Thank you in advance for helping manage our mutual patient.  just to reassure you, we will be doing 100% of the preoperative testing ourselves, and of course, the surgery (probably a LASEK instead of a LASIK), and 90% of the postoperative care. Post Operative Process for Visiting Foreign patients.

This patient has a sister who lives in New York City, and is OK with staying with her for one month, so he is fully healed and seeing perfectly before he returns home to Pakistan.

The only thing we would like you to do is see the patient once, about 1 month after he returns (between 2-3 months post-op) and examine him to confirm he has no scarring, and to tell us what the prescription is in each eye (either by a manifest refraction, or by auto-refraction).

As you probably know, the postoperative care in LASEK is both longer and more extensive than after LASIK, but the advantage is it’s safer, plus we can tailor the final prescription more, using the steroid tape, or, if over corrected, NSAIDs.

Please confirm by replying to ALL not just myself that you are willing to see this nice patient once at about 6 weeks after his return to your country.

Typically, we would charge him $100 USD less for his surgery, and then he would just pay you $100 USD for this visit with you–please reply to ALL confirming if this arrangement is acceptable to you.

Thank you in advance for your kind help.

Blindness and visual impairment affect millions of Americans. Early diagnosis and timely treatment are critical to minimize vision loss from eye diseases as well as vision loss that is correctable with eye glasses or contact lenses. During Save Your Vision Week, I encourage all Americans to take action to protect their vision.

source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Save-Your-Vision-Week-2009/

Emil Chynn, MD, MBA of Park Avenue Laser Vision has partnered with Diaton, Inc. to offer FREE GLAUCOMA SCREENINGS FOR SAVE YOUR VISION WEEK.

Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness in the US and the #1 cause of irreversible blindness in black Americans, because it is the “silent thief of vision”–there are no symptoms until it’s too late, and you are already almost blind.

Kirby Puckett, the former Major League Baseball player, All-Star, and Batting Champion, like most people with glaucoma, never knew he had it, as only his peripheral vision was affected (even professional athletes often can’t recognize a loss of peripheral vision, as people just turn their heads to look at things).  By the time he was diagnosed, he only had “tunnel vision” left, and, sadly, had to retire from baseball at the peak of his career.

President Obama, in his enlightenment, has made preventing blindness a priority of his administration.  Dr. Chynn was an early Obama supporter, and donated the maximum contribution allowed by law to his campaign–so is eager to do his part and help out!

The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends that every adult has their eye pressure checked for glaucoma every 2 years.  So, if you or anyone you know has not had an eye exam in years–do it now, for Save Your Vision Week!

Just call Dr. Chynn’s practice, Park Avenue Laser Vision, toll-free, at (888) I-WANT-2020 (1-888-492-6820) and say you want to have your annual eye exam, and to be screened for glaucoma.  If you have any type of valid MEDICAL (NOT VISION) insurance, Dr. Chynn will accept this as full payment for your exam (you will not be “balanced billed).  Dr. Chynn is a MD (ophthalmologist), not an OD (optometrist), so can bill your medical insurance for this exam (your medical insurance may also partially cover the more modern, safer, noncutting LASEK laser vision correction he is performing–you do not need “vision” insurance).

Even if you do not have medical insurance, Park Avenue Laser Vision will still accept you as a patient during Save Vision Week, and perform an annual exam and glaucoma screening using the Diatom non-contact device.

The Diaton invention is a new product that has been FDA approved for 2 years.  Rather than puffing an annoying blast of air into your eye, or requiring messy drops that sting to allow something to touch your eyeball, the Diaton device measures your eye pressure THROUGH YOUR EYELID WITH YOUR LID CLOSED.  This means that you don’t have to worry about any discomfort–which makes the Diatom an ideal screening device, and great for testing for glaucoma in children.

It’s kind of complicated you have to go on our website to understand all difference between our safer non cutting and the older not as safe cheaper LASIK procedure.

