Anyone had laser eye treatment?

[WaxOnFeckOff]

DS1 (19) currently considering it and had an assessment and been deemed suitable. Because of his prescription etc he's been quoted £5.5k. It's a lot of money but potentially life changing.

What's your view/experience if you've had it done?

@AutumnRose1 the clinic I went to charged a deposit that got taken off the cost of treatment or refunded if they said you weren't suitable for treatment. You lost it if you decided not to go ahead or go elsewhere.

19 is too young- you have to be 21 to have it done anywhere reputable.

I had mine at Moorfields and my DS had his done as soon as he turned 21 at Optegra. Neither would do it on a 19 year old.

Professor David Gartry is fab- he works at Moorfields. He did my lens replacement and subsequent laser. I paid for an initial assessment and got all costs and options. I travelled from Yorkshire to go- other than the travel the costs were about the same as Optegra locally.

davidgartry.co.uk

He won't do it until they are 21. I know as i asked him about my son when he was 19.

Gruey thank you.

AutumnRose: is it normal to pay for consultation?

There was no consultation fee where I went at the Sheffield Vision Centre.

I paid a £500 deposit at the London Vision Clinic which was refundable if I wasn’t suitable for surgery but not if I decided not to go ahead. The initial suitability consultation took 3 hours though with several specialised tests by different people so that seemed fair to me. It wasn’t just a chat and a flick through old prescriptions and was much more comprehensive than the kind of eye tests you have at an opticians.

Katrina thank you.

Optegra wouldn’t do laser on my DD due to cornea thickness, though they said some clinics would have done it. She has had lens replacement with no big problems. Surgeons have been doing cataract surgery and replacing lenses for a long time, it’s not very risky.

I had it done in a hospital by a top eye consultant. One of the best in our country.
It's great.
I wouldn't do high street laser.
Hospital consultant in a hospital would be the only way I'd advise someone to do it.
Your sight is sooo precious.

I don’t know where you are, OP, but if anywhere near Manchester this is the consultant who did my lens replacement surgery - one eye at a time, to make sure all was ok, & under GA (because I have very long eyeballs or something )

He does both NHS & private, laser & surgery.

mft.nhs.uk/royal-eye/consultants/mr-arun-brahma/

Thanks for all the advice and information. We are now looking into all the options and wont be jumping into anything quickly. We are in Scotland.

I agree that eyesight is very precious and we are aware that whilst his glasses are expensive ( need to thin down the lenses) and awkward and they do limit his life and confidence, they do correct his vision to 20/20.

Although he is only 19, his prescription is virtually unchanged since 2016 and he'll be 20 in the summer. We might approach my local independent about trying contacts again as I trust her more than the high street. If he was able to find something tolerable it would give a bit of a stop gap (though doesn't help his swimming issues).

With contacts, maybe look at Ortho K, they are worn at night and they squash the eyeball and you can see for the next day

I’ve heard of Ortho K. Freaks me out but I have insomnia so would be no good to me anyway.

I think his prescription is far too strong for Ortho K. From what I can see, -4 seems to be the highest they go.

My husband had it done in the 80's when it first came out. His sight is still perfect.

IMHO he should think carefully about having this done. I think he is too young and his prescription is toward the higher end . I would say he needs to consult an NHS eye facility such as Moorfields or the eye hospital in Manchester which both have private suits. I would also say he should instead continue to use contact lenses.

@Arnoldthecat. At the moment he hasn't been able to wear lenses since his roaccutane treatment, every type he has tried have irritated his eyes and made them very dry. That was via a high street supplier though so I am hoping that maybe the independent might be able to help more.

I'd say definitely go to an independent optom. Thats what i have always used and get excellent service from the one i use. I'd also say for maximum contact comfort stick to daily spherical lenses if at all possible. Many high street optoms will sell you torics just because you have a degree of astig, but in reality, many people with astig can get by just fine with spherical lenses.

Spherical lenses are simpler, thinner,dont have to rotate/locate etc so less chance of irritation/complications.

I have recently been trialling the newly introduced J&J Acuvue fortnightly spherical photochromic contacts and they are brilliant ! They give great contrast,auto dim in bright light, give sharper vision etc

What contacts is he on at the moment/usually use? Are they spherical/toric/daily/monthly ??

Remember....any kind of eye surgery is permanent. Trialling different lenses at least for the short term, is reversible.

It troubles me the way eye surgery is marketed as if its some kind of trip to the beauty parlour to get anti wrinkle injections. Its much much more important than that.

I am booked for surgery on 24th January with Optimax. There was no pressure to go ahead with the surgery so it is concerning you felt that at your appointment. My prescription is -4 and the cost is £3500- Optimax have a fixed price.

Good luck fluffygal,, could you keep us updated please??

Before he had roaccutaine, he was just on toric dailies which he managed fine but didn't really wear as often as he thought he would. He was only 12/13 at the time of starting. He stopped wearing them at all during his treatment and for a while afterwards. So that was well over a year. He then tried lots of different versions of mainly monthlies I think but really wasn't getting on well with any. I can't remember which specific ones as he'd just get given a pair at a time, usually already in when leaving and just a case to pop them into. He then had to go back onto roaccutaine again and he's now been off again for just over 6 months.

I'm going to get him an appointment at my optician which is where he went when he first had lenses but we ended up in high street for both boys more because of ds2 who kept losing his glasses and the independent didn't have such a good range of frames so it ended up being an expensive business whereas high Street were usually free and included the nice frames. Plus they were more reasonable for the thining down as it was generally cheaper to ignore ds1s NHS voucher and go with whatever deal the opticians had.

To be fair his glasses have always been good and different high Street tested that he gets 20/20 correction with them. The NHS voucher didn't include anything for the thinning element as its not officially required but without it the glasses were very heavy and also terrible to look at.

Yes sure @Arnoldthecat

OP how did your son find the toric lenses? I think it’s the toric bit that makes them impossible for me to get used to.

He get on fine and I wear toric varifocal lenses with no issue but i've worn lenses for about 30 years and everything from GPs to dailies to monthlies etc.

I don't notice any issue but funnily the woman in the opticians we saw about the laser treatment said she had issues with toric lenses as well. I didn't even know that was a thing.

The optician told me that it was the fact the lenses are weighted that means I always feel I’ve got something in my eye, she said it was common and toric users are the ones most likely to ditch lenses. I can have them in for about two hours but I’m conscious of them the whole time.