11/Dec/2024

There are other refractive procedures that can eliminate your need for glasses even if your corneas are too thin for LASIK. During a refractive exam at Price Vision Group, many special tests are performed to ensure you are indeed a good candidate for LASIK, including corneal thickness. The average corneal thickness is between 520 microns and 540 microns, however, the normal range for cornea thickness can range from as thin as 470 to as thick as 630 microns. In order to be a candidate for LASIK there needs to be enough corneal tissue to make a flap, take away the tissue in order to correct the refractive error, and still have enough corneal tissue to ensure that corneal ectasia, a progressive bulging of the cornea, does not occur. To learn more about