Laser Eye Surgery - Opinions

Toots

I'm having a suitabilty assessment with Optilase on saturday. Anyone had any experience on what they're like to deal with?

Ann22

Roaster wrote: »

Was thinking of getting this done myself and was recommended this place from a successful candidate. Anyone on here go there by any chance?

http://www.wellingtoneyeclinic.com/

I had Prk done in my right eye in this clinic in 1994 because I couldn't wear a contact in it after a bad infection. The sight was very bad in the eye - nearly .-13 I think and I was told they could only correct it to a certain degree. I was very happy with the result. I'll never forget lifting the bandage the next day to put drops in, my vision was blurred but for a second I could see my son's Sonic The Hedgehog poster clearly on the wall.
I decided to have the other eye done in 2003. This time I had Lasik. By this time I was wearing a -10.50 lens. A lot less painful than the prk. I was corrected to -.75 I think. I wear glasses for tv now -1.25 ish in both-still even with glasses my left eye is better. So with age there has been some deterioration. I have very dry eyes but had this before the surgery, I find my sight is worse the drier my eyes are. So I just keep a little of artificial tears in my bag-Liquifilm is the best I've found. I would recommend this clinic,very expensive though. €2050 for one eye.(prk in '94 was €1050) I'm sure there are cheaper places to go but I knew someone who went here-its comforting to have a recommendation especially when your eyes are really bad.

Ann22

BC wrote: »

I had a consultation done and am considering getting lasek later in the year. I've been told that the consulation tests show that I am at risk of night vision issues after the surgery. Does anyone suffer from it? I have spoken to a couple of people who do and say its really only an issue if you need to drive at night outside of a city centre (e.g on country roads). I don't need to do this and I think its a side effect i'd be willing to live with if i could get rid of the contacts & glasses i've had for so many yars.

I have really bad sight in the dark though I never connected it to the surgery 'til I read this. It takes me a while for my eyes to become accustomed. I don't drive but if I did I wouldn't be comfortable driving at night on a dimly lit road. I suffer a lot from floaters too so they could have something to do with it. I do also have haloing if my eyes are dry in particular.

Ann22

I didn't mean to sound negative, I'd still do it all over again.:)

boa-constrictor

Everyone I know who has had it done says its great but when you ask them if they had any complications they start telling you about dry eye and how they have to use drops or glare when their driving at night etc.

I don't like wearing glasses but I'd take it anyday over having to carry eye drops around with me everywhere. You can always put in contacts for occasions where you don't want to look like an accountant....

cdebru

boa-constrictor wrote: »

Everyone I know who has had it done says its great but when you ask them if they had any complications they start telling you about dry eye and how they have to use drops or glare when their driving at night etc.

I don't like wearing glasses but I'd take it anyday over having to carry eye drops around with me everywhere. You can always put in contacts for occasions where you don't want to look like an accountant....

I had it done 3 years ago

No pain no dry eyes no problems with driving day or night

My vision is better than 20/20 and obviously i would do it again in a heart beat


BTW I went with optilase and found them great with very good follow up and aftercare

Mr.Nice Guy

I only started wearing glasses full time back in July and my eyesight isn't too bad when I don't have them on so I don't think I'm quite ready to consider the surgery option at this stage. I've made an appointment to get contacts at the weekend because I'm sick of the glasses look so I guess I'll try and see how they work out for me. I wouldn't rule out surgery long-term but I don't think I'd have the stomach for surgery in the near future.

I must say the thought of putting my eyes through such a major procedure frighten me. As someone else said, if it goes wrong you have to live with it.

I guess you have to weigh up the plusses and the minuses and decide what's best for you.

Ann22

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

I only started wearing glasses full time back in July and my eyesight isn't too bad when I don't have them on so I don't think I'm quite ready to consider the surgery option at this stage. I've made an appointment to get contacts at the weekend because I'm sick of the glasses look so I guess I'll try and see how they work out for me. I wouldn't rule out surgery long-term but I don't think I'd have the stomach for surgery in the near future.

I must say the thought of putting my eyes through such a major procedure frighten me. As someone else said, if it goes wrong you have to live with it.

I guess you have to weigh up the plusses and the minuses and decide what's best for you.

