Upside: he has a cinematic personality- unique, charming and unusual. If I didn't do any research, I would have been enthralled with him as an optometrist, like some of the other reviewers.\r
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Downside:\r
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1) He insisted I buy the contacts from him as well as getting the prescription. He refused to give me a copy of the prescription right away. Anther patient also reported difficulty getting a prescription copy from him if they don't fill their prescription with him. According to the California Board of Optometry, Federal Trade Commission regulations require that the patient may choose to ""purchase contact lenses from a third party"", and also that ""Eyeglass prescriptions must be released immediately following the eye exam. Contact lens prescriptions must be released immediately upon completion of the eye exam or the contact lens fitting (if a fitting is necessary)"", ""whether requested or not.""\r
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If this is true Dr. Constance is violating federal law and abusing patient's legal rights.\r
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But that isn't the worst thing!\r
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2) Checking on lens(dot)com, allowing a standard fee for the eye exam, he charged me well nearly 4x the online retail price for the contacts. Caveat emptor!\r
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But that isn't the worst thing!\r
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3) The prescription for one eye never seemed right, the vision is a little blurry through the contacts, and I never had that problem before. Another reviewer reported getting an incorrect prescription. He did have a lot of trouble, and many tries, to get a final prescription.\r
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But that isn't the worst thing!\r
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4) He claimed to be prescribing me an expensive brand of contacts. Checking the manufacturers website, they were in fact the least expensive,low end of the brand, with a low oxygen permeability.\r
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Oxygen permeability affects eye health, and doctors are saying the newer second and third generation, extremely high permeability silicon hydrogel lenses are much healthier. But I was prescribed old style, very low permeability, inexpensive lenses which cause undesirable changes in the eye.\r
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Check out, for example, the third generation silicon hydrogel Comfilcon A. It's eye opening. There are other second and third generation materials. The permeability of the old material lenses he prescribed is many times less than the newer materials.\r
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That's the worst thing. My eye health is the priority here. I don't want to compromise it for anyone's profit.\r
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5) He didn't allow me to have a preference for brand or type of contacts, (which would not have allowed him to sell me inexpensive contacts at an inflated price.)\r
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6) He also told me that, for getting my glasses prescription filled, other optical shops did very poor work, and I should buy them from him.\r
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Much better way to go on all counts for prescriptions, contacts and glasses: lenscrafters dot com, lens dot com, firmoo dot com. To order glasses online, make sure to get the left and right PD on your written prescription, and use an old pair of glasses that fit well for size measurements.)
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