Anyone had laser eye surgery on fairly poor short sight?

[tvaerialmagpiebin]

My prescription is something like minus 7 in one eye and minus 4 in the other. I had an assessment at Optical express last year hoping that they would be able to do a zippy quick cheapish laser procedure but no. My prescription and quite dry eyes meant I would not be able to have Lasik or Lasek but probably have to have implantable lens operation (way up in the thousands). Just wondered if anyone has had any kind of surgery with a prescription like mine or has any advice. I wear contact lenses but they get dry and uncomfortable, and I find specs so uncomfortable and miss the "all-round" vision of contacts.....

I'm sure a friend had bog standard laser surgery with a 10 prescription for short sight.

I've also been turned down for surgery due to having -7 in both eyes. I also have thinner than average corneas, they said if my corneas had been thicker than average they could have done it. As far as I'm aware there is currently no option.

No reasonably priced option I should say.

No, sorry, you are unlikely to get a cheap option. However, your prescription isn't that high, so I suspect it's the dry eyes that were the deciding factor (unless they mentioned thin corneas, large pupils, or other oddities in addition). Did they not give any advice on the possible cause of your dry eyes or things you could do about them (besides using drops)?

Have you researched other possible places for getting laser eye surgery done? I know (having researched the possibility of getting this done myself) that Centre for Sight (based at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, or Queen Anne Street, London) has an excellent reputation, will sometimes accept people turned down by other centres and offers treatment for people with up to minus 12 dioptres of short sightedness. The consultations prior to treatment are done by corneal eye surgeons. Obviously, though, it is NOT a cheap place to get laser eye surgery - consultations cost £110 (some are offered free, on a first come, first served basis) and the basic intralasik is £1,775 per eye (more if you need, eg, tissue saving intralasik or other more sophisticated types of intralasik). Also, there is no guarantee they would be willing to do laser eye surgery on you either, as incurably dry eyes and laser eye surgery are an exceptionally bad combination, and if you don't live in the South East, it would be silly to travel all that way, anyway.

My prescription was a bit over -7 in both eyes, and I have large pupils (basically I look like I'm on drugs all the time). At one point (6 years ago) I was told I couldn't have laser eye surgery because of the combo of high prescription/large pupils. One or the other they could contend with, but not both. Was told about the implantable contact lens option, but it was way more expensive, so I gave up for a while.

The surgery advances all the time, and I do think some places are better than others. Agree you will not find a cheapie option (the adverts are so unrealistic). I was finally able to have the surgery 3 years ago, now have 20/20 vision and no problems with halos (associated with large pupils).

I used Ultralase. Wouldn't give up completely, but you need to be realistic about what it will cost. For me, it will take about 10 years for the surgery to have been 'financially worth it'. Both eyes was about £3500 altogether and I got interest-free credit for three years (paid off this summer!).

SKSS, your post reminded me, I also had the thin cornea problem! They said they could do the surgery, but unlike most people, there would be no chance of further surgical correction if the result wasn't as good as I wanted. Ultralase was good as far as managing my expectations--was told I would probably still need reading/driving glasses. I think they surprised themselves with me, I certainly don't need either!

Thanks everyone. I think I will leave it for a year or so to see how th technology advances. Maybe a nice 40th birthday present??