A Word to the Prospective Patient from Emil William Chynn, MD FACS MBA

There is never any "guarantee" of 20/20. If a surgeon is honest with you, your chances of 20/20 depend mostly on your initial degree of correction and compliance pre-, intra- and post-operatively. Many patients are lured into comparing the odds of 20/20 at different centers. It makes NO SENSE to compare "overall success rates" as the odds are better for a -1.00 person than a -3.00 RX.

That said, 100% of my patients are legal to drive after LASIK and LASEK; this is 20/50 in the day and 20/40 at night with both eyes open. Over 95% of my patients are 20/20 a month after their LASIK or LASEK. This figure is over 99% if we only look at patients less than -6.00 and less than +3.00.

I take many complicated patients, referred from other eye surgeons who are not "super-specialists," with prescriptions so high that they are not comfortable performing the surgery themselves. For example, I operated on one of my best friends, Lyssa Sampson, a lawyer here in NYC, and she was about a -10.00, and did perfectly--her testimonial is on this website!

I have also operated on a 65 year-old man whose initial RX was -14.00, and got him down to 20/25 afterwards--which was actually better than he ever saw with glasses or contacts! Using specialized adjunctive therapy, such as the anti-metabolite Mitomycin-C for such extreme corrections, Cornea-Fellowship-trained surgeons such as myself can obtain fabulous results!

As for a guarantee, there are no such things in life nor in surgery. You have to accept a one-in-a-million chance of going blind in one eye, which is the same risk I had to accept before my own LASIK (in 1999--I was the 1st LASIK surgeon in NYC to have LASIK himself).

Not In NYC?

Dr. Chynn often has patients fly in from all over the US and the world to have him perform the lastest epi-LASEK technique, which many surgeons still do not offer.  If you fly in for this, you can then have most of your postoperative care performed by your local surgeon.  For example, Dr. Chynn is affiliated with Robert Maloney, MD , so if you are from California, Dr. Maloney can provide co-management with Dr. Chynn.

LASIK vs IntraLase

Dr. Chynn uses the B&L microkeratome, which offers as good, and in many ways superior to the "all-laser" flaps created by IntraLase. Please read this for a comparison between LASIKs performed by a keratome vs. laser (there have been over 1000x more keratome flaps than laser flaps performed worldwide).

For those patients wanting improved safety, the best option is not to have a flap at all! Dr. Chynn is one of the most experienced LASEK and epi-LASIK surgeons in NYC. Please visit www.norwoodeyecare.com for more information on how the latest epi-LASIK can give you the best vision and safety possible!

Laser Vision Surgery: Get Ready to See Into the Future!

by Emil W. Chynn, MD, FACS, Chirag Shah, and Insun Lee

Chapter 10: Financing Your Surgery
Dr. Chynn and his team at IWANT2020 are fully committed to providing you with the best possible eye care for the best price around. Not only do we want you to see and feel better, but we also want to make our services af-fordable for you.

We realize that LASEK is a very large investment, which is why we offer several payment plans to suit every type of patient. Surgery can be as low as $4000 for both eyes, but unlike most other eye care centers, our cost in-cludes all pre-operative testing, the actual surgery, 1 full year of post-operative care, and a post-operative kit! If other items such as Visual Field (for glaucoma) or punctual plugs (for dry eyes) are necessary, your insurance will be billed, but you will not unless it is due to a deductible, coinsurance, or lack of eligibility. If you require an enhancement within your first year of surgery, you will only be charged $199 per eye to pay for the laser royalty fee.

By working with external creditors, we offer plans that range from 3 to 60 months in length with payments as low as $58 per month and interest rates as low as 9.90%. Alternately, you can choose to pay half the cost of surgery up front and the remainder over the next 12 months.

For those of you who are still a bit skeptical regard-ing the cost of LASEK, here are a few facts and figures to show you that refractive surgery is without a doubt the best choice for your eyes—and your wallet!

Refractive surgery: (LASEK, or epi-LASEK):

• The price is as low as $4000 for 2 eyes
• Finance the cost for as little as $3 per day with 0% interest for the 1st year.
• Then, pay off your loan in 4 years with interest

Daily Disposable Contacts:

• $2 every day in lenses ($1 per contact, per eye) + $1 every day to account for the cost of doctor’s appoint-ments, contact solution, glasses, lens cases, etc… = $3 per day
• While this equates to the same cost per-day at surgery, it will be an expense you incur for the rest of your life!

