LASIK & iLASIK – Austin Eye

Your iLASIK experience at Austin Eye

At Austin Eye we offer complimentary consultations where your can come in and meet with your surgeon and find out if you are a candidate for the procedure. We believe that continuity of care is very important. So when you come to Austin Eye, you will see your surgeon at your very first visit and every visit after that. At your consultation you can ask your doctor any questions you may have, and if you end up having any additional questions after this visit, we provide you the doctors email and phone numbers so that you can get in touch with them. In order to determine whether you are a candidate, we will do several measurements to be certain. We do a test called a pachymetry which will measure your corneal thickness to make sure it is in fact thick enough. We also perform corneal topography, which will give us a topographical map of your cornea so that we can see how much astigmatism you may have.

Here at Austin Eye, our surgeons are the first and most experienced at performing all-laser-lasik, also known as iLasik, in Austin. We offer custom iLasik, which is a custom-tailored treatment for your particular eyes. It’s all-laser lasik, which means they do not use any blades (some places still use blades to do the procedure.) We use what is called the Wavefront technology in order to get your refraction (your best corrected vision). When you go to the eye doctor and get your eyes tested for contacts or glasses, they use what is called a phoropter (the measurement where they say, “What’s better, 1 or 2? 2 or 3? Etc.) This test gives us your measurements to the closest quarter of a diopter, so maybe a person is a -2.25 or something. The wavefront technology is much more precise and can tell us that maybe a person is a -2.33.

The procedure itself takes about 20 minutes. You would come in for a preop visit where you would sign paperwork and watch a short video, and your surgeon would take the wavefront measurements at that time. You need to be out of your contact lenses for at least 5-7 days before this measurement is taken so that your cornea has time to go back to its normal shape. We could pretty much get you scheduled as soon as you wanted after the wavefront measurements have been taken. Some weeks are busier than others, but usually we are very accommodating.

This is a very routine surgery for our team of surgeons, and they are excellent at it. The doctors typically do their iLasik cases on Wednesday afternoons, and occasionally or Thursdays. You would come in the day of your surgery and plan to be there for about an hour, but that’s only an estimate. We give you valium to ease your nerves. Our surgery center is on-site at our Jollyville Rd. office location. During the procedure you will look up at a bright light and will just see a light show. We numb your eyes with eye drops, and there is no IV or any other type of anesthesia. You need to have someone drive you home that day since we give you the valium. We have you come back one day after your procedure for a quick post-op check just to make sure your eyes are healing well. After surgery you will probably want to go home and take a nap. You should be seeing better within 6 hours and can drive yourself to your 1 day post op. You are free to resume normal activities the very next day after your surgery.

The cost of iLasik is about $2,500 per eye. We are currently offering an iLasik promo where you purchase a $100 iLasik card and it will save you $200 off the cost of your surgery. We offer something called CareCredit, which is like a medical credit card. We offer 24 month no interest financing, which would break the payments up into monthly increments of about $200 to make it more affordable. There is no penalty if you pay it off sooner, either. The cost of the surgery includes your preoperative visit, your 90 day post op period, as well as the procedure itself, and all the measurements we take. We realize that other places may seem cheaper, but often times that is because they don’t include everything in their price. Also, we personally would not want to be the cheapest place in town because you only have one set of eyes, and you should only want to entrust them to the best.

All LASIK procedures at Austin Eye are performed with the all-laser blade-free iLASIK technology. iLASIK uses one laser to create the corneal flap followed by use of a second laser (excimer laser) to reshape the cornea. iLASIK is an all-laser procedure which has proven to be the safest and most accurate form of LASIK surgery. Patients who have “fears” about LASIK should take comfort in the increased safety and accuracy of the “iLASIK” procedure using the IntraLASE laser.

CONVENTIONAL iLASIK

Uses the prescription obtained through the standard measurement device in the ophthalmologist’s office (known as the phoropter) to guide the excimer laser ablation. Conventional iLASIK corrects what are known as “lower order aberrations” which account for approximately 90% of the visual imperfections. An IntraLASE laser flap is created followed by an excimer laser ablation that corrects approximately 90% of the eye’s visual aberrations.

CUSTOM iLASIK

Education Video 1.9MB

Uses a special computer known as an aberrometer or wavefront measurement device to obtain a more detailed and complete analysis of each LASIK Austin patient’s eye’s visual distortions. The wavefront measurement device measures hundreds of subtle imperfections known as “lower and higher-order aberrations” to create a “wavefront map.” The wavefront map measures 100% of the optical aberrations and is like a unique visual fingerprint that quatifies each eye’s unique focusing problems. This more detailed wavefront map is then used to guide the excimer laser ablation to reshape the cornea to it’s best focus. So in custom iLASIK, a custom measurement is obtained, followed-by an IntraLASE laser created flap, followed by a wavefront-guided excimer laser ablation. Custom iLASIK has proven to provide better quality of vision, especially at night than conventional LASIK or conventional iLASIK.

Our results using the IntraLASE laser for iLASIK have shown:

1. Complications associated with making the flap are virtually eliminated thus enhancing patient safety.
2. Final visual acuities in eyes treated with intralase are more accurate than any LASIK (blade-flap) procedure.
3. Fewer visual aberrations (halo, glare, starburst) are created in iLASIK.  Therefore quality of vision in iLASIK should be clearer than with standard LASIK
4. Patients with thin corneas not suitable for standard LASIK can be treated safely with iLASIK due to the ability to create an accurate thin flap via computer controlled delivery of the laser
5. Flap wrinkles or striae which occur in standard LASIK are rare to non-existent in iLASIK flaps
6. Patients are more comfortable in deciding to have iLASIK because of the enhanced safety and accuracy of the all-laser procedure.
7. The optimal combination of technologies for laser vision correction is intralase (laser flaps) with wavefront-guided (custom) excimer laser ablations – Custom iLASIK.

All-laser LASIK FAQ and Custom iLASIK information.

For more information about  Custom iLASIK click onto the link: www.abbottmedicaloptics.com/products/refractive

IntraLase - Medical reports supporting the technology benefits over LASIK (PDF)

A free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader is available under downloads.