​​​​​​​By now, you have friends or relatives who have benefited from LASIK, and you may be asking yourself if LASIK is right for you. You can start your journey by considering why you are thinking about LASIK.

• My contacts aren’t comfortable anymore

• Hiking with rain-spotted glasses just isn’t as fun

• I hate feeling blind without my glasses or contacts on

• I’m tired of the hassle of contacts

• There’s always a little part of me that is worried that my glasses will be misplaced or that I won’t have time to put my contacts in during an emergency
  
  

All of these, and the additional reasons that are unique to your life are good reasons to consider LASIK. Once you’ve decided you are ready to move forward, the next step is determining if the procedure is safe for you. It’s our job to help you answer this question, and we are happy to evaluate your eyes further with a LASIK consultation with Dr. Duvall, Dr. Nelson, Dr. Troyer, Dr. Wang, or Dr. Nowakowska. During this visit, they’ll make sure of a few things.

• You are at least 21 years old (okay, you probably don’t need a doctor to figure that one out for you.)

• You are not pregnant or nursing within the past six months, or planning to become pregnant until the procedure is stable postoperatively. (yup, you can figure that one out yourself too.)

• Your glasses/contact lens prescription is stable. If you are new to us, we love to have records from your last eye care provider to help us answer this question.

• Your glasses or contact lens prescription falls within the recommended treatment guidelines for LASIK.

• You do not have severe dry eye. Dry eye is very common, and our doctors can help you determine if yours is mild, or if it needs additional treatment prior to considering LASIK.

• The map of your cornea (called “topography”) shows a regular shape.

• Your cornea is thick enough to safely undergo the LASIK procedure. Many times, patients who aren’t good candidates for LASIK are good candidates for a closely related procedure: PRK. We’ll help you determine which is best for you.

• You do not have evidence of other eye diseases or injuries that would make the procedure unpredictable or unsafe.

• You accept the risks inherent in the procedure.
  
  

Following this initial consultation, the next step will be deciding which facility you want to proceed with your Lasik or PRK procedure at, the doctor performing your initial evaluation can provide you with a referral.