For LASIK in Plano, you’re looking for a board-certified ophthalmologist with fellowship-level training in cornea and refractive surgery, a high-volume LASIK practice, and a willingness to publish their outcomes and enhancement rates. Anything less than those four things and you’re shopping on price, which is the wrong way to shop for eye surgery.
What’s the difference between an ophthalmologist and an optometrist?
This question trips up more patients than it should. An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor, MD or DO, who completed medical school, residency in ophthalmology, and often a fellowship in a subspecialty. An ophthalmologist performs surgery.
An optometrist is an OD. Their training is in primary eye care. They prescribe glasses and contacts, manage routine eye health, and screen for disease. They do not perform LASIK surgery in Texas.
Sometimes a LASIK clinic will use an optometrist for the consultation and the actual procedure is performed by an off-site ophthalmologist who you don’t meet until the day of surgery. That’s legal. It’s not what I’d want for my own family.
What does board certification actually mean?
For ophthalmology, board certification through the American Board of Ophthalmology means the surgeon has completed an approved residency, passed written and oral board exams, and committed to ongoing continuing education. It’s the floor, not the ceiling.
A surgeon who isn’t board-certified isn’t necessarily unsafe, but for a procedure as elective as LASIK in Plano, you should expect board certification as table stakes.
What about fellowship training?
A cornea or refractive surgery fellowship is a one-year additional training program after residency, focused specifically on the anterior segment of the eye and the procedures relevant to LASIK. Not every excellent LASIK surgeon has done a fellowship. But fellowship-trained surgeons have spent another year operating on the exact tissue they’ll be operating on in your eye.
For a routine, low-prescription LASIK case, the fellowship matters less. For a high prescription, a thin cornea, a complex retreatment, or anything outside the textbook middle, the fellowship matters a lot.
How much LASIK volume should my surgeon have?
This is the question that gets the least attention and probably matters the most. LASIK is a precision procedure, and precision procedures get better with volume. A surgeon who does 40 LASIK procedures a year is going to have a different feel for the tissue than one who does 400.
For surgeons in Dallas-Fort Worth specifically, I’d be looking for at least 200 LASIK cases per year as a working minimum. The high-volume refractive surgeons in DFW are doing 500 to 1,000 or more per year.
You can ask. How many LASIK procedures have you personally performed? A surgeon who answers in real numbers is a surgeon worth considering.
What about technology?
Technology matters less than the surgeon, but it matters. Look for an all-laser LASIK platform, modern corneal topography and tomography for screening, and ideally something more advanced than basic standard treatment.
At Visionary Eye Surgery in Plano, we use the latest femtosecond and excimer laser systems and topography-guided treatment when it’s the right call for your eye. The technology is in service of the surgical plan, not the other way around.
What outcome data should I ask for?
A clinic that does a lot of LASIK in Plano should be able to tell you, in writing, what percentage of their patients hit 20/20 or better, what their enhancement rate is, and what their patient satisfaction numbers look like.
If they hedge, that’s an answer too. The clinics that track outcomes carefully are the clinics that improve outcomes carefully. The clinics that don’t track are usually doing fine, but they don’t know it.
What about guarantees?
A real outcome guarantee is one of the best signs a Plano LASIK clinic stands behind its work. Our 20/Happy Patient Guarantee is one example. The point isn’t the marketing. The point is that the clinic is willing to put their work on the line.
A clinic that won’t guarantee outcomes is telling you something about their confidence in those outcomes.
How do I weigh online reviews?
Carefully. A clinic with 2,000 five-star reviews and 50 one-star reviews probably tells you more than a clinic with 100 perfect five-star reviews. Real practices have unhappy patients sometimes. The question is how they respond to them.
Look at the recent reviews specifically. A clinic that was great five years ago might not be the same clinic today. Especially if the lead surgeon has changed or retired. Take a look at our patient testimonials for a sense of what current patients are saying.
What’s the final question I should ask?
Would you do this procedure on your spouse or your kid? Then watch the answer. Surgeons who hesitate, qualify, or deflect are answering honestly. Surgeons who say absolutely, in a heartbeat, without hesitation are either telling you the truth or telling you what you want to hear, and you’ll know which from everything else they’ve said.
For my own family, I’d be looking for an MD ophthalmologist, fellowship-trained in cornea or refractive surgery, doing at least 500 LASIK procedures a year, with a published outcomes record and a willingness to talk about enhancements and revisions openly. That’s the standard at Visionary Eye Surgery and it’s the standard you should hold any Plano LASIK clinic to.
If you want to talk through your options, contact us for a free consultation.
Keep Reading
- All-Laser LASIK at Visionary Eye Surgery
- The 20/Happy Patient Guarantee
- Patient Stories from Plano
- LASIK Pricing in Plano
Visionary Eye Surgery | Plano, TX
