How much does LASIK Eye surgery cost? That’s the primary question that keeps many people from getting this Eye surgery.
LASIK is a medical procedure that involves using a laser to correct hyperopia, myopia, or astigmatism. In this medical procedure, a femtosecond laser or microkeratome blade is used to create a thin flap in the cornea, folded back and some corneal tissues removed by use of an excimer laser.
The flap is then placed back in a way that either flattens a steep cornea for myopic people or steepens a flat cornea for hyperopic individuals. Lasik surgery can also be used to make an irregular cornea smooth for people with astigmatism.
Generally, the LASIK eye surgery cost will depend on the surgeon and their diagnosis of individual cases. Surgeons also set prices depending on the procedure’s difficulty, the technology required, among other things.
Patients who opt for a custom Lasik that uses wavefront technology and those that choose a bladeless Lasik, where a femtosecond laser is used to create the corneal flap instead of a microkeratome, generally pay a couple of $ more per eye.
The LASIK eye surgery cost started reducing in 2015. The average price was reduced from $2,118 per eye in 2014 to $2,077 per eye in 2015. This cost has been on a progressive decrease ever since.
How Do Surgeons Charge For LASIK Surgery?
A survey conducted in 2015 revealed that 27% of surgeons would quote a flat price for a Lasik surgery; the rest of the surgeons said they would charge depending on the vision correction required, the amount of refractive error, and the technology that will be used.
Charging a basic fee makes the cost of Lasik surgery affordable for most people since they’re not required to pay for any extras such as laser created flaps or customized wavefront procedures.
Do Surgeons Who Offer Bargain Prices For Lasik Offer Quality?
Often one will see promotions that offer Lasik for $1,000 or less per eye. While these offers are attractive, a patient needs to realize that:
The technology used for these low charged LASIK is archaic and might present multiple complications and not solve the problem in its totality. For instance, at this price, the surgeon will not provide an all-laser Lasik or custom Lasik.
There are always hidden costs in this quoted amount. Charges such as postoperative care, retreatment, or enhancement surgeries are not included.
LASIK surgeries performed based on “offers” are mostly for the correction of mild myopia. People with moderate to high myopia, hyperopia, or astigmatism are typically asked to pay extra.
Is It Possible To Get Complete Authentic LASIK Surgery At An Affordable Fee?
It’s possible to get LASIK Eye surgery at an affordable rate through the different financing options provided by financing companies specializing in Lasik surgery procedures. A majority of the LASIK surgery centers offer financial plans to patients.
Also, one can ask their employer to make payment arrangements with their LASIK center of choice. Some employers offer health plans that partially cover LASIK procedures.
Unfortunately, most vision insurance plans don’t cover LASIK surgery because they consider refractive surgeries to be cosmetic.
Although desperation may cause one to choose the cheapest LASIK surgeon to perform their procedure, people must understand that there are risks with this procedure, and like other surgeries, one should select only the best surgeon and then review their financial options.
Factors Deciding the LASIK Eye Surgery Cost
Many factors influence the Lasik Eye surgery cost. Some of them are listed below:
Track record of the surgeon based on the safety and success levels of his record.
The technology used in the surgery – ‘Bladeless’ or ‘Custom.’
Surgery requirement namely single eye or both the eyes
Geographic location based on the cost of living
The perfection of products used.
Prescription recommendations Additional charges other than surgery like Pre and post-surgery consultation, enhancements, or re-surgery cost due to any regression.
LASIK Eye Surgery Technology
The factor that needs clear understanding to decide on LASIK surgery’s cost aspect is the same technology. There are two types of technologies used in LASIK surgery influencing the cost aspect of the same hugely.
The steps involved in custom eye surgery are as follows.
With the Elite technology’s help, the eye measurements are taken by trained professionals for the purpose. This Elite technology is medically termed as WaveFront Analyses.
The recordings that happen through this elite technology interact with the computer. These interactions provide permanent solutions to eye-related issues like astigmatism, farsightedness, nearsightedness, and other kinds of aberrations that are ‘high order’ by type.
The custom surgery creates an incision in the eyes with the surgical blade termed as ‘Microkeratome blade’ to perform the surgery.
Bladeless Surgery
This type of surgery uses a kind of laser termed medically as ‘Femtosecond Laser’ capable of creating the flap. This helps to avoid the ‘Microkeratome blade’ for the surgery, making it a blameless one.
Bladeless surgeries are becoming the most preferred surgeries for the high levels of safety they provide during the post-surgery period. The precision with which the corrections are made to the eye problems also makes this form of surgery a famous one.
Bladeless Surgery is also referred to as ‘Intralase’ surgeries. Bladeless Surgery tends to be costlier than the custom surgeries performed using a blade owing to the cost invested in the technology and the perfect results they provide to the people for a long time.