Therefore, if you choose to get refractive surgery with us and opt for financing, you can choose from 3 financing companies: CareCredit, VFP, and Unicorn. Virtually 100% of our patients approved (even people who fail to qualify for a cell phone!) as long as they have not declared personal bankruptcy in the last 5 years.

You would then pay the same amount per day (only $3) for surgery as you do right now for your contacts, which means you definitely afford surgery since you are affording contacts now, right? Then, after 4 years, you start saving money. How much money? LOTS!

If you currently using daily disposable contacts, you are required to buy solutions occasionally at the local drug store, see an eye doctor every two years, and buy a new pair of backup glasses every two years. This equates to an expendi-ture of roughly $1095 per year.

Thus, by year 4 of our financing plan you would save OVER $1000 per year—for the rest of your life!

This means that if you are now 25 years old and decide to get LASIK with IWANT2020 now instead of putting up with a lifetime of contacts and glasses, you will be coming out on top financially by the age of 29—plus, you won’t have to deal with the hassles of contacts or unattractiveness of glasses.

By the time you are 39, you will have saved over $10,000 as a result of your decision to get refractive surgery over contacts—a wise investment, indeed!

Click here to download this month's Chapter (PDF) [Previous Chapters (PDF): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ]

VISX Star S4 Smoothscan Excimer Laser

My center, parkavenuelaser.com, uses the VISX Star S4 Smoothscan Excimer Laser with EyeTrack and CustomVue Wavefront technology--objectively, the best laser there is. Of course, every center and surgeon CLAIMS that they use the best, but I like to stick to OBJECTIVE FACTS. Here's one:

• VISX is, by far, the #1 laser for refractive surgery in the US, with more eyes treated (a few MILLION) than ALL OTHER LASER manufacturer's COMBINED
• VISX's market share in eyes treated is about 80% (Alcon has 10%, B&L has 5%, Nidek has 2%, and other manufacturers share 3% approximately--the last 3 may leave the US market)

Last time I checked, the US was a Free Country with a Free Economy (which is why my father, a neuro-radiologist who retired as Full Clinical Professor at Columbia University and my mother, a retired social worker, fled Communist China to come here 50 years ago). NOBODY is holding a gun to anyone surgeon's head in the US and saying, "use/buy my laser!"

Therefore, it makes sense that VISX is #1 for a reason—because it is objectively the best! Just like with Microsoft's Office software suite--how did it get to be #1? (by being best).

CustomVue WaveFront

VISXT's CustomVue procedure combines the technologies of the WaveFront and STAR S4 Excimer Laser systems for high-definition, high-accuracy LASIK vision correction. Benefits of the CustomVue process include faster treatment time, elimination of need for pharmacological pupil dilation, minimal heating of the cornea, capability of ignoring errors arising from torsional eye movements, variability of beam size and depth during spot scanning, and individualized treatment with images based on hundreds of data points gathered from each patient's pupil.

Dr. Chynn treated Amber, his VISX-Certified Laser Technician, with CustomVue in 2004, and she is now 20/10, or TWICE AS GOOD as 20/20 and claims she has "HDTV Vision!"

What is Laser Vision Correction?

Since the late 1970's, incisional refractive surgery, called Radial Keratotomy (RK) was used to treat nearsightedness (myopia), and a similar procedure called Astigmatic Keratectomy (AK) was used to treat astigmatism. RK and AK was pioneered by Dr. Fyodorov in Russia, and was featured in a groundbreaking article in Time Magazine in the late 1970s--an article that Dr. Chynn read with interest as a child growing up in New Jersey, as he was already getting nearsighted from reading so many books (he won a contest in 1st grade for books read)!

Despite all the ads you hear on the radio, claiming this or that doctor "invented LASIK," the truth is much more interesting--and Dr. Chynn knows the truth, having been a part of it.

When Dr. Chynn was a medical student at Columbia University (generally considered the #1 medical school in New York) in the late 1980's, two professors there, Francis L'Esperence MD, and Stephen Trokel, MD, were performing research into new ways to cut into the cornea.

