GolfHos

Anyone with any experience with bargain LASIK surgery?  There is a clinic in UT offering 250 an eye LASIK. 

I have a cook who either needs new glasses, or he would prefer LASIK.  I can afford the new glasses, and I can also afford the bargain LASIK's, but I cannot afford to pay the 4 grand it cost my wife to have it done at a "reputable" place.

My wife has concerns about the bargain place, and would prefer just getting the glasses.  Marvin, my cook, has had glasses since he was around 10 and would love to be able to chuck them.  I am caught in the middle...so if anyone has had any experience, positive or negative with the bargain LASIK, I would love to hear about it.

My vision isn't exactly worth bargain shopping to me, but I spoke to my eye doctor, who I trust, a few months ago about LASIK (I decided to hold off for a while) and he told me the bargain places very seldom end up costing any less than the regular places. In other words the "bargain price" is how they get you in the door, but once you get into all the additional costs, follow up visits, etc. you generally end up paying about the same price. At $250/ eye, I can't imagine what they upsell to get it to ~$3500 so it might not be entirely true, but I'd bet it's still quite a bit more than $500.

Caveat emptor.

I'm no help at all, other than to agree.........You only got one set of peepers.  I don't know if I would go roadside closeout on them.....

Generally, most of the pricier places are all-inclusive.  The one bargain (if you can call it that) business I spoke to charged their fee per-eye and for the most basic of corrections.  If you had astigmatism, it was extra.  If your myopia was worse than X, it was extra.  Follow-up visits were extra.  Blah blah blah.

I ran it through my medical spending account, which provided a significant savings over out-of-pocket.

I'd recommend a place that uses a laser to cut the flaps.  These days, the flap is the prime site of complications (after the patient's conduct itself, that is), not the laser ablation of the corneal tissue.

I have no experience with bargain lasik.  I did have the procedure done to the tune of about 5 grand.  Very bad experience.  I've had my right eye redone 3 times and my left eye done 5 times.  My right eye is now about 20/40.  My left eye is still awful.  I went to another Lasik center who told me they could fix me for another 4 grand.  Or I could wear glasses. 

 :'(

All I am saying is whatever you do, don't send them to Thailand for "Bargain Surgery"!!!
Every idiot in Australia goes there for a boob-job, or face-lift etc, and ends up getting butchered!!!! [sm_disgust] [sm_disgust] [sm_disgust] [sm_disgust]

Not sure if I'd go bargain hunting for eye surgery.

Agreed.

I'm a perfect candidate for Lasik. I've avoided it because I really have no problem with my contacts. One of the best inventions was the extended wear contacts. Put 'em in for a month at a time without the daily hassles of cleaning.

My father in law is an optometrist and he only recommends TLC laser eye centers.

Like others have said vision is pretty important so I'd only go to the best.

I looked into Lasik a few years ago and checked out a similar add( $250 per eye).  Turned out that $250.00 was the minimum price.  That applied to people who needed very little correction to their eyes at all.  My prescription would have been about $1500 per eye.  I didn't get it done because in pre-screening they concluded that the diameter of my pupils was too wide to support the procedure.  Supposedly the technology has advanced to where I could get it done now, but I haven't gone back.

That's where Tara Reid went

I did the math comparing full rate lasix from a reputable provider to the cost of continuing with prescription glasses. 

I won't bore you with the assumptions and contingencies or any of the calculations. 

The bottom line is you can argue that that lasix pays for itself after a few years, depending upon your taste in eye wear, and how often you place your eye wear in your outer golf bag pocket only to remember it is there just a fraction of a moment before you slam a clubhead against the bag after your 4th bogey in a row, and other such variables, etc and so forth and so on.

I actually ran the numbers a couple of years ago and could see how it made sense financially.

But they're my eyes and everything works great the way it is today. It's probably the one thing I'm over-sensitive/paranoid about. Plus my Dad had an issue years ago (non-Lasik) with his eyes that I still remember.

I guess I'm in the if it ain't broke, don't fix it crowd.

As elective surgical procedures go, there really aren't any with a much better track record than lasiK. 

I'm sure it is no small coincidence that the entire procedure is basically performed by computer-driven machines, providing a level of precision control in the operating theater not possible with, for example, an elective hemorrhoidectomy.

I've heard people say, "Yeah, well, still, nobody ever went blind by not having corneal surgery." 

It just so happens that those same people are the optometrists and ophthalmologists who never jumped on the lasik bandwagon and whose practices are heavily dependent upon doing the standard vision exam and writing eye wear prescriptions.

I also get over-sensitive when some dude's hands are near my.....hemorrhoids. NTTAWT

To your other point, my optometrist has a hot assistant. Surely you can appreciate the joy it brings me once a year to pay a visit.

Cool discussion.  I've been on the fence about having this done for years, but haven't looked at it seriously for quite some time.

Wife had it done 6 or so years ago at a high price with the 'guarantees' for 20/20 after 2 years or whatever it was.

I'm not sure if she has 20/20 now (my unmessed with naked eye is better than hers) but she would describe it as a miracle having worn glasses/contact lens contraptions since early childhood.

She had both eyes done at once which I was a bit wary of in case they messed both up and she went blind. 

If you go bargain, just do one at a time, you can still see out of the other one if they cook it.

 :P ;D

Yeah, I would be kind of hesitant of that.

And just think how much better it would be to watch her without your glasses fogging up.......

It's not voodoo. 

They assess your acuity, map the surface of the eyes, and then feed that data into a computer that runs the laser.  The real skill of the opthalmologist in the enterprise is in knowing if you are a candidate for a procedure and where you might fall out in terms of outcome given your unique numbers.   

It's so simple, even a caveman can do it.

Before I did mine, I managed to dredge up the data submitted to the FDA used to get these machines approved.  The data showed that untoward incidents were almost negligible compared to any other surgery I am aware, and the success rates (no need for glasses) were in the high 90%'s. 

Successful outcomes diminished with increasing poor vision.  Still, even with really bad vision, success rates were in the 80%'s.  I mean, there is really good predictive success.

Here is the bottom line:  It's a classic risk/benefit calculation.  If you are motivated to lose your eye glasses/contacts because they are a nuisance, you embrace lasik to the degree you view the alternative as a nuisance.

For example, I'm outside doing golf or coaching baseball 75% of the year, several times each week.  It was a PITA switching glasses as light conditions changed and keeping the glasses clean.  In golf, it was bothersome to play in any kind of rainy/misty condition.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I now LOOK like a suave CEO in the various expensive brands of non-prescription sunglasses that I now own, whereas I LOOKED more like this guy before lasik.

(http://www.tshirtsrfunny.com/images/choked.jpg) 


People, these alternatives are NOT difficult to choose among

That's "Gold" Blader........ Pure Gold!!!!!......... ;D ;D
Love the photo of yourself!!!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D

Humph...makes me wish I had bargain surgery and they F'd it up...I had LL, and she told me JH couldn't hold a candle to me, so I got that going for me.

That's a whole nuther fetish, friend.

I know, sucks to be me.