20 10 vision after laser surgery? Am I asking for to much?

[bountybuddy]

At my age I might be nuts even thinking about this. I'm 71. One of my best friends is also 71. He had laser surgery in his right eye down in Ann Arbor. Darned if it didn't turn out to be 20 10 vision in that eye. He had problems with his other eye and is legally blind in his left eye. His right eye is 20 10 or perfect. His right eye is his sight eye. I can shoot 1" groups. He can shoot 1/2" groups. I had laser cataract surgery in both of my eyes. I had to use glasses when I read for the last 35 years. Now I no longer wear glasses when I read. I no longer wear glasses. My eyes are much better than they were but they are not perfect. Is it possible to have laser surgery and after it have 20 10 vision in both eyes that will stay that way for a few years or longer? I've ask my eye doctor this question but he won't give me a straight answer. Do any of you have any opinions on this. If any of you know of a doctor that can do this I would very much like to talk to him. Many thanks for your help. May all your paths be bright ones. Shoot well my friends.

[solarguy]

I wouldn't do it, and I'm an optometrist.

Normal good vision is 20/20. 20/10 is better than normal. There is no such animal as "perfect" vision.

Uhmmmmm, there is sometimes funny business in how vision is measured after a LASIK procedure, and patients often score "better than" 20/20. A significant percentage of those patients just get better at testing since they do the Snellen visual acuity test so many times. So there's that.


The reason your optometrist wouldn't give a straight answer is that there is no straight answer.

All surgical procedures have risk of complications. It might work. Or...you could end up worse off than you are now.


Did I mention that if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't do it?


Finest regards,

Troy the optometrist.

[Ruger]

I wouldn't do it, and I'm an optometrist.

Normal good vision is 20/20. 20/10 is better than normal. There is no such animal as "perfect" vision.

Uhmmmmm, there is sometimes funny business in how vision is measured after a LASIK procedure, and patients often score "better than" 20/20. A significant percentage of those patients just get better at testing since they do the Snellen visual acuity test so many times. So there's that.


The reason your optometrist wouldn't give a straight answer is that there is no straight answer.

All surgical procedures have risk of complications. It might work. Or...you could end up worse off than you are now.


Did I mention that if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't do it?


Finest regards,

Troy the optometrist.

Do you have a suggestion for a Dr. to do cataract surgery? I'm a likely candidate.

[solarguy]

Practically speaking, it's hard to find a bad cataract surgeon these days. I'm sure they exist, but they are rare.

Ask your optometrist. Almost without exception, they work with who they know does good work locally.


There are a few practices that have been purchased by big ophthalmology groups who are just trolling for cataracts. By purchasing the practice, they get access to more or less all the patients in that practice that have cataracts, even just a little bit.

So if you call for an appointment, I suppose you could ask if the practice is owned by an ophthalmology group...

The trick is, some are owned in that way, and still do fantastic work and don't color outside the lines at all.

So I default back to, you would have a hard time finding a bad cataract surgeon.

If the first doc says you need the surgery, you could always get a second opinion.

hope that helps...

[Ruger]

The one recommended to us is Ophthalmic specialist of Michigan Coburn-Kleinfeldt eye clinic in Livonia...

The Wife was there last week and she has nothing but good things to say about the place....

Me......I saw an endless line of people going in and out of the door every 15 minutes.........like assembly line surgery..

[solarguy]

About the assembly line thing...

An efficient cataract surgeon will do the entire procedure in 8-12 minutes unless something funny happens. And, in fact, you want an efficient surgeon because the longer they fiddle around in there, the greater the chance of infection and other complications.

The common setup is to have two surgical suites, so while he or she is operating in door number 1, Bob is getting prepped in door number 2. It's just efficient use of the doctor's time.

The other factor that makes it like an assembly line is...drum roll...your federal government. Medicare pays for the vast majority of cataract procedures, b/c it's mostly older folks who get them.

Let's say a surgeon used to make $2,000 on a procedure. Hey, they are reversing blindness. It's a freaking miracle practically.

But as the decades roll on, the feds have cut the price back, and back, and back, and back, and back some more. Now (don't quote me), the surgeon might only see 700 bucks.

Well hey, Mr. surgeon (I'm not a surgeon, just so we're clear, I'm an optometrist) has a big fat bill for liability insurance. Plus all those porsche payments, and hey, he does want to live in a nice house, so there's a mortgage in there to pay.

Your mechanic might make more to replace your exhaust system or brakes and doesn't have to go to school for 10 years or more.

So, they had to figure out a way to do double or triple the surgeries in the same time. Yet still, the most successful surgery in human history. 98-99% success rates.

Next time you hear some politician talk about how they are going to make medicine more efficient, that's what it means usually. Less face time with the doctor.


Finest regards,

troy

[Ruger]

Thank you Troy, great explanation of what the process appeared to be to me. I'm hoping to get my vision back to a point where I don't have 5 pair of glasses all over the house and in my car.

[solarguy]

There are more or less 4 options with cataract surgery:

Distance only implants. They will try to get you so you can drive with no correction. This is not possible if you have high amounts of certain kinds of astigmatism unless you get a special toric IOL implant (several thousand extra). They usually get it pretty dang close. You might need mild driving glasses, or someday driving glasses.


Reading only implants. Let's say you're a world class crossword puzzle, and that's what you do for 10 hours a day. They can put single vision implants in both eyes that give you great vision at 16-20" and you put glasses on to drive or watch tv.


Mix and match (Monovision) they correct one eye for distance and make the other eye nearsighted so you don't have to jack around with reading glasses 200 times a day. It's not super clear anywhere, but it's pretty good every where. We do the same thing with contacts. If you want this, you could try it in contacts first before you get it installed permanantly.


Bifocal implants. They work like bifocal contacts, NOT like bifocal glasses. You don't have to jack around with reading glasses, but you ABSOLUTELY WILL see halos around headlights and tail lights and street lights. It's a little blurry at some distances, but not bad. They cost a few thousand extra also. You can't have super high expectations about crispness and sharpness, but it's not bad.

[Ruger]

Had my pre surgery exam yesterday.........

Cataract surgery scheduled for August 20th!

No promises were made, just the assurance that I'd see much better and then we'd decide on the other eye in the near future.

[tenthumbs]

Good luck Ruger! Hope all goes well.