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Anyone who has less that perfect vision has looked at the options for eyesight correction. Currently, there are 3 options to correct poor eyesight: corrective lenses (glasses and contacts), laser surgery, and natural eyesight correction programs. Let's look at these in order.

Corrective Lenses

These work by changing the focal point of the incoming light so that as it passes through the cornea it comes into focus perfectly when it hits the retina. That's a complicated way of saying everything looks clear once you put them on.

The benefit is clear sight in an instant. No more squinting or having blurry things up close.

There are a few cons. One is the cost – it's not cheap to replace glasses and contacts need up keep too. As a physical product they can also be lost or misplaced, meaning you never know when you might have to do without them.

But the bigger problem to worry about is continually deteriorating vision. If you've had glasses for any length of time you've probably noticed your prescription has slowly gotten stronger over time. Have you tried putting on an old pair of glasses? They probably don't bring things into focus like they used to. That's because corrective lenses actually make things worse, long term. This was demonstrated by Dr. Earl Smith of the University of Houston College, who gave monkeys glasses and then tested their eyesight a few weeks later, to discover they had developed vision impairment. And it didn't matter what kind of glasses they wore.

While they do provide instant relief, glasses do have their downsides.

Laser Surgery

Lasers cut into your eye and adjust the distance between the cornea and retina, resulting in a perfectly focused image on the retina. This treatment has been around for a while, and is generally safe.

The upside is no more more corrective lenses ever. The healing time is also very reasonable, with many people seeing normally within a few days.

The downsides are the risk of complications from surgery, or that something goes wrong and you end up as a statistic. While possible, both those scenarios are unlikely. Poor night vision is a very real possibility though, as is seeing "light halos." Laser surgery isn't cheap either, and cost varies greatly between clinics. Because of this, make sure you do your homework before deciding on a clinic.

Natural Eyesight Correction

There are many programs out there that teach how to correct eyesight naturally. These involve many different eye exercises to train the eye to see normally again. They are based on the Bates Method, but have developed proprietary techniques.

The upside is similar to laser surgery – no more external lenses. They are also very inexpensive compared to the other two methods. Additionally, there are no physical risks involved with this form if eyesight improvement.

The downside is that it may not work for you.