Laser eye surgery

jeepie

Anyone done it? Why did you pick to go where you did and were you pleased with the results? I'm more worried by the confusing pricing than the procedure as I want both to be as straightforward as possible..............

bails87

Itsquite
expensive
areyou
sureyou
needit?

rolf_f

Get an expensive carbon bike instead and save your eyes from going furry and blind in 25 years time.

Gussio

My brother opted, rather than laser surgery, to have his eyeballs slit open and lenses inserted :shock: now has perfect 20/20 vision.

Headhuunter

I've held back because it sounds like in about 20 years I could be wearing glasses again anyway. Even after laser eye surgery, your eyes continue to change shape, the muscles weaken, the lens changes etc etc and most older adults end up long sighted (need glasses for reading) whether you have had laser eye surgery or not. So if I'm likely to be wearing glasses again in 20 years, I don't see the point really....

rkdj

yip.
had it done 5 years ago - and have not regretted it.
makes no diffence when biking though as you should wear glasses anyway.
it does mean you get to wear cool glasses on the bike though.
brilliant off the bike - especially in cold weather, in the rain etc. - no 'fogging' up when you go into a warm place after being outside etc.
ok - so your eyes will still deteriorate and in time you might still need glasses - there are so many things that might result in you needing glasses in the future ie the age you get laser done etc but given the choice i would go for it.

sketchley

PureVision contact lenses, or PureVision Toric (if you have astigmatism). Continuous wear contact lens, they are very nice. Cost me £74 for 6 months supply from the internet. Pop a new pair in at the start of the month then sleep in them and everything, at end of month one day off with glasses then new pair in. Cheaper and safer than surgery. Thoroughly recommend them.

Also while some opticians say continuous wear is dangerous if you get an infection, my optician takes the view that most infection come when taking out or putting in lenses as your not doing this with these less chance of infection. Furthermore every time I have a contact lens check he says it looks like I don't wear contact lens, as lenses are so thin and I don't scratch my eyes putting them in every day.

I would strongly recommend a trial before looking at laser surgery.

Chris

EKE_38BPM

A friend of mine had laser eye surgery and he said it was great, as long as you can handle the smell of your eyes burning.

Its not for me, I'll stick with glasses rather than having a laser shot at my eyes every 10 years or so.

lardboy

EKE_38BPM wrote:

...as long as you can handle the smell of your eyes burning...

Quoted for importance.

squired

I had it done something like four years ago after being made redundant at work and thinking it was worth a go with some of the cash I'd been given. My right eye was great immediately, but my left eye didn't focus properly for a couple of months (caused me massive problems in my new job).

Once my left eye started working properly (or at least focusing) I was constantly getting pain in the eye, often accompanied by prolonged headaches. The company I got it done by (Postoptics) just kept on telling me my eye had healed well and the problems would go away. Eventually I just stopped going back to them as clearly they weren't interested.

The eye pain eventually stopped after 18 months.

After 2 years I needed glasses and my eyesight has gradually descended towards (but isn't quite as bad as at this point) the level it was pre-laser.

When I visited an optician recently he told me that he'd never seen someone have the level of detrioration I've experienced after laser surgery, so I am by no means an example of how it is likely to turn out. However, I can certainly say it hasn't been a good experience for me.

Dez666

I had PRK laser surgery at Optimax in North London a little over 11 years ago. To this day I still consider it the best £1000 I've ever spent on anything... ever ;-)

I was mildly short-sighted (-2.5 in both eyes) but have had perfect-enough vision ever since then. The recovery for PRK is quite laborious and a bit painful (which is why they don't do plain PRK any more) but not having to ever worry for 10 years or so about glasses/lenses/etc has been wonderful.

There are always issues with this sort of thing (fear, pain, recovery time, long term degradation, etc) but if you set reasonable expectations (plus a little bit of MTFU) then you should be very pleased with the results!

As you can see above there are many and varied opinions about things like this, but my 2 pence worth, is that it's well worth doing.

Feel free to contact me if you want to know any more... D :>

jonny_trousers

Had LASIC at Ultralese a little over three years ago now and all things considered I am very happy with the results. My right eye developed astigmatism after the surgery and they did offer to correct it at no extra charge with a second treatment, but I decided it didn't bother me enough to want to have surgery again (not that the procedure was a big deal).

The minuses were the cost (3 grand for me, but where my vision is concerned I wanted the best available), that my eyes can feel a little dry and blurry when particularly tired, and that I suffer a small amount of electric light haloing, but that doesn't really bother me. On the plus side, however, I live a life without specs (or at least will do for some years to come. I fully expect to need reading glasses one day, but that's cool as I actually like wearing specs, just not all of the time).

Ultralese have a web forum where you can read of other people's experiences, but do be warned, if you visit it you may never dare have the procedure (do also understand that people who are happy about a service or product talk about it on the internet far less than those who are disgruntled - just see how many pages of the "rants" thread there are here over the "anti-rants").

My advice? If you can handle contacts, stick with them for a few more years as laser surgery will only get better and cheaper over time. If you can't - like me - go for it, I have absolutely no regrets.

EKE_38BPM

JT, could you smell your eyes burning? That would really freak me out.

jonny_trousers

EKE_38BPM wrote:

JT, could you smell your eyes burning? That would really freak me out.

I kind of could, but it's no biggy. Far rather that than the option of having a scalpel cutting into it.

davis

Wouldn't touch it with yours, thanks. (And they wouldn't touch me, either)

Had enough people noodling about inside my peepers (proper eye surgery). Don't fancy paying for more.

Would seriously consider contact lenses if they're an option for you, especially as most of the surgery doesn't seem to be permanent.

Headhuunter

EKE_38BPM wrote:

A friend of mine had laser eye surgery and he said it was great, as long as you can handle the smell of your eyes burning.

