Finding a surgeon to do your laser eye surgery can be a very daunting task. How do you know who is the best in town? Why is it that some centres charge $3000/eye while others charge $500/eye? Here is a list of the top 10 questions I suggest you ask before you choose your laser eye surgeon:
1. What is your training? It is preferred if the ophthalmologist is trained in the subspecialities of cornea and refractive surgery.
2. How many procedures have you performed? Some ophthalmologists do laser surgery “on the side”, try to choose a surgeon who mainly does refractive surgery as their main area of practice. A good number of surgeries is about 250/year.
3. How long is the follow up period? Post-surgery follow-up is typically done by your surgeon OR optometrist for a year after surgery. The follow-up appointments are usually after 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year.
4. What is the surgeon’s rejection rate? The people who are deemed “poor candidates” for surgery for various reasons should be about 10{4422c3e9d6d956ffe17c4a9703f8867adf328a271a08c00de098d82d34d0cfb5}. I prefer to choose a surgeon who is conservative and doesn’t take “borderline” patients.
5. What type of laser do you have? How old is it? New improvements in lasers means your surgeon should have up-to-date technology. Does the laser have wavefront technology? Does it have an eye-tracker? What’s the spot-size of the laser?
6. What are the side effects? All surgeries have potential side-effects and limitations. Make sure your surgeons takes the time to go through all of these points. If they claim there are no potential side effects, this should raise a red flag.
7. What are the policies should your vision decline after a certain number of years? At what point would they do an enhancement surgery and how much would this cost?
8. Are there previous patients with similar prescriptions and corneal shape who can provide a testimonial?
9. Did the surgeon explain the different laser surgery procedures and discuss why a certain one may be better for you than the other? There are pros and cons to each procedure and certain eyes are better suited for one procedure over the other.
10. How much does it cost? You do get what you pay for….this applies to laser surgery as well. The newest lasers aren’t cheap!
Contact Avenue Eyecare to book your appointment today.