Lasik and Your Medical

[wrxpilot]

On cost-- I went to the most expensive place in town. It was a little over $4k total. There are guys who advertise $299/eye, but the day before I went in there was a front page article about some lady who got a hole burned in her eye by one of those guys. I don't need that.

Yeah, smart choice. I was looking at the most expensive (and recommended) place here in Palm Beach county. It was around $5.5k. I went throught the pre-screening and was recommended as a good candidate, but haven't done it yet. It's a lot of change for me right now, and more importantly I'm waiting for the technology to settle out. Seems like the leading edge right now is wavefront w/ laser scalpel.

One thing I would recommed is to get your pre-screening w/ the doc doing the surgery, then go to another doc and tell them you are having it done somewhere else, but will pay for them to pre-screen you for an unbiased opinion. If you're a career pilot, it's a small price to pay.

 

[Herculeus]

Some of those $299 an eye are not bad.My dad spend $400 and eye and he says 20/20 and his vision sucked.I think it depends on where you live.

 

[wrxpilot]

Some of those $299 an eye are not bad.My dad spend $400 and eye and he says 20/20 and his vision sucked.I think it depends on where you live.

No, that is over simplified and NOT true. It depends on many factors, including your eye geometry, doctor experience, type of equipment, etc. Generally the guys doing the blue light special on eye surgery are inexperienced working cheap to get experience.

If anyone here is considering it, they need to do a lot of research and make sure they know the other side of things (i.e. the bad side of eye surgery, including the possibility of NEVER flying again) and what questions to ask. There is a very high success rate if you're the right kind of candidate, but you need to make sure.

 

[bobbysamd]

Vision correction surgery

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but vision correction surgery has at least three potential downsides.

The most important downside are the potential complications, which you can read about on this site.

Another downside might be how the airline(s) of your dreams reacts to vision correction surgery. Years ago, airlines automatically showed the door to pilots who had vision correction surgery. Delta, which, of course, is not hiring, had strict proscriptions against pilots with less than 20/20 vision; how would it react to someone who had eye surgery to correct to 20/20. I have learned that airlines are far more liberal about eye surgery these days and might only care that you have a First. Just the same, better check before going under the laser.

Finally, and I have asked, despite having eye surgery you'll still need reading glasses as you age, probably after forty. The alternative is having monovision for close-in vision, meaning they correct one eye a little more for reading. Personally, I wouldn't want that.

Just a little food for thought.