(HealthDay News) -- If you're considering LASIK eye surgery, you may be wondering how quickly you'll see the results.

The Eye Surgery Education Council says that although many patients see improved vision immediately or the day after surgery, the full improvement may not be seen for up to a few months.

Side effects -- including dry eyes, blurry vision and reduced night vision -- are not uncommon and are usually temporary after LASIK surgery. Most of these symptoms clear up on their own. If they don't, the eye council recommends talking to your doctor.

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SAN LEANDRO, California, USA — Ever since childhood, Brian Mathews has had to worry about his eyesight — first with glasses and then with contact lenses.

For 20 years, Mathews has had to consider how some of his extracurricular activities might affect his eyes when riding a motorcycle or scuba diving.

But four months ago, all that changed when the severely near-sighted man decided to get Visian eye surgery from Dr. Stephen Turner, a San Leandro ophthalmologist and founder of the Turner Eye Institute.

Initially, Mathews had hoped to get LASIK eye surgery, but was told by Turner that he did not qualify because his corneas were too thin. When it was suggested that Mathews try the new cutting-edge procedure, the Oakley real estate agent figured it was worth a try.

Visian turned out to be one of the best decisions Mathews ever made.

"Since I got Visian, I don't have to think about my contacts anymore because they've become a non-issue" he said. "What I really love is now I can ride my motorcycle and not have the wind dry my contact lenses, which sometimes popped out while I was on the road. It's a great feeling to wake up and not have to worry about it."

Visian, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year, is a procedure performed under anesthesia while the patient is awake.

Unlike LASIK, where the eye is lasered, Visian functions more like a permanent contact lens, bending or refracting light rays to allow them to focus on the retina, Turner said.

A micro-incision is made in the eye and the Visian Implantable Collamer Lens is inserted behind the iris and in front of the natural lens, Turner said. Collamer is a soft, flexible lens material containing a small amount of collagen.

Because it's implanted in the eye, the Visian lens is maintenance-free.

"It never dries out like conventional contact lenses, it never becomes dirty, it can't get lost and patients don't have to insert it in their eyes each morning," the doctor said.

The procedure is performed one eye at a time, with the second eye surgery being treated about two weeks later. The cost is $3,500 per eye, which is not covered by insurance.

Turner, who has been in practice for 30 years, is the only ophthalmologist in the Bay Area who is certified to perform this procedure, which takes about 15 minutes. Turner performed the procedure for the first time about seven years ago in Mexico, and participated in the FDA's clinical trials for a precursor of this lens.

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People with vision problems have to rely on glasses or contact lenses to be able to see clearly, but laser vision correction can change all that. Believe it or not, lasik is now in its second decade, and tremendous advancements have been made.

Brooke Bugg is a school teacher who hated fussing with her glasses. She says, "Since I teach kindergarten, it's a very hands-on job. We're constantly getting into glue, glitter, paint, you know, that sort of thing."

About a year ago, she had surgery to correct her vision. She says, "It's been wonderful. I wish I would have done it sooner."

Brooke is one of the nearly two million people having eye surgery in the US each year.

Advanced technology has allowed for more treatment options than ever, even for those who haven't been able to have lasik surgery in the past. So how do you know which treatment might be right for you?

Dr. J. Bradley Randleman says, "We start by figuring out what is not working with your eyes. The common issues are nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, which means that your cornea's not normally shaped, and something called presbyopia, which is the loss of the ability to see up close as we age."

Then they look at your goals-trying to find out what you hope to achieve with surgery.

Dr. Randleman says, "One of the options is lasik, or in a broader term, eximer laser surgery-that is the laser that is used to reshape the cornea."

There's PRK, or surface oblation, which also reshapes the cornea. Dr. Randleman says, "Oftentimes, PRK is used for people who have thinner corneas or more abnormally shaped corneas."

If your eyes are too nearsighted for those procedures, you can consider intraocular surgery. "We actually implant a lens inside your eye to correct high amounts of nearsightedness," says Dr. Randleman.

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OKLAHOMA CITY - New Oklahoma manager Mike Boulanger is expected to miss at least eight games of the RedHawks' road trip next week as he undergoes surgery on his right eye.

Boulanger, who took over as the manager of the Texas Rangers' Triple-A affiliate on May 11, said he lost vision in his right eye around the fifth inning of a 3-1 win against Fresno a few weeks ago. Tests determined Boulanger tore the retina in his right eye. He managed from the dugout instead of the third-base coach's box in subsequent games on a Sunday and Monday.

"My eye had filled up with blood. You can't see it from the outside, because it's in the inside," Boulanger said. "When I close my left eye, I can see a shape, but I couldn't tell you who was standing there. That's why I haven't been coaching third, because I can't see well enough to get out of the way of a ball."

Boulanger had Lasik surgery in Tulsa and will miss at least the first eight games of a 12-game road trip that begin a few weeks back Thursday. He plans to return when the RedHawks begin a four-game series May 26 in New Orleans.

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