Introduction to Laser Eye Surgery

With a simple, non-invasive procedure and a few weeks of recovery time, laser or LASIK eye surgery can eliminate the need for corrective glasses and contact lenses altogether. It’s no surprise that, as the surgery has grown more sophisticated, more and more people have become interested in the benefits of LASIK surgery for correcting myopia, hyeropia, and astigmatism. Say goodbye to glasses slipping down your nose on humid afternoons and dry, painful contacts after a long night—the potential lifestyle improvements following laser eye surgery are a powerful incentive.

Costs of LASIK Surgery

The cost of the average LASIK surgery in the United States has risen over the past years, so an accurate estimate is difficult to make. $2000 per eye is a good figure to keep in mind if you seek a typical no-frills surgery, but with the advent of so many different types of technologies and surgical procedures in laser eye surgery, this price fluctuates wildly depending on what you want. Your surgeon’s fee also depends on the severity of your vision problem, his or her experience, the location, and a whole slew of other factors.

There are a few popular options that can add to the final bill of your laser eye surgery. In the standard LASIK procedure, a microkeratone blade is used to cut the top layer of the cornea. In a relatively new procedure called the IntraLASIK procedure, another laser is used in place of the blade, and the technology involved usually costs an extra $200 to $500 per eye.

Another popular technique used to increase the precision of laser eye surgery is wavefront technology. Also called custom LASIK surgery, surgeons recommend this procedure to patients who seek a more highly personalized experience. Wavefront technology is used to create a 3-dimensional map of the individual’s cornea, guiding the laser more accurately during the actual surgery. At the cost of another few hundred dollars per eye, custom LASIK surgery lowers the risk of complications and offers the chance of better eyesight than a traditional LASIK procedure.

Other Costs to Think About

The above discussion of the costs of laser eye surgery only take into account the actual surgery itself. As with any major medical procedure, there are some preoperative and postoperative factors to think about when calculating the final cost to you.

Though the recovery time after LASIK surgery is relatively short, you will need to be careful with your eyes during the postoperative duration. Your surgeon will most likely prescribe eyedrops and other forms of medication to reduce common symptoms such as dry eyes, swelling, and sensitivity. You may also be told to wear protective sunglasses or goggles to shield your healing eyes. Periodic checkups and the treatment of potential eye surgery complications may add to your bill as well.

Financing Your Laser Eye Surgery

LASIK surgeries are filed away in the category of elective surgeries, since the vision problems that they address can also be fixed by more traditional methods such as glasses and contact lenses. This label, however, means that most healthcare providers are unlikely provide any form of financial assistance. In this case, rather than requesting help from your insurance company, turn to your laser eye surgeon instead. His or her office may have financing plans available to patients like yourself—loans and long-term installments are just a few of the ways they can help. Also consider using medical flexible spending plans to pay for your laser eye surgery, which can usually be qualified as a non-taxable expense.