The LASIK Blog

"Magic Wand": Driving at 92 Thanks to Cataract Surgery!

Morton Burstyn is a very nice 92 year old man, who I saw in my office for the first time several months ago.  He had poor vision in both eyes, and lost his independence.  I determined that I could improve the vision in 1 of his eyes through cataract surgery.

Surgery went well last month, Morton is now seeing well enough to drive again!  He was kind enough to discuss his EyeCare 20/20 cataract experience with me last week:

Bronze Medalist Erin Pac Discusses Her LASIK Vision

The Bronze Medal Olympic Bobsled team of Erin Pac and Elana Meyers were at EyeCare 20/20 earlier this month showing off their Medals and signing autographs for fans.  Erin became a member of LASIK for the Gold last year, before the Olympics.  She is still thrilled with her 20/20 vision!

As the driver of USA Bobsled, there is no doubt how important excellent vision is to preforming well.  A Bronze Medal is certainly validation to the results.  Erin was kind enough to discuss the impact her LASIK had on her Olympic performance.

Patients Blogging About Their LASIK Experiences

When people are contemplating getting LASIK surgery, they often have many questions about the LASIK experience.  Word of mouth certainly accounts for most of our LASIK referrals here at EyeCare 20/20.  We often post our patients experiences through the video testimonial category of this blog and on our YouTube page.  There are also web sites out there where people talk about LASIK experiences. (Although th LASIK testimonial Blog follows my twitter feed, I have no affiliation with it.)

Howard Yermish is an online marketing strtategist.  I have used him to help get two of my sites , LASIK the Refs and LASIK for the Gold, up and running.  After working with me for the past year, Howard decided he too could benefit from LASIK surgery.  He decided to blog about his own LASIK experience.  Here is a video from his blog discussing why he decided to have LASIK.

Participate in Contact Sports? LASEK is the Answer

One of the many questions I face from prospective patients inquiring about LASIK is "When is it safe to get hit in the eye?"  The answer may be never!  If the eye is hit at just that right angle with just the right force, there is a chance that the LASIK flap can be moved.  Case in point:  I reported the 2 latest cases in medical literature of LASIK flaps moving up to 9 years after the original surgery.  The results were presented at last years American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery's Annual Meeting in San Francisco.  The title of this presentation was:  Late Onset Dehiscence of LASIK Flap.

So, when a prospective patient tells me they are actively involved in activities that may lead to an eye injury such as:

• Boxing or martial arts
• Occupations such as special forces

I will try to convince them to opt for LASEK, a surface treatment that involves no flap.  If one gets hit in the eye following this procedure, there is no increased risk of injury.

Doug Miller is moving towards a career as a professional Ultimate fighter.  He discusses his results with LASEK with me here.

2010: Lose Those Bifocals! ReSTOR Your Vision!!

Presbyopia is caused when the eye's lens, normally soft and flexible, hardens with age and results in blurred reading vision. The hardening of the lens makes it difficult for the eye to focus on close objects. Presbyopia is part of the normal aging process, typically affecting adults at about 40 years of age. Reading glasses and bifocals are used to treat presbyopia. These assist the eyes in focusing on nearby objects. Since presbyopia affects the lens, LASIK eye surgery, which only treats the cornea, is unable to correct the condition.  Therefore, LASIK patients past their mid 40's still need to wear reading glasses.

For those who do not to wish wear readers, the answer Refractive Lens Exchange (RLE), whereby we remove the eye's natural aging lens and replace it with a multifocal, artificial lens (IOL).  In my opinion, the ReSTOR 3.0 offers the best possible vision at all ranges.  This lens can also be implanted at the time of cataract surgery to markedly reduce the need for glasses after surgery.

Many of our patients at EyeCare 20/20 have questions concerning the use of the ReSTOR.  Because of this, we have produced a very informative video that walks you through the entire process of one of our patient's, Ian Lang, experience with the ReSTOR implant.  We hope that this video answers many of your questions!  If you do decide to have a premium IOL implanted, make sure you have it done by a surgeon with vast refractive and cataract experience.

All Eyes on Samson Dubina in This Week's Nationals Following His LASIK

 

 Samson presents me with a signed paddle following his LASIK last week.

Table Tennis star Samson Dubina had his LASIK surgery last week at EyeCare 20/20 without a hitch.  In fact he is already back in competition, and doing quite well.  According to Samson:

To Doctor Silverman and all the staff at Eyecare 20/20,

Thank you so much for your kindness in correcting my vision.  I just won my first tournament last week and look forward to excellent results next week in Las Vegas at the US Nationals.  My eyes are no longer dry or tired at the end of a long competition.  If you are interested in watching my matches, they should be online at www.usatt.org or at www.tabletennis.teamusa.org/live

We look forward to watching Samson's progress as a member of LASIK for the Gold in his quest for Olympic glory!