Let’s figure out how much you are paying per day now for contacts + solutions + glasses:

Typically we come up with you’re now wasting $3/day

Then we set up 0% interest financing for 24 months so you pay the EXACT SAME amount per day/mo/yr
as you are currently flushing down the toilet

So you CAN AFFORD IT as you are paying the SAME then, eventually you pay off your loan and still see 20/20 without contacts/glasses and start SAVING $1000 EACH YEAR or $10,000 EACH DECADE

Better yet, we are now PAYING OFF $1,000 of your loan for EVERY PATIENT YOU REFER TO US FOR LASEK

thus, by doing it this way:

1. you will see 20/20 wo glasses or contacts
2. you will pay the same amount you are now wasting
3. you will eventually save $1000/yr or $10,000/decade
4. you will definitely refer at least 1 patient (our average),so you will get $1000 off your loan (thus pay off 1 year sooner)
5. if you refer enough people, you can get your LASEK for as low a $ amt as you want–even free! (some have!)

sound good?:)

Please call me anytime today at my work # below whenever you get a chance to chat briefly, reconnect, confirm I can answer some eye questions for you.

We’re actually having a very cool live surgery seminar soon, and you can attend and watch me perform a noncutting procedure live, so you can see everything for yourself–it’s a great, no-stress, no-obligation way of getting all your ?s answered in a comfortable grp setting w other prospective and former patients to chat with!

So looking forward to chatting soon and “seeing” you soon!

Please visit www.parkavenuelaser.com before you call so you have some basic information.

yours,
emil

Doctor Chynn:

I am still on the fence about getting LASEK. My main concern is recovery following the LASEK procedure.

I was told that my nearsightedness vision would be affected for a week or two. I have also seen other similar complaints on the web by other people who have had LASEK.

I am a tax attorney who works extremely long hours and in connection with my work has to do a lot of reading from books with small font.

I was wondering if you can give me a sense of how bad my nearsighted vision would really be and for how long. Is it similar to vision after having pupils dilated??

Thank You,

Emil Chynn M.D responds:

I don’t know whom you spoke with, but typically my accountants, bookkeepers, and lawyers are back to full work in about a week.

The typical recovery goes like this:
1. You will be legal to drive in the daytime according to DMV standards walking out of the laser room, but we don’t want you to drive until the next week.
2. You will be legal to drive at night the day after surgery, but, again, we don’t want you driving for another week.
3. Postop days 1-3 are to be spent with your eyes closed as much as possible (ie, almost always) so the corneal epithelium can regrow.
4. You come in postop day 4 to have your bandage contact lens removed.
5. You return to work postop day 5, but can only work 6 hours that day on the computer.
6. Postop day 6, you can work 7 hours on the computer.
7. Postop day 7, you can work 8 hours on the computer, which is why we say you can return to full work function within 1 week postop, but by full function we mean an 8-hour day, not a 12 hour day, which unfortunately is all to common in NYC.
8. The following weekend, you are also supposed to sleep and close your eyes as much as possible, to let the epithelial cells finish migrating and smoothing out the surface. You will notice your vision continuing to improve, so it matches your vision with glasses or contacts.
9. The following Monday, you can work 10 hours per day
11. The following Tue, you can work 11 hours per day
12. The following Wed., you can go back to your typical 12 hrs/day, if nec.

In summary, as a rough guideline, you can open your eyes and read or use the computer for a total number of hours per day equal to the number of days postop you are (ie, 8 hours of work when you are 8 days postop, 12 hours of work when you are 12 hours postop).

This is the rule of thumb that I tell my patients, and it is more concrete and gives patients better guidance for what they need to do postop, so they can plan appropriately.

I have seen on the web articles or statements that no doctor can necessarily guarantee that a LASEK (as opposed to PRK) procedure will, in fact, occur. This is because (as I have read) a doctor cannot determine by examination whether a person’s epithelium would be strong enough to withstand the LASEK procedure, and as such, may not be able to be replaced. This would mean that the LASEK procedure effectively became a PRK procedure?? If this is true, how often would you say that this occurs in your practice and what do you think this mean as a practical matter??

