Lasik Doctor New York

LASIK surgery is important

admin — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:28:48 +0000

LASIK surgery is important
While the cost of the LASIK surgery is important, the qualifications and experience of the doctor are much more important as they will determine the safety and effectiveness of your LASIK vision correction.
Going with a cheaper LASIK price will almost always involve a trade-off between the cost of LASIK surgery and the safety of LASIK surgery. Always go with safety first, especially where your health is concerned. LASIK has become quite safe and also affordable so there’s no reason to take chances to save a few hundred dollars as this is unnecessary. Living in New York gives you the advantage of having access to some of the top LASIK centers and surgeons in the world so take advantage of it. Now is a perfect time for you to investigate LASIK New York and rid yourself of glasses for the rest of your life.
There are many easy eye treatments that you can use for a quick pick-me-up at the end of a long day. No one wants to head out in the evening with puffy, red-rimmed eyes that just scream, “I’m tired!” to everyone you meet. And, there is simply no reason to do so when 15 minutes and a few simple ingredients can fix you right up.

Finding a good LASIK doctor

admin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:27:50 +0000

Finding a good LASIK doctor
There are several ways to go about finding a good LASIK doctor in New York. Speaking with family and friends or your family physician is one way that many people take to locate a good LASIK doc. While they very likely won’t pay for your LASIK procedure, your insurance provider should have a list of covered physicians and this is a good place to begin a search for a LASIK clinic. Finally, New York City is home to some of the top medical facilities and research hospitals in the world and these are always a good place to start a search for a qualified doctor whether for LASIK surgery or any other medical procedure.
You can also do a search online to find LASIK surgeons and LASIK centers in your area. Internet resources can be a very good way to do your research and quickly locate a doctor near you with good qualifications. Some sites will even let you search by city, state, country and specialty which makes it even easier to narrow down your list of potential LASIK doctors. Don’t just go with the first doctor in a search result though, investigate several and compare before making your decision.
There are several things you’ll want to consider before making your final choice of a LASIK surgeon. These include the cost of the LASIK procedure, the qualifications and experience of the doctor as well as the vision problem you want to have corrected. Some people have made the mistake of choosing only based on price and have lived to regret it, so please don’t be one of these people.

Perhaps it depends on what your definition of success is.

admin — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:28:07 +0000

Perhaps it depends on what your definition of success is.
“People say, ‘Well, you don’t wear glasses anymore,’ ” said Barbara Berney, 53, of Rockford, Ill., who had the surgery in 2001 and now reports dry eye, night blindness, dimmed vision, halos and starbursts. “Unless you see what I see, you have no frame of reference.”
Unhappy Lasik patients, some with worse experiences than mine (one man I spoke to needed a corneal transplant), have created about a dozen Web sites. The 12 patients I talked with all reported feeling as I did, gas lighted. They said they kept telling their doctors that they couldn’t see, and that their doctors kept telling them that they could.
A few doctors have told me that they think they can help my dry eye, but I worry they will suggest more surgery, and I haven’t gone to see them. A few optometrists said they could fit me with special lenses to moisten my eyes, and I may have to go that route. Meanwhile, I walk by eyeglass shops and wish I needed to go inside.
You’ll find that New York City is one of the leading cities for LASIK surgery, not just in the U.S., but in the whole world. I guess this isn’t surprising considering that New York is also tops in so many other areas of medicine. LASIK New York doctors are equipped with the best equipment and technology available as well as having the best training for LASIK there is. With all of these things, finding a good LASIK surgeon in NYC isn’t hard at all.

