laser eye surgery

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Has anyone got experience of laser eye surgery? I'm very short-sighted with astigmatism, been wearing gas permeable contact lenses for years. Hate wearing glasses as i just don't suit them, and woud just love to be able to see perfectly without any help.

Am put off by cost, and also "what if it goes wrong?" type thoughts........

I had mine done, don't regret it for a moment

cost roughly £2.5k, took 45seconds each eye

went in at 8am, took minutes to do, was like lying down at the dentist, went home and napped until 2pm

could see through a white fog which gradually lifted over the course of the day and was cleared to drive again by the next morning

haven't looked back!

don't let cost be the main factor

if i was going to have this done I'd have it done properly eg at Moorfields eye hospital where it's more expensive and any "profits" they make go into research into eye disease

I had mine done 6 years ago and am very happy with the results.

The horror stories tend to apply to patients who were not particularly good candidates for laser eye surgery.

How short sighted are you?

I'd love to have this done but £2.5k! Blimey! I really can't afford that.

My eyesight has deteriorated again to the extent that I need to lift my glasses off to be able to see things very close up and I do that thing where you have to move things back and forward to get them in focus.

I read that Denise van Outen recently had this done and is over the moon with the results.

Oggsdog, the Denise Van outen article is what brought this up again really. I looked at the website of the place where she had it done and it seemed reasonably cheap, and also said that it was a consultant from Moorfields Eye hospital that carries out all the work. One thing that had me going though was the fact that it was saying if you recommended so many other people to have it done, then you got some money back or something.

I am VERY short-sighted, scienceteacher, like -6.5 in one eye, and -5 or something in the other. Forgotten the exact prescription but something like that.....

The major, major thing that puts me off is I've heard there are rare cases of something going wrong and the person hasn't been able to wear contact lenses ever again. The thought of ever having to wear glasses every day makes me shudder.

What about this?

When I had mine done, my surgeon's cut off was -7. After this, the risks or halo-ing and poor night vision increased. Technology will have moved on since then, though, so perhaps he takes people with worse eyesight now.

i had it done in 2001, i had it done by dr gartry at moorefields, it cost around £2.500 and was worth every penny. i was very short sighted (-6 in one eye -5.5 in other) the next day i could read sub titles on the tv.
personally i felt happier having it done at moorefiels, i felt that if there was a problen the best place to be is an eye hospital!

how long does it last nancy?

th eone thing i read is that you have to be prepared to accept you will always have to wear glasses for reading in the future?

i am 33 and my eye sight is still fine, but i dont think people generally start to need reading glasses until they are a little older, so there is every chance that i will.
tbh having to wear reading glasses is nothing in comparison to the milk bottle glasses i used to wear!
i needed glasses from a about the age of 4, i had worn contacts for some years and i was beginning to get problems from the lenses.

regarding the price, even though i wore lenses, i still had to buy glasses, so the op has paid for itself really.

Hi
I am thinking about this at the mo and your OP could really have been me. DS says that I look like a man with my specs on....fab.

Optimax have called me and offered a free consultation to see if I am suited and then each eye costs from £395- 895 depending on how high your prescription is. She said you pay nothing until next year and then in instalments interest free for 2 years. So much more affordable.

I asked about success rate and obviously she said they were fine. 99.67% from around 300,000 cases and the failures were ones that had 'unstable' prescriptions to start with or were over done or under done by the laser treatment ????

I would like to know peoples experience of Optimax.

The last thing they said to me before going under the knife was to make sure I knew that I would still need reading glasses in the future.

I'm at that place now - I don't need them to read normal print, but do for small-print, and for sewing. I need more light for reading than I used to.

My distance vision is as good as it ever was. My correction turned out to be 25/20, and I still feel that I can make out distant objects better than others.

My hubby had his eyes done at the same time as me. His vision was a bit worse than mine, and he had a bad astigmatism. He was really happy with his correction and doesn't yet need reading glasses (and he is older than me ).

the thing with reading glasses is taht you would need them or bi focals anyway, so that didnt really worry me too much.

i got interested in optimax. but i am about 200 miles away form the nearest clinic.
Also in thier advery they say about the interest free thing, but it only applies 'if you take our best laser eye treatment.

I was a bit . I was to pay in installements but don't want the 2nd best treatment thanks!!!

Nancy, if your distance vision is fine, you don't need bifocals (or two pairs of glasses, like my parents). You just perch a pair of cheap half-moons on the end of your nose when you need to read. You look up over the glasses when you need to see something else.

Nancy, if your distance vision is fine, you don't need bifocals (or two pairs of glasses, like my parents). You just perch a pair of cheap half-moons on the end of your nose when you need to read. You look up over the glasses when you need to see something else.

NorksDrift, that OrthoK thing looks interesting. Still quite pricey though - 40 quid a month?! It would probably be cheaper to get the laser done....

AFAIK most opticians (by which I mean all professionals in that line) are still not having it done themselves. Which would put me off.

I know Ponders - I asked the contact lens lady at vision express what she thought of it and she said "you only get one pair of eyes" which kind of scared me.
Although she would of course lose a contact lens customer so not too worried about that!

I would love to have this done, but DH is still not convinced. He has a few eye surgeons as clients. None of them have had it done, they wear glasses, and as yet won't recommend it as long term effects are not, in their opinion, fully known.

But I would love to be able to wake in a morning and not have to sort lens r galsses out.

My sister had this done about 14 years ago - but only in one eye!

She wore contact lenses, but developed a problem in one eye, so she couldn't wear a lens in it any more, which meant she had to go back to glasses. She just had that one eye lasered, and still wears a contact lens in the other. She feels it's a great result - she can see really well in the lasered eye, and pretty well in the other eye with a lens. As one eye is now very good, she can find her way around without contact lens/glasses if she has to. but she know if there are ever any problems with the lasered eye, the other one is still OK with a contact lens.

I had it done over 3 years ago and only wish I'd done it a little sooner. I paid £850 at the time on an offer with Optimax.
I love being specs/lenses free.
Everytime I find myself clock watching in bed at night (often as I'm insomniac) I'm grateful we scrimped so I could have it done. Oh and great for swimming as well.

Yes it is interesting most opticians don't have it done - I'm a shortsighted optician and haven't: as all the opticians and eye specialists I know haven't either.

I suppose it is taking a healthy structure and doing something to it which could potentially cause harm.Long term possible effects also; as relatively hasn't been around that long. Some corneas (the surface they do the laser on) do have residual scars visible when we look on the biomicroscope (often a circle shape where the flap was created).These eyes will need further surgery when older.At the very least if we all live long enough (usually 70ish) we'll all have our cataracts done.

Another factor is opticians get to see the people where the results aren't too great and there are always some.

But we do get people who are very happy also.

As 40 approaches you need readers anyway and being shortsighted is a benefit as you can just take your distance spectacles off to read.I'd just be replacing one pair of spectacles with another.I always have the thinnest spectacle lenses so desite being pretty short sighted they look fine.I'll get rid of my distance spectacles when I get my cataracts eventually done!

I would definately not go for the cheapest clinic and would want to know who was performing the procedure and their individual success rates.

Went to a talk the other day and the spectacle wearing laser eye surgeon was asked why he hasn't had it done himself and skirted around the question a bit.Didn't come away thinking I wanted it done myself but then I'm cautious anyway.I know it it a great thing for some as mentioned above.