Dishler Laser - Blog

When we first introduced Intralase, all laser LASIK it was termed IntraLASIK by the company and everyone using this technology. Since that time, the company has been acquired by AMO and they have a new term for the combination of Intralase and the VISX excimer laser which they call i-LASIK. There is nothing new or magical about this combination and in fact many had used the VISX laser with the Intralase for years before this acquisition. While the Intralase laser makes flaps that work well with VISX lasers, they work equally well with any other excimer laser on the market and there is nothing special about this particular combination other than a branding or marketing name. In our practice we have used the Intralase with the Bausch and Lomb laser, the Wavelight Allegretto laser (now owned by Alcon) and the Zeiss MEL 80 laser. All of these combinations work extremely well since the making of a corneal flap is independent of the correction of vision by the second laser platform.

Most patients have some nervousness about laser vision correction, and this is certainly understandable. In speaking to thousands of patients I have come to learn that the greatest anxiety concerns their ability to look properly at the target during the treatment. In the early days of LASIK this was extremely important as it was only the patient who controlled where the treatment was applied based on their fixation. With more modern technology, we only need the patient to look in the approximate location of the fixation light, and the laser has one or more eye trackers which take over like an autopilot and guide the treatment to the appropriate location. Knowledge of the fact that the patient can do less than a perfect job of looking and still potentially get a perfect treatment makes most patients feel much more comfortable about the experience.