A laser eye surgery topic. Advice please!

Shryke

Hi all. I'm on the brink of booking an appointment here and I'm having a bit of trouble deciding where to go. This is a big deal. I've read through most of the topics on this forum but there doesn't seem to be any clear split so I'll ask more directly.
I was looking at Ultralase. They seem professional but I would really like to know what the general opinion of them is? Are there any clear winners when it comes to results?
I'm from Galway so getting this done will involve some travel, I'd probably go to Cork over Dublin. There sight tells me they have a branch in Limerick but it's just for consults. Anybody had this surgery in Cork? Or have any of the Dublin branches got better reputations?
Or should I go to Ultralase at all?
I'm about to book holidays in the next week and I really want this sorted.

wcarey1975

I got mine done about 4 weeks ago now and I was going to get it done in Dublin. I did my first consult in Optical Express in Dundrum just to find out if I was eligible and I was. The price for the procedure I got done (Intralase wavefront LasIK) was 4600 without VHI and 3920 with VHI. Tried OptiMax in Belfast and they quoted me 3770 sterling but were doing a deal at the time and I got it done for 2395. So far really happy with the results and while I wont recommend surgery I'd definately say it's one of the best decisions I've ever made. The only thing I'd recommend is that if you are going to do it make sure that you research it and then research it some more. Good luck, W. I've got a £500 sterling voucher for wavefront if you're getting that procedure done.

Shryke

I haven't heard of Optimax. I'll look into them.

wcarey1975

I only heard of them as my sister in law got her eye done there 15 years ago. Well you should check out every vendor and go with the one that feels right. I felt that they didnt really care about me in optical exp and felt like they they did in Optimax. That combined with the price was the final decider. Only if you're 100 comfortable then you can relax as much as possible.

Guess_Who

Hi,

just to add to this, if you are willing to travel to Dublin, I had mine done 4 weeks ago at Laservision.

The reason I liked them was that you deal with the surgeon the whole way through from consultation to all follow up treatments. Most other places you only see your surgeon on the surgery day.

But the best advice is to go to a few consultations and just see who you are most comfortable with. Laservison were the 2nd of 3 consultations I went to.

Best of luck with it.

Uriel.

Hey OP,

For what it's worth I got mine done at the Wellington Eye Clinic - now out at the Beacon http://beaconconsultantsclinic.com/beacon_eye_clinic.htm

I had a consultation with Paul Kenna and with Arthur Cummins and Mr. Cummins did the surgery and after care. I couldn't recommend them highly enough. I would say they are probably likely to be more costly than some of the other places though. But might still be worth checking out.

shell1004

Hello

I sent a deal with optical express for 595 per eye. Everyone else seems to be so much dearer.

Does anyone know if they are any good?

Thanks
Michelle

Electra19

Guess_Who wrote: »

Hi,

just to add to this, if you are willing to travel to Dublin, I had mine done 4 weeks ago at Laservision.

The reason I liked them was that you deal with the surgeon the whole way through from consultation to all follow up treatments. Most other places you only see your surgeon on the surgery day.

But the best advice is to go to a few consultations and just see who you are most comfortable with. Laservison were the 2nd of 3 consultations I went to.

Best of luck with it.

Any reason why you get laser eye surgery done on a regular basis? You had posted as far back as June 2006 to say you had surgery, you posted on 18 August 2010 to say you had surgery the previous April and now you’ve just had the surgery 4 weeks ago again.
Guess who? A shill for Laservision I reckon, and not a very bright one at that when you don’t realise that people can view all your posts. Shame on you.

LouiseG

Am in the same boat as Shryke. Any thoughts on the Galway Clinic? Heard it was good but people feel like they are in an assembly line.

Guess_Who

Electra19 wrote: »

Any reason why you get laser eye surgery done on a regular basis? You had posted as far back as June 2006 to say you had surgery, you posted on 18 August 2010 to say you had surgery the previous April and now you’ve just had the surgery 4 weeks ago again.
Guess who? A shill for Laservision I reckon, and not a very bright one at that when you don’t realise that people can view all your posts. Shame on you.

