Lazer Eye Treatment

[Lurksalot]

I know it works well for most people but I went for the consultations and at that time they offered no guarantees, so , if it didnt correct your sight to the desired prescription it was tough, you had to pay again for further treatment  I didn't bother and hey ho 2 weeks later we had to postpone one of our jobs as the customer was an inpatient at a specialist eye hospital  darn sarf  as a laser job got infected

she got better by the way

but still scary

[v7slr]

I keep thinking about it. I'm minus 3 in one eye and minus 2.75 in the other, so it's definitely worth doing, however the negative stories and the fact that I have just noticed that my near-point isn't as near as it once was (indicating the on-set of long-sightedness to compliment my short-sightedness) makes me think again. I know several people who have said it's the best thing they've ever done and have read about symptoms such as refractions being present when headlights dazzle you at night.

I've worn contacts for 10 years and glasses for 10. I hate glasses and contacts were a PITA in the Se7en. They dried up in the wind and were susceptible to dust etc. I am no skinny handsome bloke but in years gone by (when I was) I'd have loved to have worn wrap-around sunglasses. Certainly there was no prescription version of such available back then, so surgery would have been great. It was too expensive then though.

A comment I heard some years ago that stuck with me is that micro surgery was deemed to be both more accurate and utterly successful as opposed to the small percentage of failures with lazer surgery. I don't know whether this still holds water. I suppose I ought to go and talk to a professional, but the last optician I went to commented how he personally still wore glasses - again putting me off (I'm sure he had an agenda to sell glasses).

I'd say go for it and tell us what you think. I may follow suit.

[felters]

Hi Andy...

I had it done at Ultralase in Reading three years ago. Somewhat uncomfortable that day but woke up the next morning and was absolutely fine. I now need to wear reading glasses from time to time but that's just middle aged longsight (presbyopia - see below) creeping back in. For me (and I was massively long sighted before) it worked really well. Worth going to see if you're a suitable patient  - you need reasonably thick corneas and apparently about a quarter of all candidates get turned away anyway just on those grounds alone.

Why not speak to the Moorfields eye hospital about it? They offer the service although not on the NHS.

Edit to add that this seems a good explanation of various conditions. It's not a site about petrol...

http://www.optimax.co.uk/default.aspx?page=7123

[franco12]

I had Wavefront surgery in November 2003- and it was a very good experience. It was done at Boots.

My eyesight is now better than 20/20.

The operation was done at 3pm- slightly uncomfortable with a burning smell.

By 4pm I was being driven home. Fell asleep and woke at 8pm with a big headache- went to bed.

Woke up next morning- and all was fine.

--------

Happy to recommend.

[Rory's Dad]

Worth noting that if you have your vision corrected with contacts (or laser I guess) you only need to buy cheap off-the-peg reading glasses from your local supermarket etc.  

Rory's Dad

[franco12]

and those using Bausch & Lamb contact solution maybe at risk...

See odays BBC report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4989320.stm

[Bananaman]

Well I've got an assesment booked with opticalexpress in Manchester on Monday so i'll let you know...........

[Stevo]

I had LASEK about 7 months ago in one eye. Although the surgery itself wasn't painful the eye was uncomfortable for a while afterwards. With LASEK you have to wear a bandage lense for about a week after the op and I couldn't see well at all out of the new eye for most of this time. Within about three weeks I could see perfectly and because the other eye wasn't too bad I don't need to wear glasses at all.

However, I now suffer with dry eye from time to time which is quite painful. And if I get grit in my eye (inevitable with these cars) it really hurts.

[Fat Albert]

Hmmmm

I have two acquaintances who have bought their laser surgery from Ebay. The current going rate is £895 for BOTH eyes. Search for Laser Eye Surgery. The vendor Optimax, has performed more than 100,000 corrections in the UK.

Both had epi-lasek after locals and left with their sight corrected within 2 hours. Both reported how astonished they were to walk out of the building and be able to see immediately although both said it took a couple of days before their vision stopped improving.

Consider this, will a high priced consultant at a fancy hospital do better performing your surgery (£3k+ per eye) when he will do one operation in the morning before playing golf in the afternoon instead of attending a specialist clinic where each consultant performs 8 daily.

I am the owner of Optimax and I hate to see waste in my clinics. The aim is to utilize empty appointments which would otherwise be wasted. You are welcome to ask me any questions about treatment. I had laser treatment 14 years ago, my wife 12 years ago and my son 3 years ago, all in my own clinic.

I have no connection with Optimax, this was a public service announcement.

PS Do you think that if the NHS was run like this there would be no waiting lists?

[Tubs]

My wife is an ophthalmic nurse and worked for nearly ten years in the eye clinic at our local hospital.

When I first thought about laser surgery she showed me some of the results of when it goes wrong. And before anybody says that those are unusual cases, they aren't. The stats are much worse than you would believe.

When you ask the consultant about failures, they won't be able to give you long term data because the current procedures have only just been developed. However, for those who have had previous procedures used, the long term prognosis is not good, such that addiotional correction is required for just under 80% after 5 years.

My MD had laser surgery and 2 years later had to start wearing glasses again. He couldn't wear contact lenses because the laser treatment he had worked by removing part of the top layer of the eye, which made wearing contacts very uncomfortable and significantly raised the risk of infection.

Don't want to scare you but they do one eye at a time for a reason.

Regards,

Tubs

[Stevo]

Doing both at once is the norm now and it will cost more to do them on seperate days.

[ChrisG]

Ive considered it several times but always shied away having seen the op done on TV etc.

v7slr, have you tried monthly day/night lenses? They have far less water content in them than most daily disposable or monthly lenses you take out each night (I guess so they dont dry out so much when you're asleep) so may be better when driving the car? I use Specsavers ones for £17 a month, and apart from the current couple of months where hayfever means my eyes get quite irritated anyway, they are absolutely brilliant, you can totally forget you have them in for a complete month and I often only remember to change them because Ive set a reminder on my phone. Also I used to be quite susceptable to eye infections when using normal lenses but since Ive converted to the day night ones I dont think Ive had one, so better for overall eye health Id say.

[Bananaman]

Ive considered it several times but always shied away having seen the op done on TV etc.

v7slr, have you tried monthly day/night lenses? They have far less water content in them than most daily disposable or monthly lenses you take out each night (I guess so they dont dry out so much when you're asleep) so may be better when driving the car? I use Specsavers ones for £17 a month, and apart from the current couple of months where hayfever means my eyes get quite irritated anyway, they are absolutely brilliant, you can totally forget you have them in for a complete month and I often only remember to change them because Ive set a reminder on my phone. Also I used to be quite susceptable to eye infections when using normal lenses but since Ive converted to the day night ones I dont think Ive had one, so better for overall eye health Id say.

The one and only time i tryed contacts it took me 1 1/2 hrs to get one in and then i couldn't take it out.......

I found it really difficult to put my fingers near my eyes without flintching......

[ChrisG]

Yeh its a bit like that to start with but honestly after a few days you dont think about it at all, and the good thing about the day/night ones is you have a whole month to get it back out again if necesary  

[Bananaman]

Yeh its a bit like that to start with but honestly after a few days you dont think about it at all, and the good thing about the day/night ones is you have a whole month to get it back out again if necesary  

Are you saying you can keep the little feckers in day and night for a month ???