My doctor of the last 20 plus years has been an ophthalmologist. It's an ophthalmologist that will be doing the surgery, an optometrist isn't a surgeon.
Down here I do not think there is much price difference between clinics and someone with a private practice, my cost is from a year ago but then it was $1900 an eye. That included everything.
The halo effect, when it happens, normally goes away in about 6 months or so. What happens is, the eye gets "dished". The laser starts at one side and smoothes it so there is a ridge such as on a dish. Light hits that ridge and creates the halo. As time goes on the ridge smoothes and the effect recedes.
The bit about night vision I do not recall. For myself, the glare of headlights bothers me a little. But then people have been going to these higher intensity beams as well and that has something to do with it. I guess I do not have an opinion on that part of it.
Good luck whatever you decide. I had a severe stigmatism in my left eye (probably as a result of an injury I had as a small child). My doctor was concerned about the operation due to it, but after a conference with three or 4 other doctors it was decided to go ahead. Oddly, that eye is very stable. But then that was the one done later with Lasik, and has remained about perfect. The other is okay, it just degraded a bit.
All in all, the $3800 was worth it to me. The cost today may be lower, Lasik was relatively new then. During the operation a team of doctors were watching on a closed-circuit camera to try to get an idea of the procedure. So my wife watched as well, she said it was like watching waves ripple across the eye---very weird. Takes about 19 seconds per eye for the actual laser time, total time is about 20 minutes per eye in Lasik. You can see immediately, but then the eye fades in and out a little and you really need a day before you stabilize.
If I had to do it all over again I suppose I would still use the same doctor and not a clinic. For me it was a question of trust; after 20 years I had faith that I would not have had in a clinic. The extra attention to the stigmatism, for example, reassured me.
But of course, that was a time when not many people had the operation. |