Vaseline may make every waking moment a chore.

admin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:26:19 +0000

Vaseline may make every waking moment a chore.
On its Web site (www.fda.gov/cdrh/lasik/risks.htm), the F.D.A. cautions patients to “Be wary of eye centers that advertise ‘20/20 vision or your money back’ or ‘package deals.’ ” (Still, some refractive eye surgeons’ phone numbers end in 2020.)Nearly a year later, my problems remain. Still, I’m not mad at my doctor. I’m mad at myself. No one forced me to do it. In our quick-fix culture, we forget that there are risks with any surgery, elective or not.
Between 1998 and 2006 the F.D.A. received 140 negative reports relating to Lasik, including double vision, dry eye and halos, said Mary Long, a spokeswoman. Granted, this is not that many, but Ms. Long said, “If this many people are responding to an adverse event, there are probably others who are not.”
After concluding that too few well-designed studies have examined quality of life after Lasik, the F.D.A. put together a task force in 2006 to design a clinical trial to explore the subject. A pilot study is now under way at the National Eye Institute in Bethesda, Md.
LOOKING back, I do not think my doctor and the other experts I consulted adequately represented the pitfalls. It’s one thing to say that dry eye is “annoying,” as Dr. Belmont did; it’s another to explain how feeling as if your eyes are coated in Vaseline may make every waking moment a chore.

A doctor who was a patient

admin — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 06:26:17 +0000

A doctor who was a patient
Ultimately, I chose Dr. Sandra Belmont, the founding director of the Laser Vision Correction Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Belmont also runs a corneal fellowship program at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital.
A doctor who was a patient of hers recommended her. She charges between $4,500 and $5,500; I paid $4,500, nearly $1,000 less than other quotes I had received, a consideration since my insurance, like most, does not cover elective surgery.
I signed a consent form confirming that I understood the risks. I thought I did understand them. I did not know then that 5 to 10 percent of patients need to have their vision fine-tuned — or in industry parlance, “enhanced” — after surgery because of an under- or over-correction, according to John Ciccone, a spokesman for the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. I had the surgery. Dr. Belmont’s colleague examined me the next day. My vision was a little blurry, but apparently that was normal. Dr. Belmont said that everything looked good on subsequent visits, too. But the blurriness never went away.
At night, I saw halos around streetlights; neon signs bled; the moon had two rings around it like Saturn. My eyes felt sore, a result of dry eye, which also causes sporadic blurriness.

The American Society of Cataract

admin — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:26:16 +0000

The American Society of Cataract
The American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery reports a 95.4-percent patient satisfaction rate for Lasik, based on a recent analysis of research worldwide. The researchers found 19 studies specifically addressing patient satisfaction from the last decade, encompassing roughly 2,022 patients. (Some had been post-op for a month; others for a decade).
Most ophthalmologists are confident about the efficacy of Lasik, as well as another popular procedure — photorefractive keratectomy, or P.R.K. Both are designed to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. “It’s very few people who don’t have a superb outcome, especially with the new technology,” said Dr. Marguerite McDonald, the president of the International Society of Refractive Surgery of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
About five of my friends had undergone the surgery. “Life-changing,” they cooed. “Miraculous!” Because my 40th birthday was looming, my parents offered me either a cello or Lasik. I chose Lasik. But first, I looked up studies online and consulted three doctors. Each did a spate of tests and pronounced me an excellent candidate.
I asked about the risks, and they explained that some people come away with dry eye, double vision, decreased contrast sensitivity and decreased night vision. Some see halos around lights. I was assured these side effects were rare, and usually fleeting.

Very Important Part Of The Eye Is The Cornea

admin — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:13:01 +0000

Very Important Part Of The Eye Is The Cornea
A very important part of the eye is the cornea. This is the clear covering over your iris which is responsible for focusing light to form the image on the retina. Vision defects such as myopia or nearsightedness, hyperopia or farsightedness and astigmatism are all associated with cornea disorders.

Nearsightedness occurs when the curve of the cornea is too round and the images are formed in front of the retina. On the other hand, when the cornea is too flat, the images are then formed behind the retina and this condition develops farsightedness. And astigmatism occurs when light rays strike the cornea at different angles that it cannot be properly focused on the retina.

Lasik or Laser-Assisted in Situ Keratomileusis eye surgery is the surgical procedure used to correct these refractive errors of the eyes. In both Los Angeles Lasik eye surgery and New York Lasik eye surgery procedures, they are done with the use of the microkeratome or a computer-guided laser. During this eye surgery, a hinged flap is created on the surface of the eye exposing the underlying cornea.

