Vinita Srivastava, MD

Because it is considered an elective surgery, most insurance companies do not cover LASIK.

There is no need for concern over this because if you sneeze during the procedure, the state-of-the-art eye tracker will immediately stop the laser. Once the eye is repositioned, the laser will restart and continue the procedure.

LASIK takes only minutes to complete. Most patients are in and out of our laser suite within 10 minutes, with the actual surgery only lasting 1-2 minutes.

Absolutely. For LASIK and PRK, we perform both eyes on the same day.

LASIK is one of the most widely performed elective procedures performed in the U.S. today. It is so precise and safe that the U.S. military and NASA now allows it for its pilots and astronauts.

To qualify for LASIK surgery an individual must be at least 18 years of age, not pregnant, have reached a point of stable vision with no significant prescription changes in one year and have a prescription within a correctable range. During your initial evaluation at our practice, our doctors will do a series of eye tests to determine if LASIK is for you.

Although most people are good candidates for LASIK, roughly 15 percent do not qualify for LASIK, either because of their medical history, eye health, the thickness of their corneas, or the severity of their eye correction.

LASIK surgery was approved by the FDA in 1995. Because the United States’ FDA approval process requires a series of comprehensive five-year scientific and clinical studies, excimer laser technology was first made available to patients outside the United States, even though the technology was originally developed within the United States. Most patients who received LASIK during the trial period were residents of other countries.

LASIK is one of multiple vision correction options that we provide at Newsom Eye. For patients that aren’t a good candidate for LASIK, we offer multiple options that might be suitable for your unique vision.

Glaucoma is commonly referred to as the “silent thief of sight” because you will feel virtually no symptoms until the disease is very advanced. Glaucoma is known to damage the optic nerve, which sends information from your eyes to your brain. When glaucoma damages the optic nerve, you will begin to lose peripheral vision. Unfortunately, once vision is lost, it can never be regained.

Think of it like this. Your vision is something you will use every waking moment of your life. If it’s something you can afford, then it is definitely worth it. If a premium intraocular lens is something you are interested in, mention it during your cataract consultation. Remember, with a premium lens implant or blended vision, most patients can do most of the time without glasses.

In most cases, they are not covered by insurance. This will add some out of pocket expense, however it is important to note the majority of cataract surgery is covered by insurance, as well as the surgeons fee which will cost the same regardless of the lens implant you choose.

Prior to your cataract surgery, you’re vision will undergo additional testing for blended vision. The goal of blended vision is to make your dominate eye for distance and your non-dominate eye for near. With blended vision, your eyes will focus together to reduce or eliminate your independence on glasses.

A premium lens will provide a greater range of focus than a monofocal intraocular lens (IOL).

The unique feature of the Light Adjustable Lens is that the shape and focusing characteristics can be changed after implantation in the eye using an office-based UV light source called a Light Delivery Device or LDD. The Light Adjustable Lens itself has special particles (called macromers), which are distributed throughout the lens. When ultraviolet (UV) light from the LDD is directed to a specific area of the lens, the particles in the path of the light connect with other particles (forming polymers). The remaining unconnected particles then move to the exposed area. This movement causes a highly predictable change in the curvature of the lens. The new shape of the lens will match the prescription you selected during your eye exam.

For most patients to fully recover, it takes about a week. Immediately following surgery, your vision will be blurry, so you should plan to have someone drive you home following the procedure. Some patients are able to go back to work the same day of surgery, however it is recommended you take the day off if at all possible.

The procedure itself usually only takes about 10-15 minutes, however, you should plan on being at the surgery center for about 2 hours.