Hi:) fancy meeting you here. I was told if my sight was under -0.1 after the procedure they wouldn't do a 'top up' procedure as its quite close to zero and it wouldn't be worth the risk. If your sight is reasonable without correction you'd probably be better off as you are using contacts when you want. Contact lenses are so handy these days - soft comfy and disposable. Definitely worth giving them a go.

Rosen

cdebru wrote: »

I had it done 3 years ago

No pain no dry eyes no problems with driving day or night

My vision is better than 20/20 and obviously i would do it again in a heart beat


BTW I went with optilase and found them great with very good follow up and aftercare

Hi,
What treatment did you have done i.e. Lasik or Lasek?
Cheers

cdebru

Rosen wrote: »

Hi,
What treatment did you have done i.e. Lasik or Lasek?
Cheers

lasek waveform with optilase

Auldloon

Getting lasik intralase with wavefront tomorrow costing £3570 with optimax in Aberdeen Scotland. Will let everyone know how it goes.

Mhiceal

Hi i had bilateral wavefront Ik surgery at Optilase. I found them excellent and i would recommend Optilase to anyone thinking of having laser eye surgery. The operation was painless. To be honest, i was scared but the Optilase team made me feel at ease especially the surgeon.

www.optilase.com

Mr.Nice Guy

Ann22 wrote: »

Hi:) fancy meeting you here. I was told if my sight was under -0.1 after the procedure they wouldn't do a 'top up' procedure as its quite close to zero and it wouldn't be worth the risk. If your sight is reasonable without correction you'd probably be better off as you are using contacts when you want. Contact lenses are so handy these days - soft comfy and disposable. Definitely worth giving them a go.

Well I actually went in for my 'teach' today for contacts and did horribly! My blink reflex was just too much. I'm going back tomorrow though and I'm determined to get them in.

Auldloon

Chuileog wrote: »

Getting lasik intralase with wavefront tomorrow costing £3570 with optimax in Aberdeen Scotland. Will let everyone know how it goes.

An update
All went very well, moderate discomfort during the procedure but only in as much as having someone poking around in your eyes.
Lazer itself totally painless. Was a really sunny day and experienced lots of discomfort sitting in traffic in the blazing sun on way home afterwards, so would recommend the darkest wraparound shades you can get.
Had a nap on couch as soon as got home and woke 2 hrs later pretty much pain free:)
Three days later im pretty happy, vision is apparently better than 20/20 which is better than surgeon had expected so delighted with that.
Gotta say it doesnt seem to me like anything as good as my vision was with specs but i guess its early days.
Can anyone reassure me that vision (sharpness, focus) will continue to improve?

daheff

Chuileog wrote: »

Gotta say it doesnt seem to me like anything as good as my vision was with specs but i guess its early days.
Can anyone reassure me that vision (sharpness, focus) will continue to improve?

Have to say I have experienced this too...you will also see changes in the quality of your vision when you are tired/ hungover....but you get used to it. The problem is that your eyes were "forced" into accepting vision that was (probably) better than 100% and your eye muscles didnt have to work as hard as they should have to focus....they'll get better over time.

I was told by my doctor that my glasses prescription was too high and that they would be focusing my eyes to the correct prescription and not to the one i had gotten used to for my glasses...maybe you had a similar overcorrected prescritpion too?

cdebru

Chuileog wrote: »

An update
All went very well, moderate discomfort during the procedure but only in as much as having someone poking around in your eyes.
Lazer itself totally painless. Was a really sunny day and experienced lots of discomfort sitting in traffic in the blazing sun on way home afterwards, so would recommend the darkest wraparound shades you can get.
Had a nap on couch as soon as got home and woke 2 hrs later pretty much pain free:)
Three days later im pretty happy, vision is apparently better than 20/20 which is better than surgeon had expected so delighted with that.
Gotta say it doesnt seem to me like anything as good as my vision was with specs but i guess its early days.
Can anyone reassure me that vision (sharpness, focus) will continue to improve?

takes a couple of weeks for everything to settle down it will gradually get better
make sure you do all your drops

Villa82

I took the risk and had LASEK done yesterday 23rd Sept on my right eye. Going back in 2 weeks to get the left eye done. So far so good. No real pain. Was quicker and easier than I expected. I had it done in the Mater Private. Very nice and helpful. My eyesight wasn't that bad -2.25 & -2.75 and had only being wearing glasses/lens for 2 years (probably should have been wearing glasses for 2 years before that but never bothered getting them) but was feed up with both.

kiki

I posted in this tread earlier in the year. Now 5 months on form the op Lasik (Dundrum clinic) I can say that I am very happy with the results.

