Lasik Eye Doctors

[ThunderSquirrel]

So I am going to finally pull the trigger and get lasik.
I have some consultations set up with 20/20 Institute, Spivak and ICON.

Has anyone had the procedure done by any of the above?

[SouthPaw]

I had mine done at Eye Care Center of Northern Colorado with Dr. Peter Andrews. I am not sure how they compare price wise but that is something I was not willing to go cheap on. He did AMAZING work on my brothers eyes which consisted of planting a permanent contact in both his eyes and doing lasik on top of it.

[rbeau30]

I had PRK done at the Air Force Academy. I didn't get a T-Shirt, but it cost me $0 out of pocket. 6 years later I am happy still.

[To Bear Arms]

I had mine done at 20/20 Institute in Westminster 6 months ago and could not be happier. I now have 20/15 vision. My buddy went to ICON and has been back 4 times now to "fix" his. But he had one eye done for distance and one for close. But he is happy with the outcome.

[nogaroheli]

I had mine done at Icon. They don't feed you bonbons and pamper you but they are very professional and I'm extremely pleased with my results. I had it done 3 years ago and I'm still 20/15, my eyes were awful before that.

edit: I got mine done when they were offering a deal through Groupon too, still got the results I wanted.

[Wulf202]

Lasik vision institute on s colorado 11 years ago. Best decision I ever made

[CHA-LEE]

I did a ton of research before getting LASIK done and listed below some info that helped me make a well informed decision.....

(1) They give you a choice of doing the cornea "Cut" via a blade or a laser. Go with the laser as the pocket it makes during the cutting process makes the flap return to the same spot easier and less likely to come back up or dislodged when hit.

(2) They really do not tell you this up front, but the "Flap" that they cut on the front of your cornea never fully heals/knits to the cornea again. You will forever have a "loose flap" on the front of your cornea. If you have to get a touch up LASIK job done, they simply pull the existing flap back and zap you again. If you are into rubbing your eyes or regularly get poked or bumped in the eye you can dislodge the flap. The good news is that the flap getting dislodged is pretty rare and even more rare if you have the laser cut the flap.

(3) The LASIK process basically removes cornea material to flatten the cornea in order to change the depth of the natural image focal point against your retina. Since they are taking material away from your cornea to change your focal point, this means that your eye muscles have to bend the cornea to a further degree to refocus on close and far items. This will usually show up as a delay in focusing from far to near or near to far. Depending on your age, your eye muscles may not be able to bend the cornea far enough to refocus on up close items, such as reading. This is why so many LASIK patients need to get "Cheater" Reading glasses as they get older.

(4) Since they have to cut a flap in the front of your cornea this severs most of the nerves on the flap its self. Since your body can't "feel" the dryness of the flap area this usually leads to dry eye syndrome. If you have any amount of regular dry eye syndrome before getting LASIK done, you will be absolutely fucked after you get LASIK done. Dry eye syndrome is the number one complaint post LASIK and it should be the number one "Go/No Go" test done by the doctor. There is no way to "Fix" dry eye syndrome other than continually putting artificial tears eye drops in your eyes. There are many LASIK horror stories out there where someone who had dry eye syndrome before getting LASIK done had a crack pot Dr still do LASIK on them and then they are basically stuck with putting artificial tears in their eyes all day long for the rest of their life.

(5) Your default "relaxed eye" focus will be at distance. This means that you will normally have to refocus to see closer items. When I wore glasses my default "relaxed eye" focus was at about hands length away from my face, so I usually had to refocus to see far away. After getting LASIK done I basically had to relearn how to focus on things because the procedure flip flopped my default "relaxed eye" focus.

(6) Your low light and night vision WILL be diminished. I noticed a significant decrease in low light and night vision ability post LASIK. I use to be able to wear sunglasses indoors and still see fairly well. Now I can't even think about wearing sunglasses indoors because it is way too dark. With the latest LASIK laser technologies you really don't have to worry about star burst or halo's around lights issues unlike the older laser technologies.

(7) The Dr will give you a medicine eye drop regiment to follow after the procedure. Follow the procedure without fail. One of the medicine drops will sting and give you cloudy vision, this is normal. Resist the urge to stop taking this medicine eye drop so you can see clearly. Doing so will dramatically delay the healing process of the cornea and flap.

(8) It will take you YEARS to break the habit of subconsciously pushing up or adjusting your glasses, which you are no longer wearing. It has been 5 years since I got LASIK done and I still catch myself doing these crazy habits when I get tired.

[CHA-LEE]

My wife and I both got our LASIK done at Spivak. Both procedures were drama free and the care provided before and after the procedure was top notch. I give Spivak two thumbs up for a job well done.

[hghclsswhitetrsh]

Prices? I'm not trying to find the cheapest. Just wanna know if it's in my budget.

[TFOGGER]

I had mine done at 20/20 down by Park Meadows about 10 years ago. I went from 20/150 without glasses to 20/15. I am noticing that my near accommodation is not what it used to be, I now need readers for extremely fine close up work, like reading the numbers on carb jets. Still, I am tickled with the results. Total cost at the time was about $2100 an eye, which I did on 24 month zero interest financing.