Eye surgery

[lj04]

Hello I’m 59 and have age related long and short sightedness Have booked in for laser or lens replacement consultation. What questions do I need to ask. Any opticians reply would be appreciated
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[numtumfutunch]

I'd ask how qualified the person doing the operation is and if they are a doctor or optometrist (not a doctor) or even somebody less qualified

I have a pal who makes a complete shed ton of money doing laser eye surgery for people keen to not wear glasses any more

Hes an NHS eye surgeon who trained at Moorfields eye hospital

He also wears glasses and says he'd never have laser surgery himself

But do your own research.......

Cheers

[redhotsheep]

Certainly the person should be a doctor! No one else should be doing eye surgery. Some laser procedures are occasionally done by non doctors but this should not include refractive procedures (which require cert LRS post nominal).

No one else can tell you what questions you should ask.

But I would say is you need to be sure of why you want this and what your expectations are. Discuss these with your surgeon to see if they are realistic. And make sure you understand what your surgeon is saying. These concepts can be confusing.

Sometimes it's worth thinking about the worse possible (albeit rare) outcome and thinking would you be willing to justify that slim risk given your current situation. In other words are you disgruntled enough with your current glasses situation? I'm assuming you have no / little cataract so have very good glasses corrected vision. You certainly find people who say they'd have never had a procedure done had they known they'd get a complication which isn't helpful, but the juice has to be worth the squeeze and risks are never zero. (See above about that laser surgeon who wouldn't have it themselves - however just to add, more refractive ophthalmologists are willing in general to have refractive surgery than non refractive ophthalmologists)