Emil Chynn replies:

I performed a study in 2005-2006 regarding removing the epithelium vs. replacing the epithelium in LASEK and epi-LASEK.

The genesis of this study, by myself and a half-dozen other prominent refractive surgeons in the US, was we all had cases where we could not replace the epithelium afterwards (because of a tear or something like that), and in those cases had to remove rather than replace the epithelium.

Surprisingly, when we saw the patients 1 day and 4 days postop, we were expecting the eyes which had the epithelium removed rather than replaced to be more uncomfortable, and to have worse vision, and to heal more slowly.

In fact, we observed the opposite: that in the eyes with the epithelium removed rather than replaced, the recovery time was quicker, discomfort less, and vision better.

So, we surgeons all did our own, larger, formalized studies where we intentionally removed the epithelium in 1 eye, vs. replacing it in the fellow eye, and formally assessed endpoints such as uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA), time to full re-epithelialization, and subjective pain scores. Again, in the larger, formal studies, the eyes in which the epithelium was removed and not replaced actually did better than the fellow eyes where the epithelium was replaced.

These studies demonstrate how scientific progress is achieved in the real world, as opposed to in the laboratory: namely, by astute clinicians observing differences in their own patients, then formalizing studies to test this clinical observation.

The mechanistic explanation as to why this is true is as follows. The epithelium that is replaced after LASEK and epiLASEK is not 100% normal, and further radioisotope labling studies have shown that it is replaced over a period of 3-4 weeks postop, anyway. So, by removing and not replacing the epithelium, we allow brand new, perfectly normal epithelium to grow in from the limbus in the 1st place, in which case you have a brand new epithelial covering in 1 week, rather than in 3-4 weeks.

Importantly, there is still a significant clinical benefit to LASEK and epiLASEK over PRK in terms of a marked improvement in postop discomfort, rapid healing, better vision, and decreased chances of scarring.

Again, the mechanistic explanation is as follows. In a PRK (which I last performed in 1999, to tell you how outdated that procedure is), you use an Amoilis brush or spatula to physically scrape the epithelium off. This crushes the epithelial cells, which, as they are crushed and dying, release chemical mediators called cytokines, which are the cells’ signal to other cells that they have been damaged and killed, which causes an inflammatory cascade to commence, leading to pain, inflammation, delayed healing, and scarring.

EM (electron microscopy) pictures have been taken of the corneal surface after PRK vs. LASEK and epiLASEK (I should probably have my webmasters Raf, Roman, and Alan google these pics to post on our website), and the images are striking–you can see crushed cells all over the place after PRK, whereas there are no crushed or damaged cells, just a smooth interface on a microscopic level after LASEK and epiLASEK.

In summary, because of the clean epithelial separation on a microscopic level after LASEK and epiLASEK, you don’t get cellular distruction like you do after PRK, so the healing is quicker, vision better, and there is no pain, as compared to PRK.

When I was doing PRKs in the 1990s, my patients were very uncomfortable, and had to miss 1-2 weeks of work, which is why laser vision correction performed by PRK never took off in popularity. These days, when I am performing LASEK and epiLASEK, patients need to only take 1-3 days off from work, and there is really no pain, so that’s why these newer procedures are really taking off in popularity.

We now accept all Medical (Not vision) insurance plans (other than Medicaid)!

Please follow these steps:

1. Call our office at (212) 741-8628 to make an appointment for eyelash treatment.

2. Fax both the front and back of your Medical (not vision) insurance card to us at: (212) 741-2390

Dr. Chynn has conducted a study on 30 women over the past 3 years (before Latisse was launched) demonstrating noticeable thicker, darker, longer lash growth after 1 month in 80% of patients!

