain can focus on the wrong thing if you're not careful - she had a worrying episode where her brain chose the good focal image as the dirty windscreen rather than the road ahead!
We are both really glad we had the surgery and have found good, but different solutions so that we can see well without glasses in everyday situations. If you ask enough questions, there may be a solution for you too. It is truly marvellous what the brain can sort out from the multiple confusing images it receives.