Picture: Getty Images Twenty three years ago, Australia’s first LASIK (laser in-situ keratomileusis) procedure was carried out in Perth. After hitting peak numbers a decade ago, the initial tidal wave of patients is now a shallower pool made up of those fence-sitting, or those coming of age who view laser eye surgery as the norm. However, while that initial pool may be shallower, it is being increasingly replenished by our love affair with the indoors and screens. “The growth in myopia in Australia is enormous,” says Lions Laser Vision optometrist Andrew Godfrey. “Short-sightedness keeps just going up … in the old days, you used to come home and do other things — now everyone at every spare minute is looking at a phone, iPad or screen — that does increase the likelihood that you will become more short-sighted.” According to the World Health Organization, short-sightedness (myopia) already affects about […]