Allergan has just announced the launch of its exciting new product Latisse, for stimulating eyelash growth. Latisse is the brand name for the drug bimatoprost, which is marketed by Allergan under the name Lumigan for the treatment of glaucoma.

“This is an interesting product extension by the same company (Allergan) that owns Botox,” says ophthalmologist Emil William Chynn, MD, MBA, the owner of Park Avenue Laser Vision in New York City. “Many people do not know that Botox was used for decades by eye surgeons to treat twitching lids and crossed eyes, before Allergan helped popularize its use for cosmetic indications. Now, cosmetic sales of Botox vastly exceed those for strictly medical uses.”

“The history of Latisse is interesting, as it points to how serendipitous observations by clinicians can often lead to new ‘blockbuster drugs’ Dr. Chynn reflects. “I remember many years ago, I was started an older gentleman with glaucoma in one eye on Lumigan. He came back a few months later with his pressure well-controlled, and I was about to discharge him, and he said, ‘hey doc, my lashes grew so long in this eye, I had to cut them because they were hitting my glasses!’”

A smart glaucoma specialist, Dr. Murray Johnstone, obtained a use patent for the use of prostaglandins such as Lumigan for both lash and hair growth. Well, Murray was shopping his patent around for years, but the beauty companies didn’t want to get involved in FDA trials, and the pharmaceutical companies didn’t want to get into consumer products. Fortunately, finally a company like Allergan with expertise in both areas recognized the market potential for this exciting new product.”

“Over the past 5 years, I conducted a pilot study at Park Avenue Laser Vision with about thirty female patients who wanted longer lashes, before Latisse launched. I asked them to bring in two tubes of their mascara, and added Lumigan to one tube, and placebo to the other and labeled one tube ‘right’ and one ‘left.’ We asked them to use this mascara regularly, once in the morning. 50% of patients exhibited significantly thicker, longer, and darker lashes, 30% had moderate improvement, and 20% had minimal or no difference. So, in summary, 80% of my patients had noticeably ‘lusher’ lashes!”

“One of my patients, Anna G., my former laser technician, is a natural blonde, and so had very light-colored lashes. After two months of intermittent use, she said her friends thought she was wearing mascara when she wasn’t! Right now, nearly my entire female staff are using our special formulation,” Dr. Chynn remarks.

“The only barrier I can envision to this becoming the next blockbuster drug like Botox for Allergan is the price point. Allergan wants to charge women $120 per month, which works out to nearly $1500 per year, which is a lot for better eyelashes. Also, since Latisse is just a re-brand of Lumigan, what’s to prevent women from coming to my office for an annual eye exam, and getting a prescription for Lumigan, instead? Both the eye exam and the prescription would be covered by their medical insurance, so they would at most have to pay a co-pay of say $20 each. Especially in this economy, it’s a lot easier to imagine women doing this instead, as their annual expense for longer, thicker, lusher lashes would be only a few hundred—not thousand—dollars per year.”

We are now contemplating having EpiLASIK or LASEK done at your clinic next time we visitNew York, in order to correct the under-performance of the LASIK surgery done at Singapore National Eye Center.
Below are my questions:

1. I have read that EpiLASIK or LASEK carries a certain risk of cornea scarring andmitomycin-C effects as a result of the treatment of this, ‘in high-myopic patientst’. AsI am now around -2 (I can’t remember what the exact vision we determined I now have atyour clinic), is that considered to be ‘high-myopic’ and am I therefore at risk if Iproceed with the second operation? If so, what percentage would you estimate? Can thislead to blindness or other permanent damage? Are there other potential side effects toconsider?

