Many people treat vision changes like background noise until daily life starts pushing back. They buy another pair of progressives, add readers to the kitchen drawer, keep a backup pair in the car, and then realize the backups have multiplied into a small, expensive collection. By the time someone finally books an appointment, they often arrive with a single assumption: that the best or only surgical option will be LASIK. Lee Katzman, MD , a board-certified ophthalmologist and refractive