When you are planning to get laser vision correction surgery, whether LASIK or PRK, make sure that you do your homework. I would recommend that you visit several doctors for the free consultation and pick the one that you get the best feeling about. I wouldn't recommend basing a surgery decision involving your eyes on price.
My search is coming full circle today. I started looking on Yelp and now I am writing the review. I don't write too many reviews, so that should signal to you that I am EXTREMELY satisfied with my experience.
I had three different consultations.
The first had a very ""factory"" feel to it. They were really moving patients in and out of there. I did not meet the surgeon during the visit. It was definitely the cheapest option of the three.
The second was a doctor that my family has been going to for a few years. The visit was better than the first, but they did not have their own laser so there was going to be this hand-off between their office and the Laser Center. It didn't make me nervous but I was a little less comfortable with that.
The third was Dr. Mandel. Dr. Mandel operates his own equipment in his own office. He is very personable, friendly, and most importantly, very experienced and highly regarded in the field of laser vision correction. His staff is incredibly knowledgeable, professional, and experienced. They did the most thorough consultation and had the strictest pre-surgery criteria for amount of time you had to keep contacts out, etc. This made me feel like Dr. Mandel was after the BEST POSSIBLE RESULT and not just a successful one. After all, this is surgery and not buying a coffeemaker at Target. You can have 20/15, 20/20, 20/25 vision afterward, and my guess is that all are CONSIDERED successful procedures.
I had the procedure a week ago. I went home afterward, followed my instructions and slept a lot, and woke up the next morning and headed to my follow-up. I measured 20/15 vision that morning and went back to work. I had my one week follow up today and still 20/15, and I could tell it was slightly better than a week before. My eyes feel great and I can see better than I could with contacts.
Give Dr Mandel's office a call and setup the consultation. If you do multiple like I did, I'm sure you'll come to the same conclusion.
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