Why don’t patients care about which eye laser they are treated with?!

| Apr 19, 2008 | Comments 2

Yes, it’s true! Prospective laser eye surgery patients really do not ask about or are concerned with which laser is used to correct their vision.

Well, first of all let’s look at the TWO factors which have the biggest impact on the quality of the person’s vision after treatment. And bear in mind that this is how well their eyes will be able to see for the rest of their lives.

The first is the laser that is used. The second is the knowledge and skill the surgeon.

Laser eye surgery results have got better and better over the past 15 years – and this is mainly because the lasers have got a lot, LOT better! Yes, we know more about good surgical technique and what to do and what not to do. But mainly it is better technology that has improved results.

So why don’t patients care about this? (Because they really don’t!!) When we surgeons start talking about this or that laser, you can see patients’ eyes start to glaze over!

The truth is that they feel they are not qualified to make any judgments about laser performances. After all, it’s a complex piece of machinery. So people adopt a head in the sand approach and just HOPE that all lasers are pretty much the same (they are NOT).

Patients assume “a laser is a laser is a laser…” and don’t want to get involved in some serious thought about laser performance. It looks like a difficult subject.

Even though it is pretty easy to see how these machines stack up. Because ALL the information is publicly available. The US government clinical trials run by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) compare all lasers side by side.

We have published all these laser eye surgery results on our www.focusclinics.com website (see them here: www.focusclinics.com/treatments_results.php

The clear winner so far is the WaveLight Allegretto laser from Germany. We at FOCUS Laser Vision use it for that reason. So do Accuvision in London. You can also find it (although the older model) at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital.

So PLEASE! before you have laser eye surgery, look at which machine that clinic uses and check here for the results from using that laser. Because no matter how good the surgeon, they CANNOT get better results than the laser is capable of giving. It simply is not possible. Lewis Hamilton still needs a world beating McLaren car to win the race.

You have ONE pair of eyes. You need a great surgeon AND a great laser.

So remember… your eyes and your choice, always. All lasers are not made equally!

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Filed Under: Clinics • LASIK • Safety • Technology

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About the Author: Mr. Dave Allamby FRCS FRCOphth is a leading London-based laser eye surgeon. You may have seen him on the This Morning TV show with Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton or read one of several articles in the national press, recently for treating Denise Van Outen, rock giant Rick Wakeman and broadcaster Paul Ross. David is Medical Director at Focus Laser Vision, known as a world-leading clinic in the treatment of presbyopia, or age related loss of close vision. Focus Laser Vision is also London's only clinic to offer next-generation Z-LASIK laser eye treatment for short sight, long sight or astigmatism.

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  1. Snoosh says:
    October 4, 2011 at 8:51 am

    I guess your point that people don’t care about the technology (and laser specifically) used is proved by the fact that this is the first comment.. more than 3 years later, whereas some of the other articles are extremely popular.

    Dave, thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge and insight, much of which seems like its essentially pointing folks in the right direction.

    Best to you. Regards, Snoosh

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