Your residual Rx is quite low; only in the low myopia category now. If you were a primary treatment, you would not get MMC, as your risk of scarring would be very low. You would get MMC because you are a re-treatment, and the risk of scarring is higher in all re-treatments compared to primary surgery, no matter what the Rx. However, I would not say your risk of scarring is high–probably about 5%, which would mean you would have about a 95% of not scarring. These are really very good and acceptable odds. This means the chance that you would see better after your enhancement is about 95%, the chance same about 2.5%, and the chance worse about 2.5%, since even if you scar a bit your vision will not be worse than it is now, since it is not now that great. Again, a very positive risk-benefit ratio!:)

2. If I choose not to have further treatment, can I wear contact lenses without riskingdamage to my eyes, and what lenses should I in this case wear?

You can wear contacts, but this is really kind of silly, since you did the surgery to get rid of them, and I can get rid of the need for this with over a 95% success rate.

3. If I again choose no further treatment, how far (in a worst case scenario) can my eyedeterioration become, in your view?

Your vision now is as bad as it is likely to get, pretty much.

4. What are the chances of EpiLASIK or LASEK surgery going wrong and causing damage, andif so what damage, and can this damage be corrected? And is there a chance of thisprocedure having a similar effect as the LASIK, i.e. post-surgery eyesight deterioration?If this happens, can I have (a third!!) surgery to correct the previous two?

See odds above. If you scar, we can re-laser you to remove the scar, usually. But I think the chance that you would need a 3rd procedure is about 2.5%, which is really very low, so not what we should really be dwelling on now, since it probably is not going to happen. I would focus on what you should to to PREVENT scarring if I were you instead (take Vitamin C, wear sunglasses w UV protection postop, etc.).

5. Are there any conditions / diseases that I may get in years to come that have beenrendered untreatable as a result of these procedures (cataracts, etc)?

No, you may develop cataracts in 1-2 decades or whatever, but they are still treatable, it is a different part of your eye (the lens inside your eye not your cornea).

6. I’m afraid I have forgotten which treatment you recommended; EpiLASIK or LASEK? Andwhat is the difference between the two?

If you had prior LASIK you cannot get epi-LASEK as there is a small risk of getting your flap back up using the machine. Using my own hands, I can actually be a bit more delicate and controlled than with the epi-Keratome, so my risk of getting your old flap up with a LASEK is almost 0. Therefore, you would have a CustumVue LASEK over your prior LASIK, just like about a hundred patients. If you call my office they can email a few of these patients who had LASEK over a prior LASIK and cc you on the email, so you can chat w them. Unfortunately, you have to call us at your nighttime so you speak to my front desk, as they work way better attending to calls than to emails:)

7. How sensitive are my eyes by now (suregery was March 26th last year)? How much shouldI panic for minor skirmishes, a bump, a scratch, etc?

Safer than after your 1st procedure as we are not cutting a new flap, nor lifting your old flap up.

I would be most grateful for your advise. I do not ask for, or expect, free
consultations, so if you could very kindly attach payment details in your reply, I willimmediately remit the consultation fee. The last question is: do I win a prize for beingthe most irritating patient in the history of eye care?

I am actually willing to spend time with and meet with and email complicated patients who have had prior LASIK, as I love helping them see better. It’s the most rewarding thing I now do (fix prior surgery problems). You can post this on the following sites: Yelp, Citysearch, MySpace, Facebook. That will be fine, Nils. And no, you are NOT CLOSE to being my most annoying patient!:)

Thank you so very much for your kind attention. As you understand, I am still concerned.

No problem, enhancement patients are naturally concerned, which is 100% understandable. Don’t worry, I CAN fix you!:)

yours,

James, thanks for your questions.  In Monovison surgery, I adjust the difference in Rx between the 2 eyes, most often with the non-dominant eye receiving the prescription for reading.  Unless the person’s vocation is heavily focused on reading and near work (such as a diamond cutter) the non-dominant eye is usually the best choice.   

On occasion, I have to make the person see best at intermediate distances, as if they are on a computer all the time.  Computer work is actually more intermediate than reading from a book (the keyboard in-between you and the monitor means the monitor is usually at 18 or 20 inches, not the standard 14 inch reading distance). 