They each were granted a use patent, based on a fundamental patent that was owned by IBM in Armonk, NY, for a new laser, an "excimer" laser, for use to etch silicone computer chips.

The use patents applied this technology for use in cutting corneal tissue much more precisely than a human hand can. Initially, the Columbia physicians envisioned that this would be used for corneal transplantation surgery (which Dr. Chynn also performs), but it turned out that the technology was more applicable for use in Refractive Surgery.

"Excimer" means "excited dimer," and is a special laser that "photoablates" tissue, rather than "burning" tissue, which is much more damaging and less precise. Dr. Chynn shows his patients pictures of an excimer laser used to etch a person's name on a piece of their own hair--demonstrating the extreme precision of this laser!

In the early 1990's, the dominant procedure was PRK, or Photo-Refractive Keratectomy. This procedure produced good results, but was associated with significant pain and a long visual recovery--most patients did not hit 20/20 for 1-2 weeks, and were out of work during this time.

In 1995, LASIK, or Laser-Assisted Keratomilieusis, was introduced to the US. In this newer procedure, a microkeratome, or automated blade, is used to create a thin corneal flap, under which the excimer laser is applied to correct the prescription. The advantage of LASIK is almost no pain and a quicker visual recovery, because the overlying flap acts as a bandage.

Dr. Chynn chose to do an optional, 1-year Fellowship in Corneal Transplantation, Anterior Segment, External Disease, and Refractive Surgery after he finished his residency at Harvard in 1996, as this was when the procedure was brand new, and Harvard was too "traditional."

He was chosen over stiff competition by Emory University, where perhaps the most famous refractive surgeon in the US at the time, George O. Waring, MD, was practicing. Dr. Chynn participated in numerous studies for the FDA by Dr. Waring and other professors of his, such as Doyle Stulting, MD PhD, Keith Thompson, MD, and David Palay, MD.

After his fellowship, Dr. Chynn came back to NYC, where he began his LASIK practice in 1998. In 1999, while hosting the First AM Talk Radio show in the US on LASIK, Dr. Chynn underwent LASIK himself for high myopia and astigmatism, and broadcast the surgery live from Boston (his former Chief Resident at Harvard, Roberto Pineda, MD, did his surgery).

In 2000, Dr. Chynn began parkavenuelaser.com, and opened his own LASIK center in 2001. Today, parkavenuelaser.com is the #1 Laser Vision Correction Center in downtown Manhattan!

In 2002, Dr. Chynn was one of the 1st surgeons in NYC to perform LASEK, an even more advanced procedure than LASIK, where absolutely no incision is made into the cornea! Requiring greater surgical skill than LASIK, LASEK provides an All-Laser No-Cut No-Flap procedure with better safety and slightly better vision afterwards than LASIK!

In 2003, Dr. Chynn was one of the 1st surgeons in NYC to combine LASEK with CustomVue WaveFront, which was just FDA approved.

Using this pioneering combination of LASEK + CustomVue Wavefront, Dr. Chynn was able to make HIS ENTIRE STAFF BETTER THAN 20/20 in 2004 and 2005!

Laser vision correction can truly change your life. You can experience the freedom of seeing clearly when playing sports or swimming, or even doing something as simple as seeing the alarm clock when getting up in the morning. Imagine not having to need glasses or contacts!

Today, EVERY YEAR, over ONE MILLION Americans are choosing to get rid of their glasses and contacts with LASIK or the newer LASEK procedures. Why wait any more?

WHY CHOOSE IWANT2020?

Any M.D. who says "you will never go blind" or that the surgery is "risk-free" or that 20/20 is "guaranteed" is LYING TO YOU, and frankly, I would advise you to avoid such centers.

CBS News TV ran a special the night before Thanksgiving in 2004, using a "hidden camera" an visiting several LASIK centers in NYC. They visited Diamond Vision, on E. 37th St., a center that runs ads featuring Tiki Barber (who was paid tens of thousands of dollars by them), and runs ads in the subways and papers quoting "LASIK for $399 per eye).

The CBS News correspondent, who was pretending to be a patient, then visited Diamond, and was quoted a price of nearly $5000 for both eyes! (This was shown on hidden camera.) When the patient protested, he was told, "$399 is for patients with a prescription of no more than -1.00, and no astigmatism." In other words, the only people who would qualify for the $399 price would be patients who were already legal to drive without glasses, and didn't need it!

