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Costs Go Down, Confidence Goes Up As Consumers Take Advantage Of Easy, Safe And Affordable Lasik Surgery

The LASIK Vision Institute Helps Bring Restored Vision To Growing Number Of Americans

LAKE WORTH, Fla., Feb. X, 2008 – Since LASIK surgery emerged as a viable option to correct vision problems, practitioners estimate that only ten percent of America’s eligible population has had the procedure.  That’s a substantial number, but it still begs the question: What is the other 90 percent waiting for?  If recent trends are an indicator, they’re not waiting for much anymore.

LASIK surgeons report that a growing number of consumers who say they put off the appointment for many years while continuing to wear glasses and contacts are now coming in for LASIK.  Why are they taking the step? Surgeons say the most prominent reasons are increased confidence and improved affordability.

“The biggest two issues with respect to getting LASIK are fear and price,” said Dr. Michael Granberry, an independent eye surgeon with The LASIK Vision Institute.  “But the more people learn, especially now, the more they realize there is no need for these concerns.”

A wide variety of financing options have virtually eliminated affordability concerns, while more than a decade of successful, safe outcomes are quickly doing the same with the fear factor.  And continued enhancements to LASIK technology are accelerating this process.

“People used to say, ‘I’m waiting for it to get better,’” Granberry said.  “But they don’t say that much anymore, because it has gotten better.  The eye tracker, which uses special sensors to follow all eye movements in four dimensions, allows accurate placement of each laser pulse during the treatment.  People used to worry that if they moved their eye, it would cause a problem.  But now they understand that the laser will track their eye movements with tremendous precision.”

In 2007, the LASIK Vision Institute began exclusive use of CustomVue laser vision technology from industry leader VISX Technology.  The VISX WaveScan Wavefront System identifies and measures imperfections in the eye 25 times more precisely than standard methods, generating a detailed “map” of the eye and consequently creating digital treatment instructions for the laser system to execute.

And in this season of campaigns and endorsements, LASIK has recently picked up some pretty high-level backing of its own.  Officials at NASA and the U.S. military now say that their personnel who suffer from vision problems that hinder their job performance are finding LASIK to be a solid solution to the problem.  That is not surprising considering that LASIK now regularly gives patients vision of better than 20/20 – often as clear as 20/10.

And as LASIK has matured as a science, its practitioners have found new ways to control costs. The LASIK Vision Institute has invested in its own equipment, rather than renting it as many surgeons have traditionally done, which has created savings they have been able to pass on to patients.

In addition, many patients are able to use their flex spending and medical savings plan funds to have the procedure performed, which makes the surgery even more affordable.

All these steps forward are increasing the frequency of word-of-mouth referrals, which remains as always the most powerful form of recommendation.  But if a stronger recommendation is possible, it might be this one:

“I’ve done the surgery on my dad,” Granberry said.  “And this is probably true of most of the surgeons, my staff members, their parents – we believe in the technology, so much so that a lot of surgeons have had the surgery themselves.”