Your first visit to a LASIK Eye Doctor
Each LASIK practice handles the introductory meeting with prospective new
LASIK patients differently.
Here is a list of some of the things that a practice will offer to do when
you call them and make your first office visit. Generally you will
experience these in different order and emphasis with each practice.
1) Watch a video about LASIK to understand the basics of the procedure.
2) A meeting with the doctor and/or his staff to talk about LASIK
surgery. Often they want to assess if your expectations for improved
vision are realistic. No doctor wants a "problem patient" that is unhappy
with their results and a responsible practice will do their best to make
sure your expectation of post-LASIK vision is reasonable.
3) Discussion on the price and the various financing options available to
pay for the surgery.
Eye Exams
4) Pachymetry - this measures the cornea thickness which is important to
see if you have enough tissue to afford a flap being cut as part of the
LASIK procedure.
5) Topography - this measures the shape of the cornea and can give an
indication as to the health of your cornea. Often this is used to see if you
have Keratoconus, where the cornea is a conical shape instead of the
spherical.
6) Pupil size - Pupils that are 7 Millimeters wide or more can be
problematic in the LASIK procedure.
7) Your vision prescription is taken. This is generally done without and
then with your glasses or contacts on. Sometimes they use a lens meter to
check the prescription of your glasses.
8) Determination of your dominant eye. This is important especially if you
opt for the monovision LASIK procedure. This is when one eye is corrected
to 20/20 for distance (best attempts to get you there) with the other eye
intentionally left slightly nearsighted. This tactic is sometimes used to
postpone the need for reading glasses when Presbyopia occurs (usually in
your 40s).
Points of awareness you should have:
9) When you wear contact lens, the shape of your cornea is impacted by the
physical pressure of having the lens on your eye. Imagine the impact if
you have worn contacts everyday for 10 years or more. If you have
measurements taken and the LASIK surgery performed without allowing the eye
to return to its original pre-contact wearing shape... when the cornea
finally does relax back to its original shape this will negatively impact
your vision.
Depending on which contact lens you wear:Gas permeable, Toric lens
(Astigmatism correction), Soft lens extended-wear or Soft lens daily-wear,
the LASIK practice will want you out of your lens for a different length of
time. The longer you are out of your lens the better.
10) Sometimes the wearing of contact lens will inhibit the amount of oxygen
your eye receives. This oxygen deprivation can sometimes cause new
abnormal blood vessels to grow closer to the surface of your eye in order
to gain more oxygen. The cornea normally has no blood vessels. This can be
a problem when the flap is cut.
11) The only way to measure whether your cornea has reached it true
curvature is to take an initial measurement, then wait a period of time and
measure it again to see if it has changed. Waiting until your have a
stable cornea may be the most important thing.
12) The full dilated eye exam while normally done on a second visit, is a
comprehensive eye exam that gives the doctor a complete picture of your
eyes and vision. Normally this lasts between one and two hours and is
often where the stability of the cornea determines if your eyes are ready
for LASIK.
If you live in a remote area, some practices will do much of this in your
initial meeting. Geographical practicality and the desire to insure your
cornea stability (from wearing contacts) can sometimes come into
conflict. Usually this is a two step process with the dilated eye exam
occurring during the second office visit.
While the information provided above is NOT medical advice, you
may find these mentions useful when talking to a LASIK Coordinator.
This is one of the terms Laser Vision Coordinator, Refractive Surgery
Coordinator, etc. used to describe the front office person that interacts
with new LASIK patients.
