Laser Eye Surgery

Laser vision correction is an affordable option and over the course of optical years often less expensive than wearing contact lenses and spectacles. Our prices are £1,925 per eye for LASIK and ASA / LASEK, £2,350 per eye for ReLEx SMILE® and £2,495 per eye for PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision. Specialist and therapeutic treatments will carry additional charges. 

Up to 10 months interest free credit is available and longer payment plans are also available to bring the cost down to as little as £50 per month and can be arranged through Nuffield Health. 

See pricing page. 

Laser Vision Correction is not painful. A pressure feeling is typically experienced during the surgery but not pain. After LASIK or SMILE, a slight gritty sensation and sensitivity to light may be noticed only for the first 24-48 hours after the surgery. After LASEK, the gritty sensation and sensitivity to light are more pronounced and typically last 3-5 days; however, with the use of appropriate drops and oral pain relief, the gritty sensation and light sensitivity can be controlled well.

Typically you will be in the laser suite for around 25 minutes. Creating of the flap in LASIK takes less than 10 seconds, creating of the lenticule in ReLEx SMILE® takes around 25 seconds with the entire procedure for both between 5 to 10 minutes per eye.

Complications after laser eye surgery are rare but cannot be ruled out, as with all medical procedures there is always the risk of possibile of side effects. We will discuss the risks and benefits of treatment with you and provide you with the Royal College of Ophthalmology guidelines so that you can reach a fully informed choice.

Many studies have examined the safety of laser vision correction, two large studies (patient reported outcome studies with LASIK (PROWL) I and II with over 500 patients, commissioned in the United States, reported on the symptoms and satisfactions of patients with LASIK. One key strength of the studies was that on-line questionnaires were conducted in private before and after surgery so that the treating surgeon was not present and therefore could not bias or influence the answer. Concluding from these studies:

• Driving level vision without the need for glasses or contact lenses may be achieved in 99.1 – 100% of eyes
• 6/6 or 20/20 vision may be achieved in 91.7 – 98.3% of eyes
• If 6/6 vision is not achieved, a top up treatment or enhancement may be performed
• The proportion of people with dry eye symptoms decreased following LASIK with fewer than 3% developing new symptoms of severe dry eye
• The risk of having poorer vision than before the procedure was 2:1000
• The risk of a corneal infection was approximately 1:10,000

Your vision will not be compromised, and your eyes will not be damaged if you blink, cough, sneeze or generally move during Laser Vision Correction. The excimer laser tracks the movement of your eyes and stops treating when your eyes are not aligned perfectly. The femtosecond laser ‘holds’ your eye with gentle vacuum; it is thus very difficult for you to blink or move the eyes during laser treatment. Rarely, 1 in several hundred cases, if movement does occur, we may need to modify the planned treatment or complete the surgery on another day; this will not compromise the health of your eyes or your final visual result.

We offer a free screening visit including a corneal topography examination to determine whether your cornea is normal and is thick enough to support treatment. You will then need to undergo a comprehensive medical eye examination and review of your general health. The nature and degree of your refractive error and many other factors play a role and we will discuss these with you at consultation and provide you with written information so that you can reach a fully informed decision.

At each visit, a team of practitioners, such as a nurse and an optometrist, and the surgeon who performed your laser treatment will review you. In exceptional circumstances, such as illness, another surgeon of Laser Vision Eye Centre will review you.

You will typically be reviewed at 1 day, 1-2 weeks, 3 months and 12 months after your Laser Vision Correction.

Most people choose to have both eyes corrected at the same sitting so that they can benefit from the benefits of the treatment as soon as possible.

Laser vision correction causes a permanent change to the shape of the cornea but the rest of the eye, like the rest of you will continue to age so if e.g. you were to undergo LASIK or ReLEx SMILE® to correct myopia at the age of 21 years, although your distance vision would remain corrected, in your mid-forties you would start to become presbyopic and require reading spectacles at the same age you would have naturally if you had not undergone treatment.

A small group of people will experience progression of their myopia later into life and so we ask that you have a stable spectacle correction for 2 years prior to treatment. Another small group of people will show regression of the correction but not back to the starting correction, the treatment will not ‘wear off’ and this will be taken into account during treatment planning.

Laser eye surgery does not increase your risk of developing other eye conditions such as glaucoma, cataract or macular degeneration. As the laser changes the shape of the cornea, this does need to be taken into account if later in life you undergo cataract surgery so it is important to keep a record of your details prior to laser treatment although modern scanning techniques we employ in cataract surgery do not rely on prior data to make accurate calculations of intra-ocular lens power.

The Visumax laser used for ReLEx SMILE® and LASIK will hold your eye gently by applying suction to the surface. Although you cannot see or feel the laser, you will be able to see a flashing green fixation light so you have a visual target to look at and it will feel as if you are blinking naturally. The Mel® 90 excimer laser has an active eye tracker which measures the position of the eye at more than 1000 times per second whilst you are looking at the fixation light to ensure accurate placement of each laser pulse. David Anderson will be guiding you through each step and ensuring that you are reassured and comfortable throughout your procedure.

With PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision, one eye is corrected for distance and some mid-range vision and the other eye is corrected to focus at the mid and near range. If only one eye is used you won’t be able to see at all ranges but with both eyes together you will achieve a focussed vision at all ranges.

We’d like you to avoid eye make-up for 7 days following laser eye surgery, any other face make-up can be worn after 48 hours.