In the same CBS special, parkavenuelaser.com was featured as the Most Ethical LASIK Practice in NYC, because we NEVER engage in such "bait-and-switch" pricing.

We charge the SAME AMOUNT TO THE PENNY for ALL levels of myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), and astigmatism! It doesn't matter if you are a -9.00 (like my Dartmouth roommate, Tim Moore), a -10.00 (like Lyssa, the lawyer), or +6.00, or have significant astigmatism and are in a toric soft or RGP/hard lens--THE PRICE IS THE SAME.

Of course, I probably would get more business if I did the old "bait-and-switch," but I come from a long line of doctors--I am actually a 3rd-generation ophthalmologist! My grandfather, JT Lou, MD, was an eye surgeon in Hong Kong and Commissioner of Health for a while under a provisional government, my uncle, Peter Lou, MD, is a retinal surgeon at Harvard, where I trained for my residency in ophthalmology. My mother's sister is not only a surgeon, but President of a Catholic hospital in Taiwan, and a nun! With this background, do you think for one minute I could get away with this? If my conscience didn't kill me, my relatives would!:)

The Latest Technology

parkavenuelaser.com uses the VISX S4 ActiveTrak manufactured by VISX, the most trusted laser vision correction company.

parkavenuelaser.com uses the VISX S4 ActiveTrak CustomVue WaveFront excimer laser manufactured by VISX, the most trusted laser vision correction company.

VISX invented the technology for laser vision correction more than 15 years ago and is the choice of more eye doctors for their patients. The VISX laser has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Thousands of eye doctors and their staffs have had laser vision correction themselves and have trusted their own eyes to VISX.

If you have a highly technical question about the CustomVue WaveFront S4 laser that we at parkavenuelaser.com own and use at our center, we have a special resource for you to get the answer"direct from the source."

Please fill out the form on our Contact Us page and be sure to include your questions about LASIK/LASEK/Wavefront/CustomVue, etc., will also be answered personally by Dr. Chynn!

Results

My staff and I have built our unique reputation by telling patients the TRUTH, and not glossing over the very small but significant and non-zero risks of laser vision correction. None of my patients - again, out of thousands - are blind after their LASIK, LASEK, PRK or clear lens extraction (all refractive procedures), but that does not mean that subsequent patients have a zero risk. Patients must understand and accept a significant amount of personal responsibility themselves for their own outcome.

I have always said that only 50% of a patient's outcome is in my hands; the other 50% are in the hands of the PATIENT in terms of their following our instructions TO THE LETTER, the rest in God's!

Pre-Operative Examination

Your Free Consultation with parkavenuelaser.com will include a comprehensive exam and multiple tests once you come in to explore the exciting possibility of Laser Vision Correction (LVC).

My highly-trained and fully-certified staff and I will perform additional tests to obtain all the information necessary to accurately and safely perform your surgery. This includes

• Auto-refraction (objective measurement of your prescription, using a computerized system),
• Manifest refraction (subjective refinement of your computerized refraction),
• Cycloplegic refraction (after dilation, to help prevent "over-corrections"),
• Dilated Fundus Examination (DFE) to examine your retina and optic nerve,
• Intra-ocular pressure check to make sure you don't have glaucoma,
• Slit-lamp microscopic exam by MYSELF to make sure you don't have cataracts, etc.,
• Ultrasonic Pachymetry to determine your corneal thickness and ensure it is safe to perform LASIK--if not, LASEK is a better, safer option for people with thin corneas,
• Corneal Topography, a computerized map of the front surface of your eye, to make sure your cornea is not warped after years of contact lens use. This is why soft contact lens users typically have to stay out of their lenses at least 1 week preop., overnight or extended lens wearers for at least 2 weeks, and RGP/hard lens users for at least 1 month. But these are GENERAL GUIDELINES, the GOLD STANDARD is that your cornea topography needs to look NORMAL, which is why you may be told to TAKE ARTIFICIAL TEARS and NOT WEAR YOUR LENSES and come back after your Free Consultation in another week for REPEAT TESTING.
• Pupil size (to make sure you won't have glare or halos at night),
• CustomVue Wave Scan (a map of your individual visual pathway for "SUPER VISION"), and
• any other tests that a Dartmouth, Columbia, Harvard, Emory, and NYU-trained surgeon like Dr. Chynn thinks it is prudent or necessary for you to have!