In rare instances, I have to adjust the ablation centration to be off-center, such as with a professional pool player that recently had surgery at my practice.  He wanted to see best when he was stretched out over a pool table and looking up a bit from that position at the balls, so decentering his ablation to correct for this unusual position of gaze would be of benefit to his livelihood.

Sometimes I have to do light mono on both eyes, which really shouldn’t be called mono, but I still call it that to avoid confusion (this would be a person who prefers reading without reading glasses and doesn’t mind wearing glasses to drive a car at night).  Essentially, I have to use my 10+ years/10,000+ procedures experience to find the right combination for any combination of work and play activities and preferences which is dependent on the individual.  A good surgeon will take your lifestyle into account prior to performing Monovision and give you a prescription that will allow you to maximize the time spent out of corrective lenses or the times you prefer to be without them.  Everyone is unique, which is why Monovision surgery shouldn’t be a “one size fit’s all” endeavor.   

Emil William Chynn, MD FACS MBA

Dartmouth/Columbia/Harvard/Emory/NYU-trained

Member FACS, AAO, ASCRS, MENSA

www.ParkAvenueLaser.com 

(212) 741-8628       (212) 741-2390-Fax

(888) I-WANT-2020   1-888-492-6820

Come watch a LIVE ICE SCULPTURE CARVING and a LIVE LASER VISION CORRECTION SURGERY!

We are lasering Shintaro Okamoto, who comes from a family famous in Japan for ice carving–his father won an OFFICIAL SILVER OLYMPIC MEDAL at the Nagano, Japan Olympic games for Ice Carving (yes, this is one of the “ancillary” olympic sport medals)!

I met Shintaro at a benefit we did for 9/11, where we donated a laser vision correction surgery, and raised $4,000 (visit:
http://www.parkavenuelaser.com/newsletter/PALNewsletter091508.html).
If you are involved with any worthy charity, please email us as we donate 1 laser surgery per month, and have raised $100,000 for various charities in this way!:)

Shintaro and his father carved an ice sculpture for my dog, Hershey, for his 8th birthday party in August! We actually had a block party, and the carving was incredible and drew a huge crowd! The dogs were licking it for cool drinking water!

Please visit www.OkamotoStudioNYC.com for some samples of his work! If you know anyone who would like to contact him about his services, you can email him at: shintaro@okamotostudionyc.com

Anyway, after he and his dad do the LIVE ICE SCULPTURE CARVING with a CHAIN SAW right in front of our office (in our glass atrium/entranceway), we are going to bring Shintaro into my laser suite, and I am going to CARVE HIS EYES!:)

Well, really, since I am now ONLY performing the MORE ADVANCED, NO-CUT, NO-FLAP, ALL-LASER LASEK and EPI-LASEK procedures (I stopped performing the older, cutting LASIK procedure in 2003), I will not actually be doing any cutting…

Instead, our VISX S4 IR laser, the most advanced laser in the world, will gently reshape Shintaro’s eyes with a COOL BEAM OF ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT, and PUT HIS EYEGLASS PRESCRIPTION ONTO HIS EYEBALL, so he will never have to need glasses again!

The REASON we have MONTHLY LIVE SEMINARS is to introduce the public to our NEWER SAFER NONCUTTING LASEK procedure, as everyone by now is familiar with the older “flap-and-zap” LASIK procedure (which I had myself, way back in 1999–I was actually the 1st LASIK surgeon in NYC to have it himself).

So, if you always wanted to get rid of your glasses and contacts, but were hesitant to get your eyes cut, now is your opportunity–to see BETTER than with your glasses or contacts with CustomVue WaveFront (visit www.PersonalBestVision.com)

At our seminars, you attend a 1-hour Q+A session with a dozen patients and 3 MDs–so you can feel comfortable in a group setting, with no “sales pressure.”

You will also have your eyes tested and measured to make sure you are a good candidate. You will also meet with other patients who have had the surgery, to ask them your questions directly!

