“My only regret is I didn’t do it sooner!”
-Sarah F., LASIK patient, May 2017
Congratulations, you scheduled your consultation for LASIK eye surgery, what’s next?
The Overview:
The LASIK eye exam consultation is when our doctors determine if you’re a good candidate for LASIK. (Spoiler alert: we also want all of your visits with us to be relaxing and a little fun too.) Come early and enjoy our Starbucks Coffee, freshly baked cookies, and relax in one of our massage chairs. Every chance we get we’ll sit you in a comfortable spot and swiftly usher you through your visit with ease in as timely of a manner as possible. After you get checked in, you’ll meet with our staff and they’ll conduct a traditional and noninvasive eye exam. Your entire visit will last around one hour. We separate the patient consultation and the pre-operative exams. Some centers don’t. Some centers will invite a patient in for a 2.5- 3hour evaluation as a standard as the first step. So our process is different. At our center, patients have the option of just coming in for the consultation or coming in for a consultation and pre-operative exam.
What Happens:
During your consultation at ClearChoice we’ll conduct a free eye exam called Auto Refraction- tells us the strength of the patient’s prescription and if it’s within the limits of what LASIK can correct. Our team will also do a screening to determine if you have thick enough corneas for LASIK surgery. We use a Pentacam which gives curvature of the cornea, shows the topography of the cornea, and thickness of the cornea in about 20 spots. It also tells us axial length-distance from front to back of the eye. All of these screenings are painless.
While you’re with us, you’ll watch a video that thoroughly takes you through what’s happening in the world of LASIK surgery, and why the elite group of surgeons at ClearChoice are qualified to perform your surgery. Our goal is for you to leave your LASIK consultation informed about your vision, educated about laser eye surgery, knowledgeable about our surgeons and excited about your LASIK journey.
Based on the results of your screenings, our doctors will make a LASIK recommendation. The staff and doctors will discuss the best procedure recommendations with you. It might be LASIK, or it could be another service we offer like ReLEx SMILE; one of the newest developments in LASIK. We’ll thoroughly cover insurance coverage and costs too. After it’s determined that you want to move forward with LASIK, we’ll schedule a pre-operative exam.
For Contact Lens Wearers:
If you’re a contact lens wearer, it’s in-between LASIK consultation and pre-op that we’ll ask you to be out of your contacts for about two weeks. We do this so we can get the most accurate measurements and screenings of your eyes and prescription. During pre-op we’ll do a manifest refraction, where the doctor puts the instrument called a refractor in front of your eyes and the doctor shows you a series of lens choices. He or she will then ask you which of the two lenses in each choice looks better and clearer to you. This is not unlike what you’ve likely experienced during annual vision tests over the years to determine the prescription. We’ll also screen for topography, IOP (for glaucoma), we’ll do an auto refraction after dilation, cycloplegic manual refraction (better 1 better 2 test again but after dilation), Acutarget for dryness and opacity of the lens, and fundus exam (which is an exam of retina and lens). Again, painless. All this is done in an effort to make sure your eyes are healthy – no glaucoma, infection, cataracts, severe dry eye or any other condition that would affect postoperative healing. Pre-op is also where we’ll carefully discuss your expectations and paint a good picture of what day of surgery will look like for you. And if you didn’t do it during your consultation we’ll tour you through the operating room.
We are excited to have you visit ClearChoice and consider LASIK eye surgery with us. During your free LASIK consultation, pre-op, and on surgery day you’ll have every opportunity to meet with our experienced team, doctors and surgeons. Again, our goal is to help educate you on LASIK and our many services, answer your questions and most of all improve your visual needs.
Want to watch a LASIK surgery? Want to see what some patients are doing one-day post-surgery? Follow us on Facebook and check out our many videos and photos of patients on their LASIK journeys!
If this all sounds good to you and you would want to come in for a free LASIK consultation, you can schedule one online right now or call us at (440) 740-0400.