The vision is better than 20/20 at least one line below the 20/20 line on the chart in both eyes. The glare issue which made night driving impossible for a few weeks after the op has almost completely gone. I still have some glare when watching TV in a dim romm (in particualr teletext with high contrast between black and colour text) I dont notice any glare at any other time now.

Have taken back up surfing - and other sports.... Great to be able see what I am doing.

I was short sighted so could read medicine bottle lables at 3 inches without specs, now have to move such items further from face to read and do noice that some of the fonts on these small bottles ae now harder to read, but that is a minor issue.

When getting dressed in the morning still "look for the glasses" on occasion - makes me laugh when I find myself doing that from habit....

Can also wear any pair of sunglasses I like now - lots more choice too...

Jip

kiki wrote: »

When getting dressed in the morning still "look for the glasses" on occasion - makes me laugh when I find myself doing that from habit....

Can also wear any pair of sunglasses I like now - lots more choice too...

I think most of us done that for a while ! First thing I done when I got up was clean my glasses before putting them on and I went to do that a good while as part of my normal routine.

And as you say, it's simple things like being able to wear any pair sunglasses without the need to put contacts in before hand that make you happy !

FastFullBack

Looking for people’s opinion on my situation. My vision is really not that bad. -1 in both eyes, but I’ve been wearing glasses & contact lenses for years and I’m sick of them at this stage and I want to get laser surgery done.

Has anyone got laser surgery done when your eyes were only -1 or there abouts?

Jip

Yeah, I was -1.25 when I got mine done, not a whole lot worse than yourself. It works quite well if you've a mild prescription.

daheff

carrolltimmy wrote: »

Looking for people’s opinion on my situation. My vision is really not that bad. -1 in both eyes, but I’ve been wearing glasses & contact lenses for years and I’m sick of them at this stage and I want to get laser surgery done.

Has anyone got laser surgery done when your eyes were only -1 or there abouts?

Have to say that at -1 its probably not the best thing to do. If you can do most things without glasses then i'd leave it.

I've got better than 20/20 vision but still am -0.5 in both eyes ....you might spend all that money and only get a small change in your eyesight (or even end up +0.5)

If you do go..make sure you go to a good clinic that will give you good advice and not just tell you to do it for their profit

gabigeist

carrolltimmy wrote: »

Looking for people’s opinion on my situation. My vision is really not that bad. -1 in both eyes, but I’ve been wearing glasses & contact lenses for years and I’m sick of them at this stage and I want to get laser surgery done.

Has anyone got laser surgery done when your eyes were only -1 or there abouts?

DO IT! Best thing I ever did... you won't believe how expensive and how much hassle glasses/contacts are until you get it done.

I had it done in Wellington/waterloo clinic 7 years ago. Took about 30 secs and i could have driven home afterwards but I had arranged a lift. No problems and it makes such a difference when you enter a room and can recognise people from afar Best money I ever spent

FastFullBack

Thanks for replies guys. Is it true that the lower your prescription the lower the cost? As in -1 will cost less than -5. I've heard this before.

I plan on getting a consultation with www.eyelaserireland.com and there price on their website for standard lasek is 472 after 40% tax back. With my eyes being only -1 I'd imagine I'd be ok for standard lasek.

Jip

Don't think that's true Carrolltimmy, doesn't matter how good or bad your eyes are, the op is still the same and most likely takes the same amount of time.
And I don't think you'll get anywhere recommending regular lasek anymore as there are better procedures which are more reliable etc.

Villa82

I was only wearing glasses for 1 & 1/2 years before I decided to get a consultation. When I got my glasses I was -1.5 and -1.75. But I think my actual eye strength was -2.25 & -2.5, but was given the lower strength glasses.
I went to the Mater Private last November 07 and the doc suggested I wait 6 months and come back for another consultation to make sure my eyes were stable and hadn't got worse. I went back last month and got the go ahead and had Lasek done Tuesday 23rd Sept on the right eye and am back in on 7th Oct next Tuesday for my left eye.

