Lasik / PRK doctor recommendation

[adrianrog]

I know I can go to google and just search for a Lasik doctor, but I can't find a way to find the best few. For example, Emory offers the service, how are they? Is anyone better? I'm looking for the very best vision my eyeballs are capable of delivering.

 

[tdi_g]

I got my Lasik done at Lasik Plus almost 3 years ago. Everything went fine and I have no complaints. My advice, though, is to get multiple consultations and price estimates. Lasik Plus price matched the first place I went to knocking almost $1500 off the initial price they told me.

 

[tommyboy1243]

Check out Wolfson Eye institute. They aren’t cheap, but I would consider them the best in the state.

 

[benmmc]

Just FYI, my wife had LASIK in 2016 (laser/bladeless) and it pretty much ruined our lives for a solid 2 years. Inflammation in the vitreous led to steroid drops, which led to cataracts (she had to have cataract surgery at 36 years old) and a few other issues. All in, we've spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to fix that mistake.

I can tell you the whole story if you ever want to know, but if you have any history of auto-immune stuff or dry eyes now, I would recommend not doing it. Just my $0.02, and I know I'm just a random ODTer, but I saw the post and couldn't not comment after all we've been through.

I know many people who have had it and been happy, so I know our case was rare, but still. With all that said the Emory Eye Center has been taking very good care of her the past few years (for the record, we did not have the LASIK done there).

 

[The Old Jaybird]

Emory Eye Center has been treating my diabetic retinopathy for about a year now....monthly shots....and I have been very satisfied with the staff and quality of care.

 

[benmmc]

Emory Eye Center has been treating my diabetic retinopathy for about a year now....monthly shots....and I have been very satisfied with the staff and quality of care.

It can get crowded and long wait times sometimes, but that’s kinda how all ophthalmologist offices are if they are any good. I agree about the staff and quality of care. Top notch there.

 

[shell_waster]

Woolfson Eye Center performed mine and my wife’s lasik. We are very pleased with the results and blown away by the customer service and care. They have a production line like feel but dang, those doctors and staff know each and every patient it seems. They go through initial checks and thorough explanations and then a couple follow up checks to know or recommend the best option for each patient.
My only complaint is that I wish I had gone to them 10 years earlier.

 

[fastfish66]

I know I can go to google and just search for a Lasik doctor, but I can't find a way to find the best few. For example, Emory offers the service, how are they? Is anyone better? I'm looking for the very best vision my eyeballs are capable of delivering.

@ItBe Me

 

[benmmc]

They go through initial checks and thorough explanations and then a couple follow up checks to know or recommend the best option for each patient.

The place we had it done did some explanations, but not nearly thorough enough. They should have explained BCVA more thoroughly to us.

I'm looking for the very best vision my eyeballs are capable of delivering.

This speaks directly to BCVA (Best Corrected Visual Acuity). Basically, it's the measure for the best your eyes can see with or without glasses. The problem is that BCVA is not the goal of LASIK, and if the BCVA goes down (example: let's say you can see 20/15 with glasses before LASIK, and maybe you end up seeing only 20/20 or 20/25 after LASIK – even with glasses after LASIK), they would still consider that a success because the acuity is at an acceptable level for them.

The problem is that "acceptable" is subjective. For my wife, going from seeing everything very clearly with glasses to seeing everything with a slight blur without glasses (and other issues that came along with it, like starbursts, dry eyes, etc) was devastating for her, because she is an artist by trade and we would have never messed with her eyes if we knew that her BCVA would have gone down. Then of course the reactions her body had to the LASIK made it much worse, but most of the doctors we have seen think the reactions were related to some lingering auto-immune stuff in her that we had never seen evidence of before LASIK.

Again, I know tons of people who have done it and had a great experience, and I'm not trying to rain on your parade. Just offering another point of view here. I'll stop commenting though, don't want to hijack your thread. Good luck in whatever you decide.

 

[spencer60]

I got my Lasik done at Lasik Plus almost 3 years ago. Everything went fine and I have no complaints. My advice, though, is to get multiple consultations and price estimates. Lasik Plus price matched the first place I went to knocking almost $1500 off the initial price they told me.

I'm a huge fan of Lasik Plus, I got mine done around 2000 or so at the Galleria office by 285/75 and the results were great.

The doctor was very, very thorough in the preliminary checks before he would even make a guess at what they could do for me. I had a coworker whose husband went to Emory and had all kinds of problems because they didn't take the same level of care with the initial exams and tests as Lasik Plus did.

I'd been nearsighted all my life, and had to wear glasses to read highway signs as I was driving underneath them. I wore contacts on and off but not enough to ruin the thin layer of tissue over the lens or your eye, which they all do if you wear them too much. The doctor had me wait 3 months w/o contacts anyways, and then we did the surgery.

The process is very intense, more like a NASA countdown than anything else. Everything is choreographed to the second, and 99% of the process is completely automated. The only thing the doctor actually does is setup the equipment for each eye, and to move the little flap of tissue over your cornea out of the way. The machine handles all the tricky stuff.

The whole process only took 15 minutes at the most. This was in the afternoon, and I could see well enough to drive myself home (not recommended) right out of the office. The next morning I work up and was amazed at how clear everything looked. I must have spent two hours out on the deck just looking at 'stuff'.

For me the only side effect was a little bit of 'halo' around lights and such at night. The doctor warned me this would happen because I have larger than normal lenses in my eyes and the machines they had then couldn't correct out to the edge of them. They aren't bad and I stopped noticing them after the first few weeks or so.

I recommended three friends to Lasik Plus over the years, and two of the three loved them and have very successful treatments. One of them has gone back again after she had a couple of kids, since your eyes change when you are pregnant. I think they gave her half off the price as a repeat.

The third person I referred was impressed that after the exam they told him they wouldn't recommend the procedure for him because his lenses were too asymmetric. He had been to a 'Lasik mill" that told he there wouldn't be any issue but went by Lasik Plus at my urging to get a second opinion. He did get Lasik after all (at Lasik Plus), but that was years later when the machines and the computer mapping had improved by an order of magnitude.

I'm sure not everyone who went through Lasik Plus has been 100% happy. It's eye surgery and no matter how thorough they are it'll never be 100%. Still, I've never met anyone that used them that was unhappy with the job they did.