August 26, 2010
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.
July 25, 2010
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.
June 28, 2010
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.
May 18, 2010
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.
August 29, 2009
Light is the fastest thing we know of, it travels 186,000 miles in just one second. And the distance to the sun is reached in under 10 minutes at light speed. A femtosecond is a unit of time, a tiny piece of a second. It is 10 to the -15 power seconds or 1/100000000000000 of a second. How small you might wonder is that, well in a femtosecond that same beam of light that can travel around the earth 25 or so times in a second, travels just a third of a micron in a femtosecond. This means that in 1000 femtoseconds, light travels 300 microns or about 1/3 of a millimeter -- those tiny little gradations on the ruler you can barely see! This is less than the thickness of a credit card in 1000 femtoseconds, and we have a laser that has pulses so short, that they are only a few hundred femtoseconds. This means that the laser is shooting out pulses of light, or photons, in packets that span just a tiny fraction of a millimeter, light photon bullets and these tiny light bullets are what makes femtosecond LASIK possible. The "bullet" is only a micron in size and has very low energy, but when focused at the proper spot will create a very tiny break in the tissue of the cornea. When combined with hundreds of thousands of similar spots, it allows surgeons to cut a precise plane in tissue in a way that is more exact than the precision of any other kind of cutting of tissue that exists. All this techno-talk means that a femtosecond laser can do what no laser has ever been able to do before. It is light years beyond cutting with a scalpel. It is the right tool for the job.
August 08, 2009
The word LASIK has become a household name for laser vision correction. 15 years ago when we started offering this procedure as the first in Colorado, no one had heard of this funny word before. This post is to describe the meaning of the word and to help bring a discussion of laser vision correction to those who want to experience better vision in Denver Colorado, and throughout Kansas, Wyoming, Nebraska, and elsewhere.
July 30, 2009
Why we have maintained our current "Denver" location for over 25 years in a high rise office building that is particularly well suited as a laser vision correction center.
July 26, 2009
When considering laser vision correction, there are many things that are relevant in making that decision. First and most important are the medical issues such as whether one would benefit from vision improvement versus the risks of undergoing an elective procedure. Next there are the logistical considerations of who and where would make the most sense for an individual. Finally, there are the financial considerations of affordability and relative cost at different centers. Everyone likes to get good value for the money they spend, and it would seem that like many commodity purchases, the lowest price would be the best. In a complex purchase, it is more difficult to obtain clarity of the cost and value even more than understanding the clarity that can be obtained by the procedure itself. We invite you to read our belief about cost and LASIK and please comment whether this makes sense to you and any suggestions how we might improve our ability to offer you the best vision correction at the most affordable cost. Thank you. sy4r8tf7c9
June 29, 2009
LASIK has become one of the most widely accepted surgical procedures in the world. Insurance rarely pays the costs for this procedure. There are a wide range of apparent costs for LASIK at different centers and this post is to discuss what these costs include, and more specifically what we are doing at Dishler Laser to make LASIK more affordable for you.
June 10, 2009
Dr. Dishler appears weekly on Martino TV as a vision expert.
Dishler Laser Institute
