Regular Lasik vs. CustomVue/Wavefront Lasik

[axebiker]

I'm corrected 20/15, and about 75% of my correction was for astigmatism.

[Bryce Kellogg]

Hey AG (It's Lisa...I thought I'd better identify since I lurk) I have none of the techy-speak regarding Lasik everyone else does, but I felt obligated to tell you...my mom had some type of Lasik done a few years ago, and in the past year, almost every night her eye swells up and gets red. She said it feels like she permanently has a grain of sand in her eye and if she had it to do again, she wouldn't. So many other people have had great experiences, but I just wanted to throw that out there since your vision is so important. I'm sure the technology has vastly improved since she had it done, but just wanted to share.

[FartBag Commando]

C, I was basically in the same boat as you are now. Slight astigmatism, blah, blah. Basically I was all set to go Customvue because it sounded great but they were straight with me and said I didn't need to go that route, so I didn't.

[altagirl]

Hey AG (It's Lisa...I thought I'd better identify since I lurk) I have none of the techy-speak regarding Lasik everyone else does, but I felt obligated to tell you...my mom had some type of Lasik done a few years ago, and in the past year, almost every night her eye swells up and gets red. She said it feels like she permanently has a grain of sand in her eye and if she had it to do again, she wouldn't. So many other people have had great experiences, but I just wanted to throw that out there since your vision is so important. I'm sure the technology has vastly improved since she had it done, but just wanted to share.

I heard of one other person who had an issue like that, but they were able to fix it. Doesn't sound fun though.

And thanks, FBC - it's good to hear a few excellent results with the "regular" lasik when that's indicated.

Arty - they did say that while they can't promise it, depends on how you heal, etc, there's no reason they'd expect it to not be 20/20 or better.

[Arty50]

Cool. Your astigmatism doesn't sound too bad, and so I figured you'd be ok. But I thought I'd throw that out there anyway.

[blockp]

I was just looking into this last week. I'm planning to get my eyes done this spring, so I've been checking out the local "shops". Here's a debate I found on blade vs. bladeless. Based on this and other reading, I'm opting for intralase (bladeless).
http://www.allaboutvision.com/vision...-bladeless.htm

The studies Ive read on wavefront, vs classic all say conclusively that wavefront is more precise and have less halo and post surgery complications. The three shops I've narrowed my search down to each have a different laser. CustomVue, CustomCornea, and Allegretto wavelight. All three are wavefront machines.

Sorry, I don't have all of my bookmarks here and am not finding on google most of what would be relevant to share, but based on what I've read, I'm leaning toward either the Allegretto or the CustomVue machines. There's tons of technical write-ups online, how accurate they are, I can't attest for, but there's info out there.

My last step in deciding where I get my eyes done will be going and talking to the three surgeons I've narrowed my search down to. The week after next I'll be setting up those appointments (have a ski trip to go on first ).

Disclaimer: This is all just my opinion... I'm not a doc... I don't work in the industry... I'm generally referred to as being anal and this information is strictly my own findings from researching this before getting my own eyes tazed. I've not yet been tazed, so of course... I know it all

[Cadha]

I'm one of the few who had a 'bad' experience with Lasik. I should point out that I was considerably more short-sighted than you, although I honestly don't know if that played a factor.

After about three months my left eye slipped to 20/50 and my doctor did a surface procedure to correct because of my thin corneas. Horrible couple of days following - blasted through my vicodin prescription, which barely dented the burning pain.

Then ... slipped again. I was okay with 20/50 in one eye and flat out didn't want to have another surface procedure. However my doc. ended up implanting a lens over my existing lens - not up on medical terms, sorry! It was some new procedure that he had helped pioneer and he had been involved in the trials for the last couple of years.

Anyway - the point of this is that ultimately I'm extremely happy that I did it. Would I want to go through all that again? No, and it was a huge and unpleasant shock to me that I had these problems, because you really just expect it to be all plain sailing.

In the end I was glad I picked the doctor rather than the type of lasik. Although he wasn't able to tell me why it happened (sometimes it just does?) he was able to correct it with a different procedure.

Just my (lengthy) 2cw!

[ProHoHater]

I paid the extra for the custom. Its your eyes you know. I went from not being able to drive a car without glasses to 20/15! No halos, etc. My friend did his the same time but went for the cheaper version. He had to have his done a second time about six months or so later and bitches at night about halos. Mine cost like 5 grand, which if all goes well is like pennies over the course of the rest of my life.