I've gone over all my posts & cannot for the life of me find anything from 2006 that could even be misconstrued as saying I had laser eye surgery so I'd love if you could find the offending post. All I can find relating to eye care is posts in 2007 enquiring about contacts lenses while doing water sports.

Yes I had laser eye surgery at the end of April 2010 & if you check the date of my post here, 24th May 2010 is roughly 4 weeks after the end of April.

SACH Central

LouiseG wrote: »

Am in the same boat as Shryke. Any thoughts on the Galway Clinic? Heard it was good but people feel like they are in an assembly line.

I was accessed in Optical Express in Cork today. They quoted me €3,952.50 which included a 20% Aviva discount!

I found this first consultation very good, but christ it's dear :eek: I'mwondering if anyone here has had the procedure done abroad, Bulgaria for example. Might be cheaper there or in the UK

Electra19

Guess_Who wrote: »

I've gone over all my posts & cannot for the life of me find anything from 2006 that could even be misconstrued as saying I had laser eye surgery so I'd love if you could find the offending post. All I can find relating to eye care is posts in 2007 enquiring about contacts lenses while doing water sports.

Yes I had laser eye surgery at the end of April 2010 & if you check the date of my post here, 24th May 2010 is roughly 4 weeks after the end of April.

You had re-posted on different threads with different dates so looked like you made a hobby of laser eye surgery! Apologies, I got dates mixed up.

Retrovertigo

SACH Central wrote: »

I was accessed in Optical Express in Cork today. They quoted me €3,952.50 which included a 20% Aviva discount!

I found this first consultation very good, but christ it's dear :eek: I'mwondering if anyone here has had the procedure done abroad, Bulgaria for example. Might be cheaper there or in the UK

Back in Nov I decided I'd go for the eye surgery myself. Optical Express quoted me 3.5k. Can't remember what thread but another poster recommended LaserVision as well. I went for a consultation and was quoted 2,550 for the works on both eyes (including the intralase). I had the surgery last Friday and honestly could not be happier, it's like waking up from a coma and seeing the world again for the first time.

Dr. Fenton was brilliant and I won't go into any details but he has a very interesting take on the so-called Aviva, VHI discounts that are quoted. Definitely check them out.

AJL

I got quoted for 2465 in optical express for the wavefront. I see on laservision they quote the same. But for intralase it cost another 800 euros. This is for the quicker recovery time. Surprise you got the whole lot for 2550

Retrovertigo

Was surprised myself but was up and running fine the next day. Might be worth going for a consultation.

SACH Central

Retrovertigo wrote: »

was quoted 2,550 for the works on both eyes (including the intralase).

@ Retrovertigo, I rang them after seeing this mail. The receptionist told me they don't use intralase.

Retrovertigo wrote: »

Dr. Fenton was brilliant and I won't go into any details but he has a very interesting take on the so-called Aviva, VHI discounts that are quoted. Definitely check them out.

I can well imagine. I reckon that they first add on the Aviva discount, only then do they 'apply' the discount. It's not a discount at all - if you get my meaning

SACH Central

AJL wrote: »

I got quoted for 2465 in optical express for the wavefront. I see on laservision they quote the same. But for intralase it cost another 800 euros. This is for the quicker recovery time. Surprise you got the whole lot for 2550

I got my accessment from optical express on Tuesday last. I was quoted €2,050 for my right eye & €2,150 for my left eye! Intralase was another €450 per eye on top of that. I then got an Aviva 'discount' of €1,147.50, leaving a total price of €3,952.50.

I'm going to have my eyes done with them. I'd describe myself as a nervous patient. They explained the whole thing very well. The Intralase procedure seems great. Very fast, they said about 45 secs. per eye. Overall I found the staff in Optical Express in Cork very good even though they are just selling you a procedure (I imagine they work on commission or receive commission for every 'sale')

theteal

SACH Central wrote: »

I got my accessment from optical express on Tuesday last. I was quoted €2,050 for my right eye & €2,150 for my left eye! Intralase was another €450 per eye on top of that. I then got an Aviva 'discount' of €1,147.50, leaving a total price of €3,952.50.