Had little or no pain afterwards. Have to say the surgery was extremely easy without any pain. Got valium about 10 mins beforehand. Then got 5 eye drops which numbed the eye. Have to say I didn't feel a thing in the actual surgery which lasted about 2 mins overall. Laser was only about 30 seconds. Did smell some burning but it's not much and didn't bother me at all.

I was in at 7.30am the next morning to get a check-up to make sure everything was ok. I was back in the following Tuesday (exactly 1 week after the opt) to get another check-up and got the go ahead for the left eye from the surgeon

I was told that it takes 2-3 weeks before the vision comes back. My distance vision has improved greatly already. The near vision like reading text messages or the pc is still a little blurry. But is starting to get better.

I'll update you all next week after the left eye is done.

FastFullBack

Villa82 wrote: »

I was only wearing glasses for 1 & 1/2 years before I decided to get a consultation. When I got my glasses I was -1.5 and -1.75. But I think my actual eye strength was -2.25 & -2.5, but was given the lower strength glasses.
I went to the Mater Private last November 07 and the doc suggested I wait 6 months and come back for another consultation to make sure my eyes were stable and hadn't got worse. I went back last month and got the go ahead and had Lasek done Tuesday 23rd Sept on the right eye and am back in on 7th Oct next Tuesday for my left eye.

Had little or no pain afterwards. Have to say the surgery was extremely easy without any pain. Got valium about 10 mins beforehand. Then got 5 eye drops which numbed the eye. Have to say I didn't feel a thing in the actual surgery which lasted about 2 mins overall. Laser was only about 30 seconds. Did smell some burning but it's not much and didn't bother me at all.

I was in at 7.30am the next morning to get a check-up to make sure everything was ok. I was back in the following Tuesday (exactly 1 week after the opt) to get another check-up and got the go ahead for the left eye from the surgeon

I was told that it takes 2-3 weeks before the vision comes back. My distance vision has improved greatly already. The near vision like reading text messages or the pc is still a little blurry. But is starting to get better.

I'll update you all next week after the left eye is done.

Excellent summary, if a little bit difficult to read .

How much is the surgery costing you?

theteal

howdy folks

i got wavefront bi-lasik done at about 5pm saturday just gone. surgery was a breeze, i was actually excited to get it done, the only uncomfortable bit was the clampy thing when doing my left eye but that's because of an old football injury that my socket is slightly irregularly shaped. you can smell the burning while the laser is shooting which is completely weird. the hours after surgery i was cursing fully sighted people as it's this time that produced the only real discomfort - my advice to people is to just hit the hay as soon as you can afterward, i stayed up to 'listen' to MOTD.

then, sunday morning, i awake, goggle clad. i debate whether i should just pop the eyes open, still weary of last nights discomfort. i chance my arm, bang, nothing, not an ounce of discomfort, test 1 passed. test 2, vision improvement, and. . .still a bit blurry from surgery 16 hours before, too hard to tell in my wee box room. my perscription was only -2 in both so i was finding it difficult to set up a test case. anyway, i've a check up at 10.15 so i better get my ass in gear and see what mister doctor says. the slight blurriness was still a factor on the journey to his office so i was still unconvinced of much improvement. i enter office and sit facing the letters board thingy. Dr. - "tell me what can you see on the board?". I, still a smidge blurry, steady myself to have the old usual squint but stop in shock. . . "i can see it all", revelation hits home! lads slag if you will but i almost welled up on the spot. "Dr Thakis, you're a legend". He smiles. We shake hands. I strut out the door full of beans not listening to what he says about the eyedrop cocktail.

So it's wednesday now and all's good. Headlight glare is there but it's slight and is very likely to improve. To be honest this is the first time i've been able to use the laptop at close distance but that just proves to me that the auld eyes are improving day on day. €1770 of the best money i'll ever spend and i've got the med1 form to claim a chunk of it back.

Happy seeing guys!

lolly.o

Does anyone know if you have to be over a certain age to have laser surgery done? Or do you have to have been wearing glasses for a certain length of time?
Thanks.

Jip

I think some places have an age limit but I'm not sure of that, but your prescription has to be settled for a year or two, again can't remember the length of time but you won't be suitable if your prescription is still changing regularly.