Refractive Surgery Center
What to Look for When Considering Refractive Surgery
There are many things to consider when looking for a doctor to perform your refractive surgery. You can open the newspaper any day and see ads for many surgeons and surgical centers. Some advertise low fees, some advertise numbers of surgeries performed. The choice of refractive surgery may be one of the most important decisions you may make in your life. You owe it to yourself to make your decision based on fact and logic, not dollar cost. Despite what the advertising might want you to believe, there is a huge difference in quality of surgery between different surgeons. We are fortunate to have one of the world's best refractive surgeons right here in Rochester – Dr. Scott MacRae.
Things to carefully look for when choosing a refractive surgeon and refractive surgery center must include:
– A fellowship-trained corneal specialist with years of experience performing refractive surgery. Look for a surgeon who is involved in developing tomorrow's technologies, who lectures internationally, who teaches other surgeons and who is called upon to see other surgeon's problem patients. Not everyone can be "the first" or the "most experienced." Carefully investigate your surgeon's background.
– Doctors who will give you honest options and recommend the best and safest treatment option for you and your individual needs. Ask how many potential patients are not treated, not only how many surgeries are done.
– A practice that is a clinical trials center, one on which industry leaders call upon to perform research and development. Only the best surgeons with the most outstanding results are chosen to carry out studies that are to be persented to the Food and Drug Administration.
– Doctors who will be available to you when you need them, where you need them – in your home town –- regardless of the day of the week or time of day.
– A highly trained and experienced clinical staff that is actively involved in developing new technologies, who will work with your surgeon to help provide your care from start to finish.
– A complete and thorough eye and general health history including a discussion of your personal visual needs and desires.
– An analysis of corneal architecture including corneal topography and Orbscan II corneal analysis that creates color-coded maps of the front and back surface shape of the cornea as well as surface power and thickness looking for any abnormalities.
– Wavefront sensing, such as the Zywave, being used to analyze your prescription and all of the optical aberrations of your eyes to determine the best treatment options for you.
– A careful analysis of your nearsightedness, farsightedness and/or astigmatism. For completeness, this should be done before and after dilating drops are placed in your eyes. Some patients' prescription will differ after the dilating drops temporarily "freeze" your eye's natural focusing mechanism. These two measurement should then be compared to the "no questions asked" measurement from the wavefront sensor to determine your treatment.
– Exact measurements of the thickness of your cornea using an instrument known as an ultrasonic pachymeter to determine if you have enough corneal tissue to be safely treated.
– Multiple computerized measurements of your pupil size under bright and dim light conditions to help assure safety and avoid potential night vision problems.
– A complete evaluation of your eye health from the front of the eye to the back, looking for any pre-existing conditions such as dry eye, glaucoma or cataracts that might make treatment inadvisable.
– The latest generation flying spot excimer laser technology, such as the B+Lomb Zyoptix 217z100 excimer laser, that uses eye tracking technology to adjust for subtle eye movements during treatment. More accurate alignment of the treatment results in better vision. The laser should be calibrated prior to each patient treatment, not just once or twice a day.
– Use of a state-of-the-art microkeratome such as the Zero Compression Hansatome, with no additional fees charged. The microkeratome should be cleaned and sterilized before use on each patient and a new blade should be placed in the microkeratome before use on each eye of each patient.
– Availability of femtosecond laser technology such as the Ziemer Femto LDV for "All-Laser LASIK" where no mechanical instrument is used to create the corneal flap.
– A qualified and highly trained patient education staff who will leave no question unanswered and no concern unaddressed.
– A practice dedicated to both the advancement of refractive surgery and your personal well being. The doctors should not be afraid to say "no" if refractive surgery is not safe for you and should be motivated more by the safety and long-term health of your eyes than by the financial bottom line.
– Be wary of sliding scale professional fees for your surgery. It takes the same amount of time to properly care for a patient with a light prescription as it does for one with a complex prescription. Know exactly what is included in your surgical fee and it there are any hidden fees or "add-on" charges.
You only have one pair of eyes and your vision is a precious sense. It makes sense to carefully consider your options when it comes to refractive surgery: Your surgeon; the philosophy of the practice; the quality of the support staff. All of these are very important decisions for what is truly "the visual event of a lifetime."