Laser Eye Clinics’ Prices Vary Hugely
You are interested in laser eye surgery. You have been doing what everyone else does first, which is search through the websites of various laser eye surgery clinics including the big three chains: Ultralase, Optical Express and Optimax, plus independent clinics such as FOCUS Laser Vision, Centre for Sight, London Vision Clinic etc.
The first thing you notice is that some clinics outline some or all their prices, while others give a headline price and give more details after you contact the clinic directly. One very handy site that can help you get all that information quickly is www.lasik-eyes.co.uk where patients can post independent reviews of their experiences at all of the UK’s laser eye clinics plus the price they paid for surgery.
There is a huge variation in the prices paid at UK clinics. Take a look at the following chart of London laser eye correction clinics showing the average price paid (total price for both eyes) to date as found on lasik-eyes.co.uk on April 15th 2009.
Prices paid for both eyes for laser eye treatment vary from around £1,500 up to over £4,300! My own clinic incidentally, FOCUS Laser Vision, is the second best priced centre in London.
But what does this mean for you? What about quality? Do you get what you pay for? Or do prices not correlate well with the quality of the surgery, vision result or service?
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hi Ben
The research data on long term stability indicates 98% will remain with very good vision. If your distance vision ...
Hi Dave,
I am currently looking into laser surgery, and one question I have is regarding how long it lasts, and ...
I am considering LASIK. I live in USA so was going to go for ilasik until I heard of zlasik ...
Dear Sir,
This is a request for information.
I am short sighted btween -5 and -6 with astigmatism in both eyes. I ...
Great website, thank you! Thank you, Dave! Probably the best information resource I have seen so far!
Why do you need ...
Hi Dave,
I am at the early stages of researching the possibility of having laser eye surgery so forgive me if ...
Comment by Chris on 27 August 2009:
Hi Dave,
I am thinking about eye laser treatment, but need to know the approximate costs.
My prescription is right Dist 6.50 near 1.25 Left 6.25 cyl 0.50 axis 175 Near 1.25.
Could you tell me what would be the best treatment method and expected cost?
Cheers
Comment by Dave Allamby on 27 August 2009:
Hi Chris
I assume your prescription is -6.50 and -6.25, not +6.50 and +6.25??
Can I please ask your age?
thanks
Dave
Comment by Sandra on 17 January 2010:
Dr Allamby, I have been doing some research and Focus Laser Vision appears to be coming out as a possible best choice. I would like to understand what the approximate cost for my perscription would be and the best treatment for me:
Sph -6.00 (right) and -6.00 (left)
Cyl -0.75 (right) and -1.50 (left)
Axis 45 (right) and 10 (left)
I am 39 years old (40 this year), am short-sighted. I have worn glasses since I was 7 years old. This would be a big step for me.
Sandra
Comment by Dave Allamby on 17 January 2010:
Thanks Sandra
We do aim to offer the safest and best patient care, while keeping surgery affordable.
We also only offer the most advanced form of surgery, which is wavefront based for better quality of vision, and blade-free (dual laser, no keratome blade) Z-LASIK.
The cost from your prescription would be £1597 per eye, of course with our lifetime care guarantee.
We will build in some protection from needing reading glasses too, which most people need around 45 years old, to keep you glasses free for longer.
Please let me know if you have any more questions.
With best regards
David
Comment by lisa on 17 January 2010:
Dr Allamby, I have some questions.
If I were to go for the basic lasik and I ended up with halo-ing etc, could that be corrected?
I have bad vision clse up and far away and I understand that only 1 of these can be corrected. Is that correct?
My Long distance vision is far worse. I wear vari focals now but because my frames are on the small side can not correct my vision as well as I would like. I would rather have an op on the long distance and wear glasses for up close. Will the up close vision be worse post-op?
RE: Sph:-5.5 Cyl:1.25 axis:23 LE: Sph:-5.5 Cyl:0.25 axis:155? (could that be 1.55? Looks like 155
I’m 48 and had keratitus once 26 years ago but not since. What estimate do you give for laser surgery, and what kind, and would I be an ok candidate with my history?
Comment by Dave Allamby on 17 January 2010:
hi Lisa
Happy to answer everything. First of all though, do you know what the cause of the keratitis was? For example from contact lenses, herpes infection, injury etc?
With best regards
David
Comment by lisa on 17 January 2010:
It was caused from not looking after my contact lenses. I rarely wear contacts anymore so that may be why I havn’t had it again! One more question…would Implantable Contact Lenses be a better option?
Comment by Dave Allamby on 17 January 2010:
Lisa
The keratitis wont be a problem if from CL.
For your other questions, not sure what you mean by basic LASIK actually. We only offer the most advanced LASIK, as I dont think it ethical to offer any less, or offer older technology. So all our treatments are blade-free wavefront Z-LASIK. Dont choose less than that, whichever clinic you go for, as you only want to do this once and get the best result possible.
We can correct either your distance vision only and you wear reading glasses afterwards, or we can do blended vision (9 out of 10 people are suitable) and get rid of glasses for almost all tasks. The choice is up to you and will depend also on what we find at your consultation. For our corrections of short-sight, we really dont see haloes post op anymore with advanced treatments.
I would not recommend implantable contact lenses for your prescription – LASIK is a better and safer option.
Approx prices for distance only correction would be £1500-1600 per eye; £2000 per eye for blended vision for distance plus near correction.
