Things You Must Ask Your Vision Correction Surgeon

Corrective eye surgeries like LASIK are not as complicated as they used to be but they shouldn’t be taken as lightly as teeth cleaning either. One wrong move and your vision could be permanently impaired and made worse than before. There are many things to consider when selecting a vision correction surgeon like the type of equipment they are using, the age of the equipment, their board certifications, and public ratings for their practice, as well as many other factors. If you are going to get LASIK surgery or any other eye corrective surgery or procedure you must ask a few hard questions of your doctor to make sure you get the best surgeon possible.

Go ahead and ask your potential eye surgeon if he or she is a felon. If a felon is fixing your car brakes it’s one thing, but do you really want someone capable of a serious offense cutting on your eye with a laser or sharp blade? Also ask about DUIs and other alcohol and drug related offenses. Of course if you doctor got in trouble twenty years ago you can often use your own gut and common sense to decide if it’s still and issue. A drug offense twenty years ago is easy to forgive while a murder isn’t.

Other than felonies does the eye doctor have other negative reports available that you can check? Consider the Better Business Service as well as local publications and Websites that rank and rate doctors. For local services in the Atlanta area consider LocalPrice.com. Local Price is the first site where Georgians can compare services of an Atlanta LASIK surgeon. Local Price is in beta in Atlanta now but will be coming to an area near you soon. There are other sites like Yelp where you can read reviews from consumers. These types of sites can be very helpful.

After clearing the surgeon of legal issues and other open negative factors ask other questions like how many corrective eye procedures he’s performed. If the surgeon has performed less than 500 or so it’s a good idea to look elsewhere. Let him practice on someone else. In fact, this author wouldn’t consider a LASIK surgeon with fewer than a couple thousand procedures under his or her belt. As well as number of procedures question the time the doctor has been practicing eye corrective procedures. This author’s mother was a nurse and often said that a good doctor isn’t too young and isn’t too old. You want a doctor fresh enough to have modern training, but to still be old and experienced enough in life to have seen many issues and worked through them.

To get an idea of the success rate of the eye surgeon ask how many of the last 100 patients corrected to a UCVA of 20/40 or better. Then ask how many corrected to 20/20 or better.

Another tough question to ask your potential eye surgeon is if they’ve ever been denied malpractice insurance. If the answer is yes then you should thank them for their time and politely leave. Find out if the doctor has ever had hospital privileges denied or revoked. If yes this is again an answer that should end your interaction with this doctor. Remember these are you eyes and if things don’t go well your vision may be worse than before.

There are a lot of other questions you should ask as well that pertain to the specific laser eye correction procedure you’re interesting in receiving. Depending on your vision, your medical history, and the medical issues with your eyes you will have different concerns and things to consider and questions to ask. Visit more than one eye correction doctor or clinic to get an idea of what’s available and then study the procedure or procedures that are recommended for you. Your best defense is knowledge.