In the following video, Samson discusses his LASIK experience:

Olympic Hopeful, Samson Dubina Joins LASIK for the Gold

Table Tennis sensation, Samson Dubina, made the trip to EyeCare 20/20 from Canton, Ohio last week in hopes of improving his chances to make the 2012 US Olympic team.  Samson is an awesome Table Tennis Player, he came in 5th place in last year's Nationals and won the Mixed Doubles Competition. 

In this video, Samson discusses his expectations of how LASIK will improve his performance.

Personally, I am a poor ping pong player at best.  Watching Samson in action has given me a new appreciation of the sport.  Hopefully, LASIK will take Samson to the next level, and olympic glory!

Vision Harvest 2009: Free Cataract Surgery Program Reveals a Health Care System in Crisis

As I stated in my previous blog post, November 25 was the inaugural Vision Harvest free cataract surgery day at River Drive Surgery Center.  Twenty patients without insurance, or the means to pay, were provided free cataract surgery.  I promised to post interviews of many of these patients the day after their surgery.  Well, here they are.  The video is in 3 parts, due to YouTube's 10 minute time constraint.

While you are watching these videos I am sure that you will notice several recurring themes dealing with a breakdown in our health care system.

• Many people who are gainfully employed cannot afford coverage.
• Tying health care to employment leads to no health care when unemployed, creating a vicious cycle.
• There are many large cracks in our current system which are not being addressed by the current health care debate.

After viewing these videos, I am sure that you will come to the same conclusion:  our health care system is broken and in need of an overhaul.  What do you think needs to be done?

Melinda Owen Thrilled With Her New Eyes!

Melinda Owen presents me with a signed pair of track cleats she used in

last year's pole vault competition.  Check out our new LASIK for the Gold hats!

Melinda Owen did wonderfully following her LASIK surgery this week at EyeCare 20/20.  She was kind enough to drop us an e-mail:

So I want you to know that how happy I am with my eye sight!!! I pole vaulted today and wore my goggles so I had zero problems at all and saw as crisp as can be! I have been bragging about how exciting getting lasik has been to my family and told my mom and brother that I would want them to see Dr. Silverman if they were going to get it done. 

So when i was going through my bag Dr. Silverman gave me I found some cards for a free lasik evaluation and so I have convinced my brother to try to get in and see him.  He was an athlete as well, he wrestled for University of Michigan and now coaches wrestling at Harvard. I think after hearing how happy I am about my results it has really made him realize how much he wants to do it too. I hope you know how much I appreciated everything you did for me while I was there this past weekend.  I had a great time getting to know you all. I wrote a little thing up on my blog about it even :)

She also posted on her blog:

While in the training room, here at the Olympic Center, I was complaining about my contacts when a friend Ariel Martin explained to me a program she was apart of.  Lasik for the Gold, is a program Dr. Silverman started to help aspiring olympians get the care they need but may not be able to afford. Ariel is a BMX Biker who had just recently got Lasik done. She said she would email the program director about me, but I didn’t think to much of it until I got a call from them only days later.
. . .YAY!!! I couldn’t believe it.  Only two short weeks after receiving the call I was flown to East Hanover, New Jersey where I met with Dr. Silverman and his team to get Lasik Eye Surgery done It was a huge success!!! Not only am I able to see 20/15 now, but I was also given the opportunity to meet some amazing people.

As most anyone would be, I was very nervous to get the surgery done not to mention the fact that I was to fly across the country and do it all by my self. That is right, every girl wants her mom near by to take care of her :-)  But from the moment I landed, Dr. Silverman’s assistant Keri made sure I was completely taken care of and extremely comfortable.  I hope that they realize how appreciative I am for everything.  I suggest you take a Lasik for the Gold to see the amazing things Dr. Silverman has done.

http://www.lasikforthegold.com/

We are so looking forward to the upcoming pole vault season and rooting for Melinda in her bid to make it to the 2012 Olympics in London.  In the following video, Melinda talks about her experience with the LASIK procedure at EyeCare 20/20.

Visian ICL Vision: Still Awesome After All These Years!

Frank Gallina is one of EyeCare 20/20's go to guys.  Whenever a patient is considering having an ICL implant to improve their vision, Frank is the person who we recommend they speak with.  Frank was a -12 myope who came in for a LASIK screening, he was not a candidate.  The ICL option was offered to him, he did it, and the results are awesome.  We even posted a letter Frank wrote us last year about his vision.

Frank is now 3 years post op.  His vision is still 20/20 without glasses.  Frank was nice enough to talk about his ICL experience with me on this video.