Putting Contacts in With Your Toes

We don't often write about other laser vision correction practices, but this story highlights one practice doing what it knows to help others in the community, specifically Jessica Cox of Overland Park, KS.

Jessica Cox does not have any arms and currently does everything with her feet. This includes putting in her contacts every morning!

Now, through the gift of laser vision correction, Jessica will be able to take that routine out of her life. We applaud Dr. Daniel Durrie for helping this young lady and giving her one less challenge in her life.

For more on this story, click here.

For more on Jessica Cox, you can view her website here.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Lipstock LASIK and Cataract Center!

Too Old for LASIK?

The short answer to the question, “Can you be too old for LASIK?” is: No.

A person cannot be too old to have a LASIK procedure – there is no maximum age at which LASIK is no longer effective. However, the condition of your eyes may prohibit you from being a good LASIK candidate, regardless of your age.

The hard truth is that your eyes are continually changing as you grow older. There are a couple of eyesight conditions that begin to occur for most people that cannot be corrected by LASIK surgery:

• Presbyopia, when you lose the ability to see up-close without reading glasses. This typically starts in your 40s.
• Cataracts, when the eye lenses become more opaque. This starts slowly and can gradually become quite difficult to live with in our 60s and beyond. Cataract surgery replaces the impaired lenses with artificial ones, and refractive errors can also be corrected at the same time.

There is a small segment of society that does not experience significant changes in their vision over time. In those cases, it is possible for a person of advanced age, who has good overall health and generally healthy eyes with stable vision, to have a LASIK procedure to correct a refractive error such as nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism.

Why not find out if you can enjoy the rest of your life with 20/20 vision? You’ve got nothing to lose and clear sight to gain. 

The only way to truly determine if you are a candidate for LASIK is to schedule a LASIK Evaluation with a respected practice like Lipstock LASIK and Cataract Center. Visit our website at lipstocklaser.com or call 804-288-1543 to schedule your Free Evaluation today.

Can You Be Too Young for LASIK?

The short answer to the question, “Can you be too young for LASIK?” is: Yes.

There are reasons why you still see so many children wearing glasses today, even when LASIK is performed on more than 700,000 people each year. LASIK is a refractive surgery that treats eyesight imperfections that cause myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism. LASIK technology reshapes the cornea to allow light to focus properly on the retina. The result is clearer vision, even 20/20 or better vision, for many patients.

So why wouldn’t you want to have LASIK performed as soon as possible?

We all know that children are constantly growing and changing, and their eyes are no exception. In fact, some people have refractive instability into their early 20s. This means that their vision correction needs may be frequently fluctuating. One qualification of being a good candidate for LASIK is having stable vision, without prescription changes, for at least two years. Most children simply do not have that stability.

So what is the right age for LASIK? The Food and Drug Administration has stated the minimum LASIK age requirement is 18 years old, but there can be rare circumstances where the procedure is recommended earlier. The determination for LASIK for any age individual can only be made after a comprehensive LASIK Evaluation by a qualified doctor.

Lipstock LASIK and Cataract Center offers Free LASIK Evaluations at our Richmond, VA office. To learn more, visit our website at lipstocklaser.com or call 804-288-1543.

Labels: Age for Lasik, refractive instability, stable vision, refractive surgery, Lasik evaluation, nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism

The Cost of LASIK

Often one of the biggest reasons lens wearers hesitate to have their vision corrected is the cost. They aren't sure how much it may cost them, if they will need to pay for multiple surgeries, if they will be able to really stop wearing lenses, and if continuing the on-going cost of lenses would just be easier.

We’d like to take a moment to educate you on a few of these points, but first, the most important decision you must make is to visit a reputable surgeon. In order to get the care and results you are expecting, you shouldn't just trust your eyes to ANY LASIK surgeon. There are thorough surgeons and there are “other” surgeons. A thorough surgeon is an ophthalmologist that is reputable in the community, trusted by multiple patients and staff, will ensure you are an excellent candidate for LASIK (and offers other procedures if you are not), has performed at least 5,000 surgeries AND has a low enhancement rate (the rate at which a doctor needs to enhance the original results in order to get the patient to their visual expectations).  An excellent enhancement rate is less than 10%.

Multiple Surgeries

Often patients have the misconception that to have excellent eyesight, they will need multiple LASIK surgeries. This is not true.