I'm going to have my eyes done with them. I'd describe myself as a nervous patient. They explained the whole thing very well. The Intralase procedure seems great. Very fast, they said about 45 secs. per eye. Overall I found the staff in Optical Express in Cork very good even though they are just selling you a procedure (I imagine they work on commission or receive commission for every 'sale')

dang, that seems very expensive, can i ask your current prescription? i got it done a few years ago for a fraction of that price. . .although the place soon went out of business afterwards

you won't regret it either way, still one of the best decisions i ever made!

SACH Central

@theteal, read your post. I'm looking forward to it too, after many, many years putting it off. I'm having it done on 25th Feb.

theteal wrote: »

can i ask your current prescription?

No problem. I had my eyes tested in late December. Got new glasses plus contact lenses. It was the peripheral vision improvement that made me go for the laser.

From my contact lense box:
Right eye: -4.25 Cyl/Axis: -2.25 020

Left eye: -5.75 Cyl/Axis: -2.25 160

Retrovertigo

SACH Central wrote: »

@ Retrovertigo, I rang them after seeing this mail. The receptionist told me they don't use intralase.

Might explain the price then, my mistake.

CBFi

I'm surprised at the high prices in the eye laser clinics.I thought the benefit of the clinic over a private hospital is cost but ,at the recommentation of my optician, I'm going to the mater private and its costing me €1550 per eye with choice of LASIK or lasek. I'm going lasek because I'm a nervous patient.

My optician said private hospital better option as clinics sometimes fly in surgeons and u may not see them again. I dunno tho-that's just what she said.

Very happy with consult with prof okeefe in mater.first eye being done this Friday.nervous is not the word!!

CBFi

Sorry just double checked-it's €1535 per eye.initial consult was €100

Thought that was extortionate in comparison to eye laser clinics but obviously not. Feel safer in private hospital I think.

SACH Central

CBFi wrote: »

first eye being done this Friday.nervous is not the word!!

I wonder wht he hospitals don't do both eyes together. What's the reasoning behind it? With Optical Express the do both eyes the same day. The guy who accessed me (not a surgeon admittedly) said I may well be OK to drive to my check-up the following day. Maybe thats just his sales talk.

@CBFi, good luck on Friday, stick a post on here (when you can see again ) and let us know how you get on

CBFi

Apparently in case something goes wrong...reassuring

I will try and post an update as soon as I can after my surgery, I was just reading another post about the recovery process and apparently using a comp for weeks after is really hard....eh my boss ain't gonna like that one!

CBFi

SACH Central wrote: »

@CBFi, good luck on Friday, stick a post on here (when you can see again ) and let us know how you get on

Thought I'd update you since I'm back at a computer (working from home thanks to my kind employers)

Laser went fine last Friday - weekend was really uncomfortable but once the lense came out on Monday morning it wasnt so bad. Today is first day of no pain, just a bit dry, and I can finally assess my sight. There is a huge improvement but I do have a good bit to go in terms of having 20/20.

Everyone at the Mater is great.

I am slightly concerned as to how I am supposed to work/ drive etc once I have had second eye done on Friday and both are not 20/20. I need to be able to use a computer for work! Anyone have any thoughts on this? Others that got both eyes done at the same time/ like me, one each week?

Thanx

smccart6

Hi,
Anyone interested in getting their laser done in optilase if they are PM me as I have a referral which gives you €100 off you need to say this on your initial consultation.

I had laser done by them about 6 weeks ago and it is the best thing I have ever done. I have better then 20/20 vision and had no dry eye, glare etc. They were so nice to deal with and the follow up is brilliant.

