Great Laser Eye Surgery Hunt

spirit

Hi all,

Quote For example I've not heard anyone discuss that at around 45+ most people develop presbyopia (you need reading glasses). Being short sighted actually delays the onset of presbyopia, so short sighted people who have the operation will BRING FORWARD (by years) the day they need reading glasses! I know this from a personal perspective. I had the operation and within a year I needed reading glasses! Bet you don't see that in large print on the front page of the brochure


actually John, yes they do bring this to your attention. What they tell you is that EVERYONE over the age of 45 is likely to need glasses for reading. This is because as we age our eye muscles stiffen so anyone will get this not just the short or longsighted folk amongst us. this is why I opted for monovision. With this they undercorrect one eye and fully correct the other. What happens is that the slightly short sighted eye does the close up work and the other does the distance vision. This way you dont need glasses for anything (and I am over 45). the alternative is to have both eyes fully corrected but then you will need reading glasses at some point (if you are not already over 45).

I guess that Optimax must be on the ball as well as highly professional skilled, qualified surgeons because they did test my eye for corneal thickness. It was explained to me why he was doing this test (as I would normally object to someone poking me in the eye with a probe!)

It is up to us as consumers to ask questions of these clinics and their staff to see what level of qualifications they have and how many procedures they have done. I certainly wouldn't let a newbie operate on any part of me!

I'm sure that contact lens technology has come on in leaps and bounds - as has laser surgery I expect (not being in that field I wouldn't know) but one thing my surgeon did tell me that opticians don't tell you is that the use of contact lenses over a number of years is not good for your eyes. So you see nothing in life is 100% risk free is it.

Now, not that it's like me to be cynical you understand, but I wonder how many of the scaremongers of laser eye surgery are in fact opticians who of course stand to lose a lot of business if people go off getting themselves lasered? (I'm not connected to the eye surgery industry by the way, I work for a mobile phone company).

johnfthetraveller

Quote For example I've not heard anyone discuss that at around 45+ most people develop presbyopia (you need reading glasses). Being short sighted actually delays the onset of presbyopia, so short sighted people who have the operation will BRING FORWARD (by years) the day they need reading glasses! I know this from a personal perspective. I had the operation and within a year I needed reading glasses! Bet you don't see that in large print on the front page of the brochure UNQUOTE

spirit wrote:

actually John, yes they do bring this to your attention.

When I had the operation, I read it in the small print, but the point was not pointed out to me by any staff. If I hadn't been the kind of person to read the small print, I wouldn't have known.

spirit wrote:

I guess that Optimax must be on the ball as well as highly professional skilled, qualified surgeons because they did test my eye for corneal thickness. It was explained to me why he was doing this test (as I would normally object to someone poking me in the eye with a probe!)

My operation was also done by Optimax, and the DIDN'T do the corneal thickness test.

spirit wrote:

It is up to us as consumers to ask questions of these clinics and their staff to see what level of qualifications they have and how many procedures they have done.

These are certainly good things to find out. I would say the most important thing to ask (and this is also recommended by Which?) is to find out complication rates for the clinic (or even better the surgeon) doing the operation. Most have never documented this, though the govenment body NICE have now requested them to start keeping this info. I would be interested to hear of anyone who has asked for this info, and if they received an informative reply. I've not come across anywhere that does yet. Doing the research to find the best clinic is way beyond the means or capability of the vast majority of customers.

spirit wrote:

opticians don't tell you is that the use of contact lenses over a number of years is not good for your eyes.

Can you point me to any academic studies on this? I don't think you could argue that complication rates for lenses is anywhere near the magnitude of complication rates for laser surgery.

spirit wrote:

I wonder how many of the scaremongers of laser eye surgery are in fact opticians

I wish the opticians WOULD start speaking up. Apart from Which? and NICE and a few academic studies into complication rates, the only people I've come accross trying to balance the rose-tinted view portrayed by the commercial firms (which you call scaremongering for some reason) are people like me who have had bad experiences. I work with computers and have no other 'angle' on this.

spirit

Hi John,

If everyone made the effort to find out how many of their proposed surgeons operations were not 100% successful then hospital wards would be nigh on empty! I am interested in safety as a whole, but you do have to take a balanced view after doing the amount of research you think is necessary. Personally, I don't find it neccessary to go into the type of detail that you are suggesting. However my surgeon's qualifications are listed so if I wanted to then I could contact the Royal College of Surgeons and whoever else, but don't and didn't find it necessary. After all, I wouldn't contact the British Dental Association before choosing a dentist either.

I trust my own judgement after having done the amount of research I found necessary without going paranoid about it.

The need for people to wear glasses is not in the small print - it's in the main body of text and was also mentioned to me at the consultation.

lastly, people are quite capable of working out for themselves whether or not they want laser eye surgery, the point of this thread is to find the cheapest way once consumers have considered having it done and would maybe like to take it further.

acmj

acmj wrote:

Went to Ultralase in Cardiff this week with my partner and was not impressed. Guess what! We both qualified for the most expensive treatment @ £1,495 per eye. No explanation was given as to the benefits of cheaper treatments and when I did ask I got a mumbled 'yes you could have the cheaper treatments'. It all came across as a bit of double glazing sales pitch.

Not impressed will not use.

