If you are considering life-changing vision correction surgery, you will be required to have a LASIK consultation. The consultation is essential to evaluating the health of your eyes and determining your candidacy for surgery. By the end of the appointment, we want you to know your surgical options, the pricing, and your surgery date!

Therefore, for those of you who are considering LASIK, we would like to take the opportunity to explain what you can expect during a LASIK consultation.

BEFORE THE LASIK CONSULTATION:

Please complete your registration paperwork online prior to your visit. Our phone counselors will email you an appointment confirmation email. You will also receive a second email with a link to complete your New Patient Paperwork.

The forms include our patient registration form, HIPAA information, financial disclosures, and a quick questionnaire about your vision.  They should take about 15 minutes to complete and are helpful to both the doctors and counselors. The questions included provide our staff with information about your vision to help customize surgery options.  

Before arrival please ensure you have your completed paperwork and ID. We also recommend bringing a jacket to your appointment (it can get quite cold in the office). The consultation process generally takes about 3 hours, so some reading material is also recommended. You will also be dilated on the day of the consultation. The dilation may last 24-48 hours.

Check-In

When you arrive for your appointment, kindly check in with our patient specialists. they will check our electronic health systems to ensure that all paperwork is complete. Next Step, you will be meeting with our refractive surgery counselors.

With the Counselor

Before you see a technician, your refractive counselor will give you a cursory overview of the services we offer here. They begin this process by taking an autorefraction. After they have an estimate of your prescription, you will discuss the procedures you might be recommended for, pricing, and the vision correction process at FEI.

DURING THE LASIK CONSULTATION

Corneal Topography

After meeting with the counselor,  one of our Ophthalmic Technicians will greet you and take you into a testing room to begin a series of tests needed to determine your surgical candidacy. One of the tests is a corneal topography (also known as photokeratoscopy). It creates a three-dimensional map of the surface curvature and the shape characteristics of the cornea. It is similar to how one would illustrate a mountain using a topographic map (it shows the peaks and valleys of your cornea).

The topography serves as a diagnostic tool for the doctor. It provides essential details about your cornea such as the aspheric curvature and corneal thickness. During LASIK surgery, we reshape the cornea using a femtosecond laser and change how your eye focuses light. We need to know the current shape of your eye to know how to reshape it and correcting your vision.

Refraction Exam

Once the corneal topography is complete, the technician will take you to an exam room. A refraction is a test that diagnoses your refractive error.  

If you have a refractive error,  the shape of your eye does not allow it to bend light correctly. If the light does not bend properly, it does not focus on the retina and your vision may be blurry. The main types of refractive errors are myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), presbyopia (loss of near vision with age), and astigmatism.

You can think of the refractive error as your contact lens or eyeglass prescription.

Surgical Options

The technician will briefly discuss the surgical options we offer at FEI. While the majority of patients are candidates for LASIK, the results of your testing may suggest another form of vision correction surgery is more appropriate.

At FEI,  we offer two types of vision correction surgeries: Laser vision correction and Intraocular lens surgeries.

• LASIK, PRK, and SMILE are all types of laser vision correction. SMILE is the newest type of laser vision correction. Dr. Filutowski is one of the top SMILE surgeons in the country (in terms of procedures completed) and was the first in Central Florida to offer the procedure.
• RLE and ICL are intraocular lens surgeries. During RLE, (refractive lens exchange) the surgeon will remove your natural human lens and replace it with an intraocular lens. During ICL (Implantable Collamer Lens), the surgeon will place an intraocular lens between the iris and the natural lens.

After the brief discussion of surgical options, the technician will check your eye pressure and instill cycloplegic drops to dilate your eyes.  Your technician will then escort you to the waiting room to wait for the dilation to take effect. As with standard dilation, you will be light sensitive and find it difficult to focus up close.  However, the effect with cycloplegic drops may last 24-48 hours in comparison with standard dilation only lasting 4-6 hours.

Meet With a Doctor

Once the dilation has taken effect, a technician will bring you back into the exam room for the final test called a cycloplegic refraction. A cycloplegic refraction is a procedure used to determine a person’s complete refractive error.  By temporarily paralyzing the ciliary eye muscles through dilation that aid in focusing system of the eye (accommodation), we obtain a more precise measurement of your refractive error.

Accommodation refers to the way the eye changes focus from near to distant objects. When you go from focusing on something close (a computer screen or book) to something farther away (a clock or tv), the muscles in your eye that hold your lens contract and relax, changing the shape of your lens. The different shapes allow light from different distances to focus on the retina. 

Recommended Surgery

During the exam, the doctor reviews all of the previous results and perform a complete ocular health check.   

The doctor will also review the surgical options the technician introduced to you in more detail. Based on the examination findings and the results from the tests performed, the doctor will discuss with you your refractive surgical options and answer any questions you may have in regards to the different refractive surgery options.

During the LASIK Consultation

At the conclusion of the examination with the doctor, you will meet once again with your refractive surgery counselor. The counselor will go over the doctor’s surgical recommendations and discuss the financial details of the refractive surgery options

The refractive surgery counselor is the intermediary between you and the doctors. They will help coordinate the administrative side of things, schedule your procedure and guide you through the LASIK journey.

Now you can go home, relax, and prepare for your life-changing refractive surgery!

Next Steps

If you have been contemplating LASIK/ Refractive surgery or if you are unsure if you are a candidate for LASIK, schedule your consultation with us today! Our goal is to be as thorough and informative as possible. We will do our best to answer all your questions and help you achieve your best vision possible!

We are happy to provide you with excellence in eye care and vision for life!

If you would like to schedule a LASIK consultation let us know here or call us at 800-393-3926.