By: Kenneth Westfield, MD

Vision is so important to daily life. If you’re thinking about LASIK or some other form of laser eye surgery in Las Vegas, it’s important that you approach your options wisely. Two tips to help you understand if LASIK is right for you:

1. Consider Your Candidacy

Ask: “Do my vision condition and lifestyle choices make me a good candidate for this procedure?”

This is the obvious first question, and most people with astigmatism, nearsightedness, and farsightedness would answer “yes.” However, the reality is that each patient is a little different, so it’s important for you to have your eyes assessed by an eye doctor who is a Las Vegas LASIK surgery specialist, specifically, so that you can understand how unique factors can affect your candidacy.

Lifestyle choices can impact your results, as can other eye problems. You may need a special type of LASIK to help make sure you avoid side effects that LASIK may create for “less-than-ideal” candidates. Be sure to ask your surgeon not only “Am I a good candidate?,” but also “What kind of special concerns do I need to know about?”

2. Evaluate Your Surgery Center

Examine: whether the surgery center has a strong track record for safe procedures and good results.

Sometimes, patients assume that technologically advanced medical devices like LASIK laser surgery systems offer the same results to every patient in the same ways from every clinic. This is far from true, for a number of reasons:

• Experience - Your surgeon’s assessment of your condition is still the first step to a good result, and someone who has not performed hundreds of these procedures already will be less qualified to guide you – and your LASIK surgery – in the right direction.
• Maintenance – Keeping up-to-date equipment and maintaining it properly can be expensive, which is why some centers unfortunately cut costs by skimping in this area. Las Vegas LASIK surgery requires an extremely high level of precision, and my colleagues and I maintain very clear standards and practices such as re-calibrating the laser after every few procedures.
• Follow-up care – Appropriate surgical preparation and procedural skill are both important, but healing is also key to healthy vision. A more attentive surgeon or surgical center will follow up with you to make sure your results are developing properly.

Sometimes, it can be difficult to evaluate a Las Vegas eye doctor’s track record fully, but you can start by making sure you understand which credentials he or she possesses, what those credentials mean, and what kind of standing they hold with their state medical board. Other clues, like how attentively your surgeon answers your questions, can also help.