Went today to http://www.opticalexpress.com/uk/home in Cardiff. Very, very impressed compared to Ultralase. The optican made an incredibly valid point to me. Ultralase can only sell you laser treatment. Ultralse may be good but it felt like a factory and they are expensive. Optical Express are also an opticans so he can sell you laser treatment, glasses or contacts. Also very, very importantly they are 1/2 the price of ultralse. Booked to go mid November ofr my treatment. Will update.

fmt0604

Hi All,

It's almost been three years since I had corrective eye surgery overseas in South Africa. I went to the Umhlanga Rocks Hospital (Dueban, Kwazulu-Natal)and met Dr Colins who was trained here in the UK (Endinburgh Uni) in the early 80's.

The form of surgery I had was Lasik and took about 15 minutes to have both eyes done. There was a pre-op consultation to explore whether I would be a suitable canidate for surgery and to find how much corrective vision would be required. We discussed what could go wrong and how this could be corrected and I then desides to go ahead.

The cost then was R9000 which then was about £600 at the time for both eyes. I have to admit that I was visiting relatives at the time and so the travel costs where never considered.

I'm glad I had it done and now wish that I had had it done 10 years earlier.

Good luck to all,
Guy.

pinku_2

Whilst the purpose of this forum is to find cheap deals, I must emphasis that if an error occurs who best is equiped to deal with it? A formally qualified laser surgeon was my answer!
I researched for months before I decided what to do. I am an optician with 16 years of experience and I needed to make sure I had the best surgeon in UK. I am sorry to say that does not equate to CHEAP. For this you pay for the surgeon and the hugely expensive equipment they use.
For peace of mind I chose The London Vision Clinic. The fee was £4200 for boths eyes last year.
I am extremely happy that I have recommended many of my own patients to this clinic with excellent results and AFTERCARE. I have Professor Rheinsteins mobile in case of emergencies. He did my eyes.
Other clinics have administrators to deal with in an emergency or simply if you are unsure about anything.

Be careful.

If you need any more information of my personal experience please mail me.

Regards


Mandeep

spirit

Hi Pinku,

I disagree with you. I'm glad you as an optician have had yours done, but in this instance it's not a case of getting what you pay for. I and scores of others have taken advantage of the e-bay offer from Optimax. You are just buying their unsold appointments. You get exactly the same care as those who paid full price. You get to speak to the doctor if you have any problems. the doctor does your follow up appointments - so no, you don't get a second rate service at all.

Yes, the lasers and surgeons time is expensive which I guess is why they'd rather sell this on for an amount of money rather than time laying idle.

johnfthetraveller

spirit wrote:

If everyone made the effort to find out how many of their proposed surgeons operations were not 100% successful then hospital wards would be nigh on empty!

Not true. The wards would (and are) still full, because most hospital operations are done on sick people, to cure them. Being short or far sighted is, for the vast majority of people, an inconvenience, not a sickness.

If you compare cosmetic laser eye surgery with ordinary medical operations, the risks may not be more than usual. But if, as I think you should do, you compare cosmetic laser eye surgery with say, buying any ordinary labour saving device (which is what the operation does - it saves you from having to bother with glasses or contact lenses), is it acceptable to have 10% chance of damaging your health, or a small chance of permanent irreparable serious damage? I think not.

spirit wrote:

I am interested in safety as a whole, but you do have to take a balanced view after doing the amount of research you think is necessary. Personally, I don't find it neccessary to go into the type of detail that you are suggesting. However my surgeon's qualifications are listed so if I wanted to then I could contact the Royal College of Surgeons and whoever else, but don't and didn't find it necessary. After all, I wouldn't contact the British Dental Association before choosing a dentist either.

I trust my own judgement after having done the amount of research I found necessary without going paranoid about it.

So basically your efforts to 'satisfying yourself' consisted of seeing if the person had a qualification. Well I'm pretty sure every operator, good or bad, has a qualification, so I don't think this proves anything.

Anyway, this is my last post on the subject. I have made my point. If anyone wants to dismiss the caution of Which?, the current investgations of NICE, and the warnings of people like myself who rue the day they had the operation, then I wish you good luck ... but you will deserve whatever you get!!!

acmj

The website

http://www.lasik-eyes.co.uk/

is seen by many as an independent site where they go for info on UK laser treatment. I did notice that when you look at an individual company and the comments left by people you can click on the name and it gives the e-mail adress of the person who left the comment. Interestingly the comment left by 'Elizabeth Thompson' on Ultralase shows she has a 'lasik eyes' e-mail address? Independent?

http://www.lasik-eyes.co.uk/Clinics/clinicdetails.asp?id=6

George_Bray

johnfrith wrote:

For example I've not heard anyone discuss that at around 45+ most people develop presbyopia (you need reading glasses). Being short sighted actually delays the onset of presbyopia, so short sighted people who have the operation will BRING FORWARD (by years) the day they need reading glasses! I know this from a personal perspective. I had the operation and within a year I needed reading glasses! Bet you don't see that in large print on the front page of the brochure.

Very good point. I mentioned the same point about a year ago at this forum. I got the impression that young people don't think it's relevant to them. For this reason alone, I would NEVER consider having laser eye surgery. I now feel grateful that I had short sight for the first half of my life. From now on, I have an advantage in being able quickly to remove my glasses, to have very clear vision, close-up. Long may it last!

Regards
George