Dishler Laser - Blog

Hi, I’m Dr. Dishler and I wanted to thank all of you who have come to see me for your choice in LASIK.

I understand that good vision is essential to everyone no matter what you do for a living. Times are tough but I want to do my part. So, if you are thinking about LASIK but cost is an issue we’re offering a savings of up to $500 off our best combination of LASIK technology. You might find a less expensive procedure; but this is not Discount LASIK but rather a remarkable blade-free technique using wavefront optimized technology.  All you have to do is schedule your free consultation and ask for our Eyes are on You Special, because you’re eyes are unique and our focus is on you.   This offer expires on December 31st 2012, restrictions apply.

Refractive errors are common vision problems that people often experience. You probably know refractive errors better by the names nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia), and astigmatism.

LASIK surgery has allowed many people experience great vision without the aid of corrective lenses. Sometimes patients do need help paying for LASIK, which is why we are happy to offer financing options and payment plans to our patients.

For patients in Denver, ICLs are an alternative to LASIK and PRK in the treatment of myopia.

At Dishler Laser in Denver, both LASIK and PRK can be customized to address the unique visual errors of the individual patient.

IntraLASIK provides patients with many different benefits over traditional LASIK. Let’s look at how IntraLASIK can help you achieve excellent vision without the need for corrective lenses.

Like Dyson says, "There's a misconception that invention is about having a great idea, tinkering with it in the tool shed for a few days, then appearing with the finished design. In fact, it's usually a far longer and iterative process - trying something over and over, changing one small variable at a time.  Trial and error. " These new ideas often arise when you least expect them and often times these new ideas stem from a problem with the current design.  The same can be said for advancements in the refractive surgery arena, with constant reinvention we have be able to solve the problems with flawed design to create products and procedures that work better and have less risk to patients.  This continued mental tinkering has lead to my latest patent, a new lens that may be able to solve the problem of reading glasses!

Our mission at Dishler Laser Institute is " to meet or exceed our patients expectations". We are happy to share our patient's actual words about their LASIK experience at Dishler LASIK.

Let me start out by putting the link to the video which inspired this topic right here: Fear of LASIK

This patient discusses how he overcame the fear of LASIK surgery and went on to have an experience which was much easier than he anticipated and now has great uncorrected vision.  Many patients have two concerns, fear and cost in that order.  They often ask about cost because they are uncomfortable talking about fear.  Chris Meyer in this short video described it so honestly and clearly when he said that he heard a little voice in his head that said, "I can do this" and then took the next step.  Our job is not only to perform LASIK to the best of our abilities but also to help those who want to examine this option be able to make that same statement, you CAN do this.

There has been a lot of talk lately about how thin a cornea can be and still qualify for LASIK vision correction surgery.  Numbers are bantered around that if someone has a cornea that is thinner than a certain amount, they should not have LASIK and PRK is therefore a better option for them.  While it is clear that beyond some yet to be determined limit, it is not a good idea to have LASIK (which weakens the structure of the eye), it is still unknown if PRK has substantially less risk since it also weakens the structure of the eye and requires the use of "off label" medications in most cases.  It is a good idea to make this a scientific analysis, and not a knee jerk reaction. Because the science is still somewhat unclear, absolute statements about what is safest procedure needs to be considered carefully and on an individual basis.

Many websites these days have a video or two making them multimedia experiences.  We have dozens of videos, including a new video viewer section which includes many videos by category and includes transcripts of all of them.  Why so many videos?  We believe at Dishler LASIK that you can get to know us better by watching these videos on a variety of topics.  Many of them include television interviews on a variety of topics.  While we have much of the same information on our website, the video gives a more  personal approach to learning about our center, our philosophy and our people. 

We have just completed the first phase of an FDA trial on the Revision lens for treating farsightedness.  The lens has been called the Presbylens but now has just been renamed to the Vue+ lens for future marketing purposes.  As was mentioned before, this is a small plastic lens which is placed just under the surface of the eye in one eye only to help with reading and intermediate vision tasks.  I have just reviewed the results of our first 18 patients or 36 eyes and was very impressed.  All of the patients had a marked improvement in near and intermediate vision with only a small decrease in their distance vision.  Some maintained 20/20 at distance while improving markedly at near and the satisfaction rate was very high at 3 months post procedure. 

