TIP 1 - Personally meet with the LASIK surgeon BEFORE day of surgery

This is important to see if there is a comfort level with the patient and surgeon.  Is the surgeon rushed and seems like there are more important matters he/she needs to get to?  If you have follow up questions, how easy is it to reach surgeon – is surgeon email or cell phone made available for concerns or questions?  People generally know their gut feeling when they meet someone else.  If you get a bad gut feeling, listen to it and seek another doctor. 

Tip 2 - Research the surgeon’s experience

Run a Google search on the surgeon to find out if there are numerous complaints.  Look up the surgeon on your state medical board to see if there are any issues with the medical license.

Tip 3 -  Seek third-party assessments of surgeon and lasik center

Are there just a few happy patients on the website or is there a plethora of patients commenting?  Social media sites allow unbias, unfiltered patient assessments of lasik center.

Tip 4 -  Evaluate the lasik center in person

When you visit the lasik center, is it clean and tidy or does it look like the kitchen of a “greasy spoon” diner?   The latter might be fine for bacon and eggs, but not for eye surgery.  Are the staff caring, polite, and genuinely interested in helping you?  Everything in a medical practice trickles from the top down, so if the staff are rude and insensitive you can bet the doctor probably is like that too.

Tip 5 - Make Sure these Four Essential Tests Are Part of the Evaluation

1) dry eye check – if dry eyes are found on lasik testing and NOT addressed, it increases risk of dry eye problems after lasik

2) pupil size check – some studies have shown increase risk of halos and glare from large pupils, while other studies have failed to show an association.  Either way, pupil checking is a must.

3) corneal mapping (topography) – the shape of the cornea can eliminate a patient from being a lasik candidate and indicate appropriate alternative procedures like PRK or Visian ICL.  Lasik done on a misshapen cornea that was not evaluated with corneal mapping can lead to double vision.

4) corneal thickness (pachymetry) – lasik on corneas that are too thin can weaken the strength of the cornea causing it to bulge out and turn into a condition called keratoconus that may lead to triple or quadruple images in vision.

Learn more at: www.BoxerWachler.com