Thanks
David
Comment by Adrian on 18 January 2010:
David,
I would like to know if I have a prescription of -4.75 in each eye (recently checked and double checked by my optician) but when I went to a clinic they said I had -4.75 in my right eye and -4.25 in my left eye, they also said my stigmatism was also slightly different. I felt the test was rushed and even when I questioned this they assured me this is okay. Should I be concerned? Will this difference be noticeable as I would like to have the best possible vision?
Many thanks
Adrian
Comment by lisa on 18 January 2010:
Thanks!
Comment by Dave Allamby on 18 January 2010:
Hi Adrian
Like you, I don’t like it when any service, be it a clinic, shop etc, is rushed. You certainly should feel you are being given the proper time and that everything is being done correctly. The 0.50 difference would certainly be noticeable, if your true prescription was -4.75 and you were only treated at -4.25. It is quite normal to get some small variation between tests, usually though only 0.25 if the tests are close together.
Why not also visit another 1 or 2 clinics and compare the process at each. This is not urgent surgery so do take your time.
Regards
David
Comment by Adrian on 19 January 2010:
David,
Thank you for your quick response. I was told that on the day of the surgery that there would be another full eye test. Is this what you practice at your clinic (to make sure that the correct measurements have been double checked)? I have looked at many sites including this one but no one really describes what happens on the day (other than the actual operation).
Thanks again
Adrian
Comment by Dave Allamby on 19 January 2010:
Hi Adrian
Yes, we always repeat on the day of treatment as a final check. In fact, at the consultation we confirm the prescription by 6 different measurements and technologies to ensure all are aligned.
Not sure about all clinics on this point. I understand at least one chain has the surgeon doing 20 patients in a day, so that’s about 20 minutes each patient for all rechecking, discussion, final questions plus doing the surgery. Might be worth asking how many patients will be treated that day at your chosen centre. I think up to approx 12 patients per day is a more relaxed pace for both the patient and the surgeon.
The normal sequence on treatment day is:- arrival, confirming your details and all pre-op tests have been done, repeating scans if needed, making payment, repeat examination of your eyes by the surgeon plus repeat checking of your prescription, discussing any other clinical questions with the surgeon, signing the consent form, discussion of the drops used post-op and additional do’s and don’ts (all this is all in the post-op pack too), being prepped for surgery (cleaning around the eyes/face, hair cap, etc) , having the surgery, steroid and antibiotic eye drops, resting in the post-op recovery room (not sure if all clinics do this one), final examination, confirmation of your appt the next day, home.
Best regards
Dave
Comment by Susanne Shepherd on 3 March 2010:
Hi Dave,
I am at the early stages of researching the possibility of having laser eye surgery so forgive me if I sound really ignorant. I am 58 and have needed glasses for reading for approx. 10 years. I did have an eye test once but never bothered getting prescription glasses as I couldn’t find any frames I liked.
Consequently I have no prescription but is using off the shelf glasses at a strength of +3.00 for reading and +1.50 for driving and watching tv.
Do I need an eye test before having a consultation?
Would you be able to give me a ball park figure of costs involved in getting treatment to avoid wearing glasses for as long as possible?
What kind of outcome should I expect from surgery in terms of time before top-up or glasses needed again?
How soon would I have to book a consultation/treatment in order to have the procedure immidiately after Easter? (around 8-15th April).
Best Regards,
Susanne
Comment by Dave Allamby on 4 March 2010:
Hi Suzanne
Yes, happy to help. You have mild longsight as well as presbyopia (the need for reading glasses), hence the need for 2 pairs of glasses. No need for any further testing as we will do a complete MOT of your eyes, which will be much more comprehensive.
For costs, advanced blended vision correction would be needed to correct both the distance and reading vision together. That is normally £3994 for both eyes, minus the current £300 offer, which we can extend for you into April as needed.
The older you are the longer the treatment will last for so it is actually better to be late 50s than younger. You may need a little more during your 60s on one eye to keep the highest reading power, to keep up with the ageing of the lens (which stops by 65 anyway).
You can have a consult any time in March and have the treatment in first half of April, after Easter. If you want me to do the treatment personally, just let my team know when you book (0845 5000 500). Let me know if you have any more questions!
With best regards
Dave
Comment by Ben on 9 March 2010:
Hi Dave,
I am currently looking into laser surgery, and one question I have is regarding how long it lasts, and what ‘life time’ care means. If I had surgery today and the result was 20:20 vision, what is the chance that after say 10 years (I’m 35 now with ~-5.00 with astigmatism in both eyes) I will need glasses, even if only low strength to get the sight back to 20:20 again. Does life time care mean that the clinic would re-do the surgery to get the eyes back to 20:20 again?
I just feel that if I have to wear even low strength glasses or contacts after a few years (or pay another £4000 to get it done again) it isn’t really worth doing.
Many thanks,
Ben
Comment by Dave Allamby on 9 March 2010:
hi Ben
The research data on long term stability indicates 98% will remain with very good vision. If your distance vision fell because of regression, say to 20/30 or worse (the level at which most people would want glasses for some, but not all, tasks, we would correct that without charge. That care would not include fixing your reading vision after age 45, which is a different problem from your current myopia. If your eyes remain exactly on target after LASIK, so zero prescription in each eye, then you will still need reading glasses somewhere between age 45-49 typically (everyone needs reading glasses at this age).
To complicate my explanation, in your case, a small regression back to v mild myopia would be a good thing once you are in your mid 40s. At this time everyone starts to need reading glasses, so a slight myopia will help your reading but still have quite acceptable distance vision.
So it’s not quite a straight forward as it seems!
Dave