Laser Eye Surgeon Selection in New York City
A letter to a new patient from Dr. Emily Chynn of Park Avenue Laser, the finest LASIK surgeon in New York City.
Dear Sir,
As a layperson, you should never just surf around on the internet for an hour, and then presume you have sufficient medical expertise to know which laser or treatment is best for you
I was in medical training for a decade, and then a decade more after that in practice, so my assessment of which procedure is best for you will always be 100x more informed than your own–sorry to be so blunt about this, but this is the hard truth.
The procedure you are talking about, while it sounds wonderful and safe and new on the weblink you provided, HAS ALREADY BEEN AVAILABLE IN THE US FOR OVER A DECADE. With the Visx Laser I currently own and use, I can perform a “no touch” transepithelial ablation in your eyes–indeed, I was doing so way back in 1993-1996.
The problem with this approach, is that every patient’s epithelium is a different depth, which is difficult to accurately measure, so you wind up lasering not just the epithelium, but also part of the cornea, which “uses up” some of the treatment, which is bad as the epithelium grows back–all the laser treatment should be onto the cornea.
The 2nd problem is that the depth of the epithelium varies over the cornea, and is thicker in some areas, and thinner in others. Again, this is individual, and not predictable or measurable exactly.
The problem with this is that if you try to do a trans-epithelial ablation, you get “break through” in some areas (showing up as black instead of the purple autofluorescence you get from the laser hitting the cornea stroma), not in others. So, again, you wind up wasting part of your treatment energy on the cornea, and part on the regenerating epithelium–not what you want.
The only solution then is what we did way back in 1995, which was to intentionally undertreat the epithelium, laser only 35 microns when we know the epithelium is usually 40-50, then manually scrape away the final 5-15 microns with a blade/spatula–thereby totally messing up the smooth results we wanted from an “all laser” procedure to begin with.
The way I do laser vision correction is an all-laser, non-cutting approach, just like the link you sent. The difference is we remove the epithelium totally in 1 smooth layer (”en-bloc”), and then put 100% of the laser treatment where we want it–onto corneal stroma–so we get the full effect we want, instead of undercorrecting by lasering some epithelium.
I hope this explanation makes SOME sense to you, and i can go into more technical detail but i am afraid this would only make it make LESS sense to you as a (smart) layperson. Bottom line, accept the following FACTS:
1. You will NEVER know as much about these topics as I do, because you are not prepared to devote the next 20 years of your life studying it (like i have)
2. You SHOULD choose a laser vision surgeon who is WELL QUALIFIED whom you TRUST to make the BEST DECISION FOR YOUR EYES based on HIS expertise (not yours).
I believe I am that surgeon, and if you agree, you will call my office # below and make an appt to see me during a free consultation. If not, you can spend another few hours on the internet, get even more confused by all the competing claims by the varying manufacturers (many of which are BS), and then never get anything done, which i think would be a tragedy, as i had my own LASIK in 1999 and it was the BEST DECISION I EVER MADE to do something for myself to make be better!
Emil William Chynn, MD FACS MBA
Dartmouth/Columbia/Harvard/Emory/NYU-trained
1st surgeon in NYC to have LASIK!
10,000 cases - 100% Legal To Drive!
Member FACS, AAO, ASCRS, MENSA
NY’s Only 100% No-Cut/Flap, All-Laser Vision Center
#1 LASIK Center in NY - CBS News TV,
Daily News, Fox, Ch. 9, SNL, WPLJ
102 E. 25th St. (& Park Ave. So.) NY NY 10010
(212) 741-8628 (212) 741-2390-Fax
(888) I-WANT-2020 1-888-492-6820
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