Laser eye surgery?

[PicadillyCircus]

I've been looking at the contact lens thread and saw some people have had laser eye surgery. I have worn glasses for the last 23 years and contact lenses for the last 13 years. I am really short sighted (my glasses have a strength of over 10, so I get free sight tests ) and if I don't have lenses in or glasses on I am as blind as a proverbial bat!

When I was picking up my month's supply of lenses last week there were leaflets about laser surgery, with an interest free offer so that for two eyes it would be about £25 a month for two years. I pay about £15 a month including solutions for contact lenses, plus glasses so the thought is tempting.

Do you have to have had the same prescription for a certain amount of time? Mine get worse every now and again and I wouldn't want to have surgery and then STILL have to wear glasses afterwards.

Can anyone who's had it done give me their opinion?

I would love to wake up in the morning and not have to scrabble about to find my glasses so I can see!

not sure about the technical questions, but I would go to a hospital for this done. here's some info from Moorfields eye hospital

Hi,

I looked into having my eyes lasered about two years ago. I'm also a really high prescription (although not as high as 10) and they warned me in advance that this could make my cornea to thin for them to be able to do the treatment. Nevertheless I had loads of test, but unfortunately they were right and I couldn't have it done.

You also do have to have a stable prescription. That being said, I'm no expect - it's just my experience. The check to see whether you are suitable is free, so why not go along, have the check then you can make up your mind from there.

Hope it goes the way you'd like

Hiya

Well you probably read my message in the other thread and it's the best thing I've ever done. My prescroption was -3 in each eye so PRK was adequate. I think if you are over -6 then they recommend lasik. Although my prescription had changed it was not dramatic and I think they expect only slight changes over the two years prior to the op. I now hav 20/20 in one eye and better than 20/20 in the other eye (didn't even know that was possible). Would point out that most people require reading glasses in their 50s and this is the case whether you have laser surgery or not.

check out optimax.co.uk

I would recommend them. I would be wary of other opticians or those more recent agencies offering this treatment. At Optimax the people their are proper opthalmic doctors, not just someone who has been shown how to use a machine.

I haven't had it done, but I did research it fairly carefully at one point. I would suggest that before you have it done you read Surgical Eyes which is a support site for those who have suffered complications from that type of surgery. Also this document: 10 Common Sense Reasons Why You Should NOT Have Lasik Surgery (the link for the full PDF document is on that page)

I decided my eyesight, no matter how poor, was something I just couldn't risk messing with. Sorry to be so negative - hopefully you'll get some positive stories on here too.

(tbh i agree with georgina. all the opthalmic surgeons i've ever met had glasses, no lasik for them)

I don't mind hearing the negative as well - and TBH having eye sight like this I have got used to it by now. And it's true that I don't want to mess up what I have.

I might have a free consultation somewhere, but really I don't like the idea of being operated on, for something that I might regret.

And I am lucky to live now and not hundreds of years ago, when I would have just been the "blind old bat in the corner" or something like that!

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Dh had this done last year and is delighted with it (prescriotion or around 2 I think). I believe that you can end up still needing glasses, albeit in a reduced prescription, and your vision corrected with glasses may be less perfect than it is now.

Incidentally, has anyone tried those exercise programs you can do to improve your vision. I'm browsing through the books on Amazon now and I'm wondering if they're worth getting or too time consuming and too ineffective to bother.

DH is Mr Squeamish and said it was really really unpleasant but didn't hurt a bit. He had Lasik.

I'd just like to agree with bundle: know quite a few ophthalmologists, and none of them have been tempted to give up their glasses!

Georgina - my mum has used one of those exercise books and it really seems to have slowed down her eye deterioration - i.e. the long sighted with age problem. She only needs glasses when it's poor light & the letters are small e.g. newspaper.
My dad couldn't be bothered & his eyes are now quite bad - he needs glasses a lot of the time.

I keep meaning to try it, but must be like my dad - I've not got around to it!

The book my mum used was called something like 'Take off your Glasses and See'

I also keep thinking about lasik, but am very nervous about it going wrong.

Me too! My inlaws have offered to pay some of the cost which is so nice. But I'm very wary.

I had the first eye done about 8 years ago and the other one done about 6 months later, both done at Moorfields. Cost was £500 per eye.

The BEST money I have ever spent. My prescription was -2.75 in each eye. Recovery time was 24 hours in a dark room with the radio. Just felt like grit in your eyes if you moved them about.

I wouldn't go anywhere else except Moorfields in case there was a problem you are in the best place in the world.

I now take for gratnted the fact that I can see every morning when I wake up. It is absolutely wonderful, has saved me a fortune in time and money. Good luck.

The other thing is, what optician is gonna recommend it, they'll be out of a job!

