Why Choose Dr. Raviv for your LASIK?
Personalized Service
Unlike corporate-run, LASIK only companies, Dr. Raviv offers a personalized LASIK patient experience within the setting of a full refractive surgery ophthalmology practice. He will personally screen and examine all potential patients, perform the state-of-the-art surgery, and personally conduct the important postoperative follow-ups.
Top Quality
Many discount LASIK centers offer tiered pricing and advertise a teaser price for a basic, older type of LASIK that utilizes a blade and is not wavefront customized. Dr. Raviv only offers the most advanced LASIK for greatest safety and visual quality. All flaps are created with the Intralase femtosecond laser and whenever possible, all treatments are custom Wavefront guided– allowing a fingerprint reading of your eye’s optical surface to be corrected down to the micron.
Experience and Judgment
Dr. Raviv has performed LASIK since the late 1990s and as a fellowship-trained cornea surgeon has the wide surgical skill to handle all potential complications. Dr. Raviv turns away about 20% of potential LASIK patients because they are simply not ideal candidates for the procedure and face increased risks. Furthermore, Dr. Raviv will guide prospective patients to other refractive procedures that may be more appropriate for them. For example, after age 55 many patients would benefit from refractive lens exchange, multifocal or accommodative implants, and/or laser cataract surgery over LASIK.
What is LASIK?
During the Procedure
Frequently Asked Questions about LASIK
What will recovery be like after LASIK?
Immediately after the LASIK procedure, your eyes will seem hazy, The initial healing period is about five hours after which most patients have regained about 85% of their eyesight. We recommend that one takes a nap or keeps their eyes mostly closed during this time. By the next day, most patients can return to work as their vision is drastically improved. Some fine tuning of the vision continues in the first couple of weeks.
Is all LASIK the same?
No – the major differences are how the flap is created – whether with a laser or with a mechanical microkeratome, and whether the treatment is customized or not. Dr. Raviv uses the more advanced all-laser LASIK technique with wavefront guided custom LASIK. This most advanced LASIK technology has been specifically approved by the military for use in naval aviators.
Will the LASIK "wear off”?
The distance vision correction of LASIK is permanent and should only “wear off” if the patient’s underlying nearsightedness progresses. That is why it is important to ensure a stable refraction (best seen by bringing in an old pair of glasses) at the time of LASIK. Many patients have a stable refraction at age 21, but there are exceptions.
Will LASIK help rid me of my reading glasses?
Generally not. LASIK is typically utilized to correct your eye’s distance vision. Below the age of 40, we can accommodate (or change our eye’s focal range). But once presbyopia sets in, most over 45 year old LASIK patients will need some readers to see near clearly. The exception is when monovision is utilized, whereby one eye is treated for clear distance vision and the other one for clear near vision. Newer refractive lens exchange procedures with multifocal lens technologies allow us to achieve clear distance and near vision that will be permanent.
What is Flap-Less LASIK (sometimes called PRK or LASEK)?
These are all alternative names for a procedure similar to LASIK, that does not require creation of a flap. All of these names refer to surface ablation, whereby the same laser used in LASIK is utilized to treat the eye on its surface. The main differences with surface ablation are slower recovery of vision than LASIK, though by 3 months post-op, the results are identical to LASIK’s. Some eyes may not be candidates for LASIK if the corneas are too thin or have certain characteristics, but may still be able to have laser vision correction by surface ablation – traditionally referred to as PRK (photorefractive keratectomy). Dr. Raviv will see which procedure you are a candidate for on your initial consultation.