Some surgeons perform multiple surgeries on one patient because they were not accurate the first time, they are new to performing eye surgery, or they didn't take accurate measurements prior to performing surgery.

As we said before, an expert surgeon will have a less than 10% enhancement rate. There are very few cases where they may need to enhance the original results, but it is mostly due to patient error in after-care or an agreed-upon course of treatment prior to surgery. These enhancements should be covered in the original cost of surgery and should NOT be a whole new surgery charge.

Stop Paying For and Wearing Lenses

This is a concern for almost every patient. After all, why would anyone in their right mind agree to eye surgery if they have to continue wearing lenses?

If you are a good candidate for the procedure and you have chosen a reputable surgeon, then you should be able to have many, many years of lens-free vision. How many years depends on how old you are at the time of surgery. Our eyes age along with us and there will be age-related issues, like Presbyopia, that require glasses for reading. Presbyopia occurs in the lens of your eye and not in the cornea (where vision issues like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism occur). LASIK or other vision correction procedures correct the cornea and the younger you are when you have the procedure, the longer you have to enjoy lens-free vision.

Lenses or LASIK – Which is Easier?

Ultimately, this decision is going to be up to you. LASIK and other vision correction procedures are a one-time cost. 

If you have a flexible spending account, it's even easier than that! Give us a call and we'll explain the details.

Or you can continue to make payments for lenses, replacement lenses, contacts, replacement contacts, cleaning solution, travel cases, travel solutions, etc. for the next 10, 15, 20, 25+ years.

The choice is yours.

Payment Plans

We are here to answer any questions you may have about payment plans and how to fit LASIK into your budget. Please feel free to give us a call at 804-288-1543 – there is no need to set up an appointment. We’ll answer any questions you may have and you can come in whenever you are ready.

Why Your Eye Surgeon Needs to be Local-Part 3

Corporate medicine has its benefits and its downfalls. In regards to the refractive surgery field, there are more downfalls to a corporate practice than there are benefits. Last week we discussed the availability of other vision correction procedures and why this is important. This week we will look at technology.

Technological Differences

LASIK has been around since the late 1990s, and since then, technology has been improved, advanced, and refined, all to increase the customer experience. There are many options today for LASIK technology, some still using a metal blade while others are 100% blade-free. While all of the technology is safe for your eyes, the benefits of the newest technology often reduces the risk of side-effects and may result in faster healing times.

If you want the optimal outcome for your eyes, selecting a doctor that uses the most advanced and latest equipment is the best option. However, not all doctors have access to this equipment. Take doctors that work at a corporate LASIK practice, for example. They don’t even get to choose which equipment they use to perform your procedure. They have to use the equipment provided to them by their board of directors. They may know the convenience and benefits of newer technology, but they have no say when it comes to what they get to use.

In contrast, a doctor who owns his/her own practice gets to choose the technology they use in their practice. They have 100% authority over what tools and technology goes into the practice. This makes them accountable to their patients and the patients’ outcomes. If they provide inadequate technology and the outcomes aren’t the best, they’ll lose out on new patients.

Not all doctors will provide the best technology. Some doctors don’t want to make the investment so they will continue to use outdated technology on their patients. When you visit a new LASIK practice, make sure to ask about the technology that the doctor will use. Understand your options and why that doctor chose the technology that they use at that practice. The technology and the doctor’s previous patient outcomes may mean the difference between an exceptional LASIK experience, and something else.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Lipstock LASIK & Cataract Center. We hope you have a wonderful and safe Turkey Day!

Why Your Surgeon Needs to be Local-Part 2

Corporate medicine has its benefits and its downfalls. In regards to the refractive surgery field, there are more downfalls to a corporate practice than there are benefits. Last week we discussed the difference between the doctors at each type of practice. This week, let’s look at the services offered.

The Right Procedure for Your Eyes

Another big difference between local and corporate owned practices are the services they offer. When a corporate practice is set up, it’s one of hundreds, maybe thousands of locations. In order to keep control over the brand name, these practices only offer a very small number of services, sometimes just LASIK and nothing else. Performing LASIK on patients that are not excellent candidates increases the likelihood of side-effects and less than optimal outcomes.

By providing only one service, the headquarters can ensure that each practice is exactly the same, offering the same service, providing the same website, and the same marketing and advertising collateral. They also don’t have to worry too much about training doctors who don’t know anything other than LASIK. This brings the cost of operation down for them and allows the board of directors to earn more money.