With the use of a specially guided laser, the cornea is sculpted into a prescribed shape. The amount and shape is predetermined by the eye surgeon according to the eye tests conducted before the surgery. After removing some tissues on the cornea, the flap is replaced back to its normal position. The LASIK eye procedure does not need stitches since the flap seals naturally. And the whole operation takes only about twenty minutes to perform.

Wearing eyeglasses

admin — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:23:59 +0000

Wearing eyeglasses
That’s the only way I can explain why I willingly let a doctor cut my corneas with a laser: vanity.Little did I know when I chose Lasik surgery that I would not end up satisfied like the friends and acquaintances who raved about their post-glasses existence. Instead, my days are complicated, since I am dealing with side effects that are far more bothersome than being unfashionably four-eyed.
I had been wearing eyeglasses since I was 8, and I was tired of never seeing the stars without glare, of not being able to go rock-climbing unless I secured my glasses. Not to mention the horn-rimmed barrier between me and a date. I had trouble figuring out which side of a contact lens to stick onto my eye, so I never really gave contacts a chance.
I had been considering Lasik — short for laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis, which entails cutting and reshaping the cornea — since the Food and Drug Administration approved it in the late ’90s. Because I was not too nearsighted and not too old, ophthalmologists told me I was an excellent candidate. But I wanted to wait until more people had gone under the laser.
Roughly 800,000 patients have had Lasik annually since 2000, spending about $2.5 billion on the procedure every year, said David Harmon, the president of Market Scope, a research company for the ophthalmic industry in Manchester, Mo.

Many Refractive Surgery Centers

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:12:31 +0000

Many Refractive Surgery Centers
Many refractive surgery centers are advertising in newspapers, on the radio, and on TV. Some ads are more informative than others; and some tout extremely good pricing. But while they can be a starting point, an ad or a procedure price should not be your only criterion in choosing a doctor.

Don’t assume too much from advertising, says Penny Asbell, MD, Professor of Ophthalmology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Director of the Cornea Service and Refractive Surgery Center in New York. A refractive surgeon herself, Dr. Asbell recommends asking the surgeon if he or she is associated with an academic medical center, such as a teaching hospital or one that is well-known for advanced technology.

“Those who work in, or are at least associated with, academic medical centers are more likely to keep up with current information,” she explains. “They are more likely to have more constant exposure to new things and to issues related to new procedures, than if they are related to an (albeit busy) isolated office setting with little contact with the academic world.”

“A lot of companies make LASIK sound like it’s a flap-and-zap commodity. But the truth is, it’s surgery,” comments Dr. Steve Updegraff, a LASIK surgeon and medical director of Updegraff Lasik Vision in Tampa Bay, Fla. He recommends choosing a doctor who is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. “The credentialing process there is pretty steep; also, that group is diligent about advancing the field of surgery.”

Customization-One Size Doesn’t Fit

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:12:05 +0000

Customization-One Size Doesn’t Fit
Customization-one size doesn’t fit every patient-is critical to the approach to corrective vision surgery of cornea and LASIK surgeon Eric R. Mandel, M.D. A pioneer in the development of the excimer laser used for LASIK surgery, Dr. Mandel worked with the technology in the early 1980s, when there were few excimer lasers in existence.

Early research earned Dr. Mandel the New York Academy of Medicine’s William Warner Hoppin award and a position as the first Burroughs Wellcome fellow at Harvard’s Ocular Laser Laboratory.

He co-authored the ophthalmic textbook Atlas of Corneal Disease during his corneal and laser fellowship at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and went on to become an investigator in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) VISX® hyperopic astigmatism excimer laser trial. A Board Certified Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Dr. Mandel lectures nationally and internationally on his techniques.

During 1998 and 1999 Dr. Mandel joined the Columbia University faculty, instructing laser surgeons from around the world in the proper use of the microkeratome. This instrument is used during the LASIK procedure to create a 160 to 180 micron flap of corneal tissue before the eye’s surface beneath the flap is reprofiled with the excimer laser. This process improves vision by enabling light rays to be more accurately focused on the retina at the back of the eye.