It has been fifty years since the LASER was invented and 25 years ago was when the first laser vision correction procedure was performed.  About five years laser or almost 20 years ago the very first LASIK or instrastromal laser vision correction was performed in Italy, and it has been 15 years since Dishler Laser Institute began performing LASIK in Colorado.  We were also about the first to offer the all laser method of vision correction approximately 10 years ago.  Some of these events are being commerated this week in Paris at the ESCRS, a meeting of European and international doctors who are celebrating the changes that lasers have made in the field of vision correction.

So many people when they hear the word astigmatism, their eyes glaze over and a look of confusion overcomes them.  For many the word alone, astigmatism suggests that there is something very wrong with their eyes.  Perhaps it is a weakness, some sort of birth defect, and likely not very easy to fix.  It usually means contact lenses that are much more expensive and less comfortable and effective.  While great strides have been made in fixing simple near sightedness with contacts and LASIK, astigmatism has been more difficult to treat.  Let us look at exactly what astigmatism is and why we can be more positive about the options to take the "stigma" out of astigmatism.

Most everyone has heard of the four C's of diamonds that are carat, color, cut and clarity (not necessarily in that order).  We have found that there are also four C's in LASIK which gives a basis to begin to evaluate LASIK providers and the decision to have this procedure.  The first one that comes to mind is COST (this could be for diamonds also but they don't mention it for some reason).  The second is COMFORT since nobody or almost nobody wants to experience pain.  The third C is Convenience of the visits, the procedure, and lifestyle impact in general.  And the final C is the most important one, credibility.  You will notice that I did not mention anything about results which are implicit that the reasons people want laser vision correction are to see better, and we have already discussed how with the best technology available today, the results are in general excellent.

Tomorrow, June 29th is the one year anniversary of appearing on the Tom Martino show, and this week we are bringing a patient who had LASIK with Dr. Jon Dishler one year ago.  Our guest, Brian, is an avid golfer, and he is going to share how having LASIK last summer improved his game both right away and now a year later.  Brian began with 20/100 vision, and had trouble with contacts drying on his eyes.  He couldn't see the alarm clock when he woke up, and he had a lot of trouble especially on windy days.  Now he can see better than 20/20 which is a common experience of our LASIK patients.  He is able to be very competitive at golf and enjoy all the activities that summer offers.

It was early in the 1990's before anyone even thought about LASIK that we were first with another procedure, ALK.  In Automated Lamellar Keratoplasty (ALK) we used a microkeratome to make a thin flap on the cornea, and then removed a small amount of corneal tissue to reduce severe nearsightedness (sound familiar?).  This procedure was an outgrowth of an even older procedure where the front of the cornea was reshaped using a lathe, that dates back about forty years!  This new procedure was a major advancement, and I published on our results with nine other doctors from around the country, many of whom are leaders in their own community in refractive vision corrective surgery.  What we learned in these procedures made us realize that although our results were promising, they were inexact and needed the refinement that a laser could offer. 

We can talk all day long about our experience, technology, and culture at Dishler Laser, but if patients are not happy with the final result, we have not been successful.  Recently we sent out an e-mail survey to a consecutive group of over 100 patients asking about their experience, their results, and their satisfaction with our services.  I am happy to report to you that 97% of the respondents were satisfied, very satisfied, or extremely satisfied with their results.  Of the few people who were not satisfied, we investigated the reasons and in all but one case it had to do with administrative reasons, not their vision.

We understand that it is impossible to make everyone totally happy, and this survey has shown us what we are doing right, and a few areas that we can further improve.  Considering the wide range of people and their vision challenges that we face, this is and extremely gratifying outcome.

While we have had superb results in general with our Zeiss Laser platform for 80% of patients, there are some who have extreme corrections that we have been treating with the Allegretto laser and who have had unexpectedly good results.  This opens the door for many who have wanted LASIK but were told that they had vision which was beyond what can be fixed with this method.  In general, patients with very strong glasses correction can benefit greatly with the newer laser method called "Optivision."

There has been much discussion about LASIK on this site and others about the technology, the cost, experience, and outcomes.  At the end of the day, each person must make a decision about whether vision correction is the right decision for them.  While many people try to logically make a decision if LASIK is a good choice, and if this is a good time, what most people ultimately find after having LASIK is that it was one of the best decisions that they ever made.  Why?  Because it frees them from the constant tether to glasses or contact lenses which were the only alternative.  We make many decisions throughout our lives to improve our quality of life, and LASIK is perhaps one of the most important of those decisions.