All of this is quite the opposite for a local doctor and local practice. The doctor (or a small group of local doctors) decides to open up a practice in order to improve the eye health of the community. The doctor will spend his/her own money because they know they can provide excellent eyesight to their patients. They are vested in their community because they know the people and they care about them.

These doctors will offer different types of services because they know that the best care that can be provided isn’t through one single solution. LASIK isn’t the best procedure for someone with very thin corneas. A patient with this issue may be better suited for PRK. Some patients may not be suited for laser vision correction at all. If this is the case, there are other options but usually only provided by a local ophthalmologist.

A local ophthalmologist can decide which procedures to offer his/her patients. They will be the one responsible for your treatment and follow-up care and they wouldn’t provide anything less just to earn a dollar. They are held accountable by their patients, not a board of directors looking to make a profit.

This all points to a new consideration on your quest for excellent vision:

Would you rather have vision correction performed on you that may not be right, but it’s all the practice offers? Or would you want to be fully examined by the surgeon performing your procedure who can offer other proven procedures that may actually be better for the health of your eyes?

Check back in next week when we continue this topic and discuss Technology.

Putting in Contacts with Your Toes?

We don't often write about other laser vision correction practices, but this story highlights one practice doing what it knows to help others in the community, specifically Jessica Cox of Overland Park, KS.

Jessica Cox does not have any arms and currently does everything with her feet. This includes putting in her contacts every morning!

Now, through the gift of laser vision correction, Jessica will be able to take that routine out of her life. We applaud Dr. Daniel Durrie for helping this young lady and giving her one less challenge in her life.

For more on this story, click here.

For more on Jessica Cox, you can view her website here.

Why Parents Should Consider LASIK

So many of our patients that have young ones at home tell us about how happy they are that they can finally see without glasses and contacts. Their excitement usually comes from the same place – freedom to enjoy their kids without concerns of glasses and/or contacts.

It’s easy to imagine a child playing with glasses or accidentally poking a parent in the eye and a contact falls out. However, there is another underlying issue that is a huge concern when you need lenses to see: Safety.

When a child wakes up screaming in the middle of the night, do you have to stumble to find your glasses first? Do you have to blunder down the hallway half-blind because you don’t have time to put in your contacts? Or do you have to wake up your significant other to handle the issue because you simply cannot see?

It’s time to put an end to your worries. We want to help you obtain your vision goals so that you have one less thing to worry about. Come in to see us for a free, no-obligation consultation. We can discuss your concerns and talk about how we can help you achieve your vision goals. Give us a call today at 804.288.1543. You can also schedule online.

Your Eyes Know

Losing sleep can affect your body in many different ways, especially your eyes. If you wake in the morning to an extreme burning sensation in your eyes, one you don't feel again throughout the day, it could be that your body needs more sleep.

The gland that produces tears needs rest, just like the rest of your body. It can even shut down on its own, which means your eyes will become dry if you're still awake.

Take care of your eyesight - make sure to get plenty of rest. To read more about this painful problem, click here.

What to Do with a Flexible Spending Account

Did you know you can achieve excellent vision and use your Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to pay for it?

It's true! Our laser vision correction procedures, such as LASIK, can be paid for by using an FSA. Stop using your FSA to pay for glasses, contacts, solutions, etc. Use it to pay for great vision this year and have the money next year to pay for your really important medical expenses.

Don't forget - most FSA's are "use it or lose it" which means if you don't use the money by the end of the year, it's gone!

To find out more, visit our website or give us a call today at 804-288-1543.

Your Pressing Questions

Did you know that Lipstock LASIK & Cataract Center is on Facebook?

Many of our patients and people considering LASIK, Cataract Surgery, or any of our other services find us on Facebook to ask us some of their most important questions about our services.

Check us out on Facebook and let us know if there is anything you would like to know about us!

The Cost of LASIK

Often one of the biggest reasons lens wearers hesitate to have their vision corrected is the cost. They aren’t sure how much it may cost them, if they will need to pay for multiple surgeries, if they will be able to really stop wearing lenses, and if continuing the on-going cost of lenses would just be easier.