The Free Consultation is $0--that's why it's called a free consultation!:)

In your Free Consultation, you will have preliminary testing by Dr. Chynn's Staff and MEET WITH DR. CHYNN HIMSELF, WHO WILL PERSONALL EXAMINE YOUR EYES.

Please make sure you are out of your contact lenses for at least 1 week before this exam, or your topography may show distortion and need to be repeated later. Use artificial tears a few times a day, also before you come in, for the same reason.

Bring in your latest pair of distance and reading glasses, your eyeglass and contact lens prescription, your contact lens box with the numbers on them, and the name and number of the last eye doctor you saw (MD or OD)! The more information we have, the better we can determine the stability of your eyes, and if you are a good candidate.

Dr. Chynn has had LASIK himself, and is now 20/20 without glasses, and he performed Bladeless All-laser No-Cut No-Flap LASEK with CustomVue WaveFront on his ENTIRE STAFF, all of whom now see BETTER than20/20, so they can answer ALL your questions!

After your Free Consultation, if you are told you are a good candidate, and decide to proceed with LASIK or LASEK, you will pay a (non-refundable) $299 work-up fee, which goes towards your surgery.

Being a "Good Patient" = FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS = Seeing the BEST afterwards!

I have OVER A THOUSAND patients in my practice who see BETTER than 20/20!

Since I have introduced the combination of LASEK and CustomVue Wavefront to NYC, (see www.VISX.com), over 50% of my patients with "normal" prescriptions going in (less than -6.00 of myopia, less than +3.00 of hyperopia, and less than 2D of astigmatism ) see BETTER than 20/20 afterwards (provided that they could see 20/20 in glasses or contacts before).

What else do the "better-than-20/20" patients have in common?

• They keep ALL of their scheduled appointments ;
• They use artificial tears FREQUENTLY before and after surgery;
• They clean their lids and lashes preoperatively with LID SCRIBS to prevent infection;
• They start their antibiotic drop before and use it after surgery to prevent infection;
• They practice touching their lashes without blinking so they are good under the laser;
• They take their ibuprofen and liquid ibuprofen on OR day and after to prevent discomfort;
• They MEMORIZE their postoperative medication schedule and FOLLOW IT;
• They KEEP THEIR EYES CLOSED AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE until they are 20/20;
• They drink lots of water, decrease alcohol and wear sunglasses FOR MONTHS after;
• They tell us immediately if they have a problem and come in right away.

I feel that I am an excellent LASIK surgeon, as well-trained as possible (Columbia, Harvard, etc.), and more experienced than most (about 1,000 cases per year). I spend more time with each patient than most of my colleagues, and am perhaps the only high-volume LASIK surgeon in NYC who sees EACH AND EVERY ONE of my patients PRE- and POSTOPERATIVELY MYSELF!

This is why I have the ONLY PERFECT RECORD OF ANY HIGH-VOLUME LASIK SURGEON IN NYC--0 lawsuits, 0 settlements, 0 claims, 0 losses!¹

However, like any carpenter, engineer, or artist, I am only as good as the material I have to work with -- so please, be a good patient and you will help me to maximize the chances for your best possible visual outcome afterwards!

If any prospective patient, whether they come from the Internet or any other source, has any specific questions or concerns about their procedure or potential outcome, they should feel free to e-mail me or call me, and I will personally reply. Almost no other high-volume (defined as having operated on as over 5,000 cases) LASIK surgeon in NYC offers this level of service.

Thank you for trusting me as your LASIK surgeon and my staff as your LASIK providers. Obviously, putting your sight in our hands is the ultimate in trust, and we pledge each day to do EVERYTHING humanly possible to ensure that you have the best possible outcome.

Please call us toll-free at 888-I-WANT-2020; 1-888-492-6820, or locally at (212) 741-8628 if you have further questions. I am looking forward to helping you see clearly without glasses or contacts and making you 20/20 after your LASIK or LASEK--just like me and my entire staff!

Disclaimer: New York City eye surgeon Dr. Chynn's website is not intended to provide medical advice. It offers information to patients in Long Island, Manhattan and surrounding areas on Lasik eye surgery.