Its not for me, I'll stick with glasses rather than having a laser shot at my eyes every 10 years or so.

You can't get it done every 10 years. Once it's done, it's done and if your eyes deteriorate after surgery, you have to wear glasses, you can't repeat the operation...

sketchley

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Had LASIC at Ultralese a little over three years ago now and all things considered I am very happy with the results. My right eye developed astigmatism after the surgery and they did offer to correct it at no extra charge with a second treatment, but I decided it didn't bother me enough to want to have surgery again (not that the procedure was a big deal).

The minuses were the cost (3 grand for me, but where my vision is concerned I wanted the best available), that my eyes can feel a little dry and blurry when particularly tired, and that I suffer a small amount of electric light haloing, but that doesn't really bother me. On the plus side, however, I live a life without specs (or at least will do for some years to come. I fully expect to need reading glasses one day, but that's cool as I actually like wearing specs, just not all of the time).

Ultralese have a web forum where you can read of other people's experiences, but do be warned, if you visit it you may never dare have the procedure (do also understand that people who are happy about a service or product talk about it on the internet far less than those who are disgruntled - just see how many pages of the "rants" thread there are here over the "anti-rants").

My advice? If you can handle contacts, stick with them for a few more years as laser surgery will only get better and cheaper over time. If you can't - like me - go for it, I have absolutely no regrets.

Seriously I live a life without specs, (apart from one day per month), and I have none of these side effects, this cost my £148 per year which is not a lot compared to surgery. I'm very short sighted with astigmatism. As said above continuous wear contact lenses are excellent. Please try them, your optician will even give you a free trial. I was seriously considering surgery until I found them, now I don't notice I'm wearing them, I have no faffing about in the morning or evening as I sleep in them, no solutions and no problem. I have no intention of surgery now I've found these.

Also before I found these lenses which apart from being continuous wear are very thin and don't dry out, I could not find a contact lens that I found comfortable and more importantly didn't cause me to loose my place when writing code or test at work every time I blinked. These lenses are excellent. In fact I only remember just how bad my eyesight is during the one day off per month.

MonkeyMonster

Headhuunter wrote:

Once it's done, it's done and if your eyes deteriorate after surgery, you have to wear glasses, you can't repeat the operation...

I thought that depended on what you had done and to what part of the eye... It wasn't totally clear cut.

Headhuunter

MonkeyMonster wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

Once it's done, it's done and if your eyes deteriorate after surgery, you have to wear glasses, you can't repeat the operation...

I thought that depended on what you had done and to what part of the eye... It wasn't totally clear cut.

Really? Perhaps I'm wrong then... I always had the impression that you got your eyes lasered once and it couldn't be redone...

jonny_trousers

Headhuunter wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

A friend of mine had laser eye surgery and he said it was great, as long as you can handle the smell of your eyes burning.

Its not for me, I'll stick with glasses rather than having a laser shot at my eyes every 10 years or so.

You can't get it done every 10 years. Once it's done, it's done and if your eyes deteriorate after surgery, you have to wear glasses, you can't repeat the operation...

I don't believe that's true. Your eyes remain susceptible to age related degeneration, just like anyone else's, and the chances of needing appropriate correction in the future are there, but not as a consequence of the surgery. I have heard of people having the procedure more than once, but I personally wouldn't as any invasive surgery will leave scarring, no matter how subtle.

rolf_f

Headhuunter wrote:

Perhaps I'm wrong then... I always had the impression that you got your eyes lasered once and it couldn't be redone...

Yeah, once they've done you once there's not enough eye left to do it again. Infact, if you've been a bit over lasered, you can wear a hole in your eye if you blink too much.

Headhuunter

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

EKE_38BPM wrote:

A friend of mine had laser eye surgery and he said it was great, as long as you can handle the smell of your eyes burning.

Its not for me, I'll stick with glasses rather than having a laser shot at my eyes every 10 years or so.

You can't get it done every 10 years. Once it's done, it's done and if your eyes deteriorate after surgery, you have to wear glasses, you can't repeat the operation...

I don't believe that's true. Your eyes remain susceptible to age related degeneration, just like anyone else's, and the chances of needing appropriate correction in the future are there, but not as a consequence of the surgery. I have heard of people having the procedure more than once, but I personally wouldn't as any invasive surgery will leave scarring, no matter how subtle.

Yeah that's what I said before, that your eyes still deteriorate after surgery but I thought that you could only get the top of your eyes scratched at once!

Cychologist

Had it done last fall. Excellent. I recommend it.

cee

I had mine done 2 years ago.

had LASEK treatment at Optical Express....

that is where they do not cut a flap.....they soften the top layer with alcohol, then push it to the side....then they laser inside.....before sliding the top layer back over.

Cost me just more the 2 grand...i honestly do not regret it for a second.

I chose the LASEK, for the simple reason that the top layer is more stable aftwards, because no flap has been cut....although the downside is that recovery period is generally longer. Most people have LASIK, which involves cutting a flap, either mechanically, or with the laser itself.....

So...my eyes felt gritty for about a week, the procedure was uncomfortable...but not painful....and while they were not perfect as soon as i opened my eyes the next day....they are now better than 20/20 (actually...closer to 20/18 ).....

I was told, that if the vision dropped...i could have the procedure carried out again.

There is a lot of info out there...and the terminology is very confusing...

my suggestion would be to get a consultation at a couple of different places.....then make an informed choice about whether

a: you want it done at all
b: if so...what treatment you want
c: who you want it done by

Personally...the cost was the last thing on my mind...it isn't exactly the sort of thing where i just wanted it as cheaply as possible.

Couldn't smell my eyes buring either.

gbsahne001

no use to me, having had partial retinal detachment and laser surgery (twice) to seal the tear