We’d like to take a moment to educate you on a few of these points, but first, the most important decision you must make is to visit a reputable surgeon. In order to get the care and results you are expecting, you shouldn’t just trust your eyes to ANY LASIK surgeon. There are thorough surgeons and there are “other” surgeons. A thorough surgeon is an ophthalmologist that is reputable in the community, trusted by multiple patients and staff, will ensure you are an excellent candidate for LASIK (and offers other procedures if you are not), has performed at least 5,000 surgeries AND has a low enhancement rate (the rate at which a doctor needs to enhance the original results in order to get the patient to their visual expectations).  An excellent enhancement rate is less than 10%.

Multiple Surgeries

Often patients have the misconception that to have excellent eyesight, they will need multiple LASIK surgeries. This is not true.

Some surgeons perform multiple surgeries on one patient because they were not accurate the first time, they are new to performing eye surgery, or they didn’t take accurate measurements prior to performing surgery.

As we said before, an expert surgeon will have a less than 10% enhancement rate. There are very few cases where they may need to enhance the original results, but it is mostly due to patient error in after-care or an agreed-upon course of treatment prior to surgery. These enhancements should be covered in the original cost of surgery and should NOT be a whole new surgery charge.

Stop Paying For and Wearing Lenses

This is a concern for almost every patient. After all, why would anyone in their right mind agree to eye surgery if they have to continue wearing lenses?

If you are a good candidate for the procedure and you have chosen a reputable surgeon, then you should be able to have many, many years of lens-free vision. How many years depends on how old you are at the time of surgery. Our eyes age along with us and there will be age-related issues, like Presbyopia, that require glasses for reading. Presbyopia occurs in the lens of your eye and not in the cornea (where vision issues like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism occur). LASIK or other vision correction procedures correct the cornea and the younger you are when you have the procedure, the longer you have to enjoy lens-free vision.

Lenses or LASIK – Which is Easier?

Ultimately, this decision is going to be up to you. LASIK and other vision correction procedures are a one-time cost. We offer payment plans that will help you break down the cost of the surgery to an affordable range, and we may even be able to offer you no-interest or 0% for up to 24 months. If you chose that option, after 24 months (or two years), you will be free of the cost of lenses, contacts, or vision correction payments!

If you have a flexible spending account, it's even easier than that! Give us a call and we'll explain the details.

Or you can continue to make payments for lenses, replacement lenses, contacts, replacement contacts, cleaning solution, travel cases, travel solutions, etc. for the next 10, 15, 20, 25+ years.

The choice is yours.

Payment Plans

We are here to answer any questions you may have about payment plans and how to fit LASIK into your budget. Please feel free to give us a call at 804.288.1543 – there is no need to set up an appointment. We’ll answer any questions you may have and you can come in whenever you are ready.

How to Learn About LASIK Without Being "Sold"

LASIK is a medical procedure aimed to help you see clearly. With so much information on the internet, how do you find out about LASIK? Where do you go to research the procedure and how it works? How do you make yourself comfortable enough to finally contact a LASIK practice to being the process? ARSC, or the American Refractive Surgery Council, has a few pointers that may help you out. EYE ON HEALTH Going Online To Learn About LASIK

(NAPSI)-Social networks and blogs have taken the information-rich resources of the Internet and made them a part of everyday conversation: According to a recent Pew Internet study, 80 percent of Internet users, or 59 percent of U.S. adults, look online for health information. Networks like Facebook, review sites such as HealthGrades and Yelp, and comments and questions posted online are extremely useful tools for researching personal health matters. Popular topics of inquiry include learning about procedures, specific medical conditions, understanding treatment options and finding a doctor. When considering an elective procedure, such as vision correction with LASIK, having access to online resources can make becoming an informed patient much easier. The American Refractive Surgery Council offers these tips on using the Internet and social networking to research whether LASIK is right for you. • Use Facebook and other social networks to ask friends and followers about their LASIK experiences. Were they happy? What surgeon would they recommend? • If you're curious about exactly how the surgery is performed, you can check out surgery videos on YouTube or Vimeo. These videos of actual procedures can be very instructive (though be warned, they are graphic). Also, many surgeons post procedure videos on their sites. • Use forums, message boards and other online discussions to hear from other people firsthand. Literally thousands of communities have formed around common areas of interest where LASIK can make a difference-from parents to outdoor enthusiasts. This is a great avenue for finding people who share your interests and hearing about their experiences with the procedure. • You can find out about prices online; just remember, getting a great deal should not be the deciding factor for any surgical procedure. A consultation with a refractive surgeon should be balanced, detailed and personalized to you and your vision. It should never feel like a sales process. • Use authoritative medical websites such as WebMD or the Mayo Clinic to learn about the procedure. Research the risks as well as the benefits and understand what the procedure can and can't do. For example, LASIK can free you from glasses and contact lenses-or reduce your dependence on them. But it has limitations. In particular, LASIK can't stop the aging process. Your eyes will continue to age and you may need glasses for reading at some point in the future. Finally, some common sense about using the Internet: Because anyone can put anything on the Web, the source matters. Make sure the information you are relying on to make a medical decision comes from a credible source and that you verify the information with your surgeon or personal physician. Learn more at www.americanrefractivesurgerycouncil.org. Information online and in social networks can help you make up your mind about LASIK.