Irishbreeze

SACH Central wrote: »

I wonder wht he hospitals don't do both eyes together. What's the reasoning behind it? With Optical Express the do both eyes the same day. The guy who accessed me (not a surgeon admittedly) said I may well be OK to drive to my check-up the following day. Maybe thats just his sales talk.

@CBFi, good luck on Friday, stick a post on here (when you can see again ) and let us know how you get on

Hi Sach_Central,
How did your laser eye surgery go with OE? how do you find their aftercare?
I am thinking of having mine done with them in Dublin.

Irishbreeze

SACH Central wrote: »

I wonder wht he hospitals don't do both eyes together. What's the reasoning behind it? With Optical Express the do both eyes the same day. The guy who accessed me (not a surgeon admittedly) said I may well be OK to drive to my check-up the following day. Maybe thats just his sales talk.

@CBFi, good luck on Friday, stick a post on here (when you can see again ) and let us know how you get on

This was what I wondered too. So I rang mater private, it seemed I talked to a secretary/nurse/consultant/, she said because they are hospital but not commercial clinics and there are risks.
Now this is just my thought, but I am NOT sure whether it is the case, the reason I think they wanna have one eye done is because of their professional indemnity insurance. Buy compensating one eye of you is always cheaper than having to make a claim that a person is completely blind, eventhough it has never been the case since invention of laser eye surgery. Now,again, its just my purely guess.

ruth12345

smccart6 wrote: »

Hi,
Anyone interested in getting their laser done in optilase if they are PM me as I have a referral which gives you €100 off you need to say this on your initial consultation.

I had laser done by them about 6 weeks ago and it is the best thing I have ever done. I have better then 20/20 vision and had no dry eye, glare etc. They were so nice to deal with and the follow up is brilliant.

I would love to use one of your vouchers but am new to this site and have no idea how to PM. Can anyone help? Thanks in advance

ruth12345

.

amtc

I got mine done (both eyes) in Optilase with Intralase - 3390 minus 20% public sector cover (I have the email if anyone wants it). This was 5 weeks ago and I was -5.75 both eyes. It's great!

Lawros Tache

amtc wrote: »

I got mine done (both eyes) in Optilase with Intralase - 3390 minus 20% public sector cover (I have the email if anyone wants it). This was 5 weeks ago and I was -5.75 both eyes. It's great!

Hi, apologies for thread hijacking but i'd be interested in any info you may have, pm sent.

Many Thanks in advance

applesrock

Hi all, am 28 year woman thinking of taking the plunge and getting the op. I am -7 and -6.5. Would like to hear people's experience re. recovery time e.g. how much time did people book off work after operation? I am office worker an use computers 9-5. What is recommended to allow eyes recover properly? Also need to drive to work - how soon did people start driving after the surgery? Thanks

lahinch_lass

applesrock wrote: »

Hi all, am 28 year woman thinking of taking the plunge and getting the op. I am -7 and -6.5. Would like to hear people's experience re. recovery time e.g. how much time did people book off work after operation? I am office worker an use computers 9-5. What is recommended to allow eyes recover properly? Also need to drive to work - how soon did people start driving after the surgery? Thanks

Basically it depends on the procedure done and how your eyes react to it.
If you get LasIK (the flap being cut) you could be driving after 1 day of recovery, I was able to see reasonably well the day after mine but I got the op on a thursday travelled home(someone else driving) on the friday and was back to work on the monday - office job infront of a computer all day.
for LasEK the recovery is usually longer i think, it could be a week to 10 days before you're driving depending on your eyes reaction. some people can cope with the irritation/sensitivity in the first week and are able to see after a couple of days, but others wouldn't.

It's now 4 months since I had the operation and I'm still having some issues, I had a check up at the weekend and it seems the left eye was over-corrected and there's some hazing on the right cornea so now I'm getting prescription drops & a gel to try and resolve the effects of the hazing. Effectively I can't read any small text if it's low contrast - black on red, red on yellow, white on black as it all blurs too much and I still have starburst/haze issues from lights at nighttime though not as bad as it was at first.