You will then watch a live procedure, either from the OR itself, or if you are more squeemish, from our waiting area on closed circuit monitor, a HD TV directly connected to our laser, so you see the “surgeon’s view!”

You will also receive a complimentary refreshments, a Gift Bag, and enter in a drawing for a discount off Laser Vision Correction!

To RSVP for the seminar, call the office # below!

Hope you can attend this exciting and interesting event!

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

Laura,Thanks for your question. Price is certainly a concern for almost everyone considering laser vision correction, but it shouldn’t be the primary concern. One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding laser eye surgery is that all providers are equal and reputable, therefore making price the distinguishing factor between one provider and another. Nothing could be further from the truth.The market supports vast price differentials between providers because not all providers are equal in their skill, experience and in the quality of their equipment. Top surgeons can command top dollar for a reason , while discount, high volume “surgery centers” cannot. If all laser vision correction providers operated on the same fee schedule, credentials, experience and the provider’s safety record would be the primary deciding factors in choosing a surgeon, which they should be regardless of price. Unfortunately, far too few consumers consider these attributes and instead focus on price, which, as you’ve noted, can vary substantially. Many providers use marketing schemes that portray affordability when in reality, the number of patients eligible for the listed price points are infinitesimally small. A common technique among discount vision correction providers is to advertise a low price to attract customers, although these prices are only applicable to those whose vision is close to perfect and wouldn’t truly benefit from surgery. When the average consumer goes in for an eye test, they are told that their vision is correctable, but for a substantially higher price than advertised.

Despite the “bait and switch”, laser surgery providers such as these still manage to price their services lower than more qualified surgeons. They do so using several highly questionable tactics which are not in the consumer’s best interest. Some of these tactics include:

A) The use of outdated or less than industry-latest equipment

B) Flying in surgeons known as “shooters” from other locations to perform a week’s worth of surgeries in one day. This is a common practice among “budget” providers that leaves patients in the hands of under-qualified personnel both before and after their surgery. Patients at places such as these only meet their surgeon at the time the surgery is being performed.

C) Misleading consumers by either not discussing or downplaying safer alternatives to the surgical procedures they perform.

You only get one set of eyes, and regardless of whether you choose to go with the lowest cost or highest cost provider, your savings on prescription lenses or contacts will eventually cover the cost of the surgery – provided the surgery is successful. To examine that further, we need to define what constitutes a successful surgery.

I stopped performing LASIK surgery in 2003 in favor of the less invasive, far more safe and accurate, no-cut, no-flap LASEK and epi-LASEK. LASIK, specifically the process of cutting into the lens, is where the greatest majority of surgical complications can occur. For me, these complications are the earmarks of an unsuccessful surgery as they can have a highly adverse effect on patient satisfaction and proper functioning of the eyes. The LASEK equipment used in my practice is the industry’s safest technology available, and although it cost me more per patient than the great majority of laser systems still in use today, I refuse to offer my patients anything less.

Patients who come to my practice are met by my staff of MD’s, not sales associates with limited or no medical experience. An optician or OD is not an MD, nor is a “patient coordinator”, “surgical assistant” or any of the other titles commonly given to the staff at budget vision correction centers. Every patient of mine will meet me to discuss their concerns, receive their pre and post op and of course, their surgery. Any patient can contact me directly at any time after their surgery for any reason.

My recommendation is to find a quality surgeon with exceptional credentials first instead of looking only at the cost associated with a particular provider. Research your options and ask your intended surgeon to provide you with the benefits and detriments of every option, which an ethical surgeon will be more than happy to do. Finally, make sure you are properly examined by a trained MD and have met your surgeon well prior to the day of your surgery.

Emil William Chynn, MD FACS MBA

Dartmouth/Columbia/Harvard/Emory/NYU-trained

Member FACS, AAO, ASCRS, MENSA

www.ParkAvenueLaser.com

(212) 741-8628 (212) 741-2390-Fax

(888) I-WANT-2020 1-888-492-6820