It's Almost Back to School Time

We said it last year and we'll say it again: It's never too early for an eye exam!

School is back in session and kids are back to reading, writing, and math. If you want your children to succeed, you should make sure to have their eyes checked. If kids can’t see, their grades, behaviors, and learning abilities are severely affected. “They learn to compensate with their vision problems without fixing them, which can lead to more problems in school and later in life.” (Prevention Blindness America)

It’s not just children that should have their eyes checked. Even as an adult, if you have had 20/20 vision your whole life, there are age-related vision problems that occur with everyone. Presbyopia is just one of these vision impairments. After the age of 40, the lens of your eye begins to harden and lose its flexibility. You may not begin to notice it at first, but eventually you will have trouble reading things up close. You’ll start to notice you need to stretch your arms further and further away in order to read your cell phone or a restaurant menu.

The good news is that there is a solution to Presbyopia. Often people will start wearing bifocals. Bifocals allow someone with Presbyopia to see up close, but also to focus in the distance if they have nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism.

If you don’t want to wear lenses, you can also speak with an Ophthalmologist about your options. Many doctors can provide lens replacement surgery. The lens of your eye is removed and replaced by a synthetic lens that will never harden. Depending on the type of lens, you may also be able to correct your existing refractive error (the reason you wear glasses) at the same time.

So don’t put up with bad vision any longer! Come in and see us at Lipstock LASIK and Cataract Center today!

Less Vision Problems for Older Americans

In a recent report from the Chicago Tribune, fewer older Americans are complaining of vision problems.

As you age, your eyes also age. There are certain inevitable issues you will have with your eyes, one being presbyopia. The other is cataracts. Both happen to everyone, eventually.

So what’s behind the decline on vision problems in older American’s? Researchers think it could be due to cataract surgery, healthy eating, better lifestyles, and even less people smoking.

Whatever the issue, it’s good news for many older Americans.

Read the Chicago Tribune article here.

Enjoy Your Holiday!

We hope you all have a very safe and Happy 4th of July!

LASIK & Your Astigmatism

Many people hear that they have astigmatism and it means almost nothing to them except the fact that they cannot see well. Astigmatism is a little harder to correct than just simple nearsightedness or farsightedness. Glasses and contacts may help, but only while you are wearing them.

What is Astigmatism?

Your eyeball is a round sphere. When you are looking at something, your eye detects the light reflected off of the object. This light enters your eye through the cornea, where it is then refracted onto the retina. The retina then sends images to your brain.

If your cornea is not a perfect circle shape, it can distort the light and make it so the light does not reach the retina accurately.

For someone who has astigmatism, their cornea is slight oblong, or shaped more like a football. This results in the person seeing images as extremely blurry.

Can LASIK correct astigmatism?

Many optometrists, or eye doctors, tell their patients that LASIK cannot correct astigmatism. This is untrue.

LASIK CAN correct astigmatism.

However, in order to be 100% sure that LASIK can correct your personal degree of astigmatism, you must have a LASIK exam. It’s the only true way to find out if LASIK can help.

How LASIK Corrects Astigmatism

An ophthalmologist, or eye surgeon, can correct astigmatism with a LASIK laser. The laser will reshape the cornea into a round shape, thus allowing light to accurately refract directly on the retina.

Our LASIK patients are amazed that as soon as the surgery is over, they can see more clearly than they ever have before. The correction with LASIK is fast and permanent. You’ll be able to see clearly right away.

We encourage everyone to participate in our Free LASIK Consultation. Without any obligations, you can find out if you are a candidate, regardless of your degree of astigmatism, and then you can decide if you would like to further pursue the question of “Should you have LASIK?”

Schedule online today!