I had my eyes lasered (lasik) two years ago and it has been fantastic. i can't recommend it enough. i was very shortsighted. i had mine done at Maxivision and i think presription had to be stable for two years, or may have been one. The aftercare there was fantastic, though I have also heard good feedback about Optimax. It really is lifechanging and worth every penny.

I had mine done about 18 months ago and it was fantastic my surgeon and most of the team had had theirs done as well which reassured me.

I was -5 in one eye and -4.75 in the other now have 20/20 in one and better than 20/20 in another. The best moment is getting up in the middle of the night and being able to see .

I would say trawl the internet and look into it before deciding if it's for you.

I'm with the cautious people. When I was at a major consumer research organisation, I commissioned an investigation into laser eye surgery (less than a year ago). We found the companies that perform this surgery lie about the risks and about the experience, qualifications and ability of their employees. It's not very clear what the true risk of problems is as no-one is compiling authoritative figures but the lowest estimate is about 5 per cent; that's one in 20. Would you risk your sight at those odds? Complications which the companies see as 'minor' include haze (a sort of halo effect) and all sort of other things that are permanently in your sight, every time you open your eyes. Losing night vision, so you have to stop driving at night, is another recognised complication. And there's no guarantee your vision will improve to the point where you don't need glasses. There's also no recognised standard of training for people carrying out this surgery; you don't have to be a consultant eye surgeon to do it. Even if the person operating on you is an opthalmic surgeon, they haven't necessarily got the ability to perform corrective surgery when things go wrong.
Yes, there are people who have had good results but I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole... If you do want to go ahead, agree with Secondhandrose, I'd go for Moorfields.

I had it done in the States last October by a surgeon that had every degree/qualification from Harvard that you could ask for, and who has also pioneered some of the techniques widely used. I went to this doctor on the recommendation of a cousin who is a surgeon, who had the proceedure, and was completely happy with the results. All this to say that I think I went to one of the best......his prices certainly would indicate that!

If I had it to do over again, I'm not sure I would. Yes, it's great not to have to reach for glasses first thing in the morning. Yes, it's convenient not to mess about with contact lenses. But, while my distance vision has improved dramatically, my up close vision has deteriorated. I can read OK, but find I can't see well enough to do things like pluck my eyebrows. My surgeon offers a no cost follow up proceedure if you're not completely happy with the result - as long as it's done within a year of the original proceedure. I had the follow up surgery too, but still can't see clearly very close up - and it was crystal clear before the first surgery.

It may be that I was not an ideal candidate for the treatment - evidently the best candidate (according to literature I read) is a male younger than 35. Would I recommend it? Not sure. I think I might have been happier if I had simply gotten a stronger contact lense prescription.

One other word of caution, the surgery doesn't take long at all. Consequently, many clinics tend to go for volume and clinics can be a bit of a production line on surgical days where they wheel 'em in, and wheel 'em out. So, make sure you're going to a clinic/surgeon where you get real individual attention.

Earlybird, are you sure your up close eyesight isn't just going because of your age. I don't know how old you are but your post implied older than 35. My upclose eyesight has started to go and I've just turned 41. It really seemed to happen almost overnight, though it probably has been half a year or so that it's really been happenin over.

I come from a family of ophthalmologists who confidently recommended lasik for me. I was their daughter/sister/niece--and they clearly wouldn't want me to do anything unsafe. A friend of my father's did the surgery, a well-known surgeon in NY who was not prepared to lose my father's friendship, respect by recommending a dodgy course of action. I had it done at age 29, just when lasik became mainstream, which was apparently a good age to do it; if you're much older it has fewer benefits (as Sofia pointed out). But I would NEVER get it done by anyone but an established, experienced specialist at or affiliated with a good hospital (like Moorfields). It's just not something to scrimp on. My German friend went to Belgium for hers "because it's cheaper." She needs to have one eye redone. Patients sometimes need eyes redone even with top specialists, but it's less common.

I'm happy I had it done; it improved my quality of life. I never miss glasses, even when I see trendy & stylish ones about. On the down side, my eyes do get dry, but not dry enough that I've ever felt a need for drops. And as my ophthalmologist father argues, contacts lenses, over long term use, come with risks too.

SofiaAmes - You're right that up close vision deteriorates rapidly over 40, and I am 45 now. But, what often happens with lasik is that distance vision is improved radically with the side effect of a slight loss of clarity up close. At this point I don't need reading glasses, but can't pluck my eyebrows anymore. I could do it the day before the surgery, but haven't been able to do it since, so it seems that I was one of the ones who gained vision, but lost it too. Perhaps I was more susceptible to that side effect given my age.

My impression is that it is best to do this at as young an age as possible as there seems to be a greater chance of complete success. I think if you're older, the results can be less good. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe the doctor didn't explain the limitations of the proceedure to me well enough, or maybe I wasn't an ideal candidate. I'm not unhappy with the results, but I'm not shouting from the rooftops that it's great and everyone should do it.