What is the difference in the two laser eye surgery procedures?
There are basically two laser refractive procedures to correct myopia (short sight), hyperopia (long sight) and astigmatism: 1) LASIK and 2) LASEK. [You can consider LASEK and PRK as basically the same procedure for most discussions - they are both forms of 'surface' laser eye surgery with pretty much identical results].

Both LASIK and LASEK procedures are very safe and will give you the same final results. It can be quite confusing if you are thinking about laser vision correction and want to know which procedure would be best for you. While both LASIK and LASEK can give you excellent vision in a safe and reliable way, some surgeons prefer one or the other, or may indeed only offer one type anyway!

How is the prospective patient supposed to decide?!
What happens in practice is that patients are greatly influenced by what their particular clinician says, and understandably so. It is always worth seeking a second opinion and comparing the findings and comments of each centre. This shouldn’t threaten any clinic worth its salt. Some patients feel more confident with one person or another, based on perhaps only “chemistry”, but it is very important to know the difference in the techniques.
LASIK and LASEK are both very effective procedures and can be used to treat myopia (short sight), myopia myopia(long sight), astigmatism (irregular corneal shape) and reading vision problems.
Please note that most clinics do not have the correct technology required to correct reading vision problems and higher levels of long sight.

[tags]astigmatism, FOCUS Laser Vision, LASEK, laser eye surgery, LASIK, long sight, short sight, surgeon, Technology[/tags]

I got an email this week from a Mr. John Andrews, who was confused about LASIK laser eye surgery pricing.

John wrote:

Having visited your site I am not clear what criteria you used to determine the cost of treatment. What level of myopia do you treat for £295 per eye assuming a thick cornea and no astigmatism?

And here is my reply to John:

Dear Confused

Let me clarify!

There are two pricing models in the UK. One based on prescription and the other a fixed price per treatment type. We base short sighted correction prices on prescription, in the same way that Optical Express does.

Prices for keratome based lasik start at £295 for WAVEFRONT based lasik. This covers up to 1.5D of astigmatism and up to 1D of myopia. Anyone with up to that prescription gets wavefront treatment at that price.

NOTE: You can see the £395 headline price from Optical Express and Optimax is not what you will pay at all when you want modern wavefront LASIK. Those prices are for non-wavefront treatments and you have to pay extra if you want up to date wavefront LASIK. They start at these clinics at £795 per eye.

Our prices are for wavefront based treatment with FDA confirmation that this method outperforms ALL other lasers for custom treatments (see our web site under results.)

We are cheaper than ALL other London based clinics for a range of prescriptions. Check out my blog on this topic with a graph comparison of prices for various prescriptions at various London clinics. (keratome (bladed) wavefront LASIK)

Watch this video to learn more about why you need glasses. It explains about short sight, long sight, astigmatism and presbyopia.

OK, it’s here at FOCUS Laser Vision in London. The video of our breakthrough next generation Z-LASIK laser eye surgery procedure! I can tell you the results have been amazing. Twelve treatments on our first day, and everyone can see better than 20/20, 60% of them seeing an incredible 20/12! (that’s two lines smaller than 20/20 on the vision test chart, clarity usually seen by teenagers, and approaching the finest limit of human vision) And that’s just 24 hours after treatment. Wow.

Enough talking, it’s time to watch the video. just keep rolling after the procedure to hear Bella talking the following morning about her ‘miracle’! As a surgeon, this is the best bit of the job.

Z LASIK at FOCUS in London starts from £595 per eye for short sight – FOCUS want to make this treatment affordable for everyone. You can reach the clinic on 0845 5000 500.

[flashvideo filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A61T5mFG730 /]

You can hear Bella Roberts talking with me just 24 hours after her breakthrough Z-LASIK laser eye treatment. You can read more about Z-LASIK in my previous posts, and compare to Bella talking about her LASIK just before having the surgery!

Why have Z-LASIK all-laser eye treatment? Why have FOCUS Laser Vision spent more than £300,000 on this next generation laser technology, when a mechanical bladed microkeratome is only(!) £30,000? The answer. Safety, accuracy and vision results.

Femtosecond lasers have been shown to be more accurate, safer and give better vision results for LASIK laser eye surgery. Many UK clinics have installed the Intralase femtosecond laser as up until now it has been the only game in town. That will change now the Ziemer LDV has arrived. So watch this space!

Z-LASIK laser eye treatment at FOCUS Laser Vision in London starts at £595 per eye.

[tags] femtosecond, Z-LASIK, Ziemer, FOCUS Laser Vision, Intralase, LASEK, laser eye surgery, LASIK, long sight, longsight, PRK, short sight, shortsight, surgeon, technology [/tags]

Z-LASIK laser eye treatment has arrived in London. The first procedure happened at FOCUS Laser Vision on Thursday January 17th 2008. Yours truly was the surgeon behind the wheel. I did 12 Z-LASIK treatments and by the next day every patient could see better than 20/20! It’s a pretty amazing technology.Bella Roberts was the first patient to see the difference (pun fully intended!). Bella is 33 and a mother of three. She was quite badly short sighted and has used glasses for most of her life. She had been pretty nervous about laser eye surgery, whether PRK or LASIK, but was convinced by the new Swiss technology and put herself forward as the first ever patient to get Z-LASIK in the UK.You can see Bella talking about her vision and how she feels, just 20 minutes before she gets the op!Z-LASIK uses a new laser to create the flap in the first part of the LASIK procedure, instead of a blade as in traditional LASIK. Getting rid of the blade eliminates many of the main risks from LASIK, when formerly the flap was cut with a fine blade.Treatments start from £595 per eye for all-laser blade free Z-LASIK.

[tags] femtosecond, Ziemer, Intralase, astigmatism, LASEK, laser eye surgery, LASIK, long sight, PRK, short sight [/tags]

Video showing a very brief overview of the PRK surface laser procedure, as well as covering short sight, long sight and astigmatism. LASIK remains the most popular laser eye surgery procedure worldwide. In Italy, though, surface laser (PRK, LASEK) is very popular.

Video showing a very brief overview of the LASIK procedure, as well as covering short sight, long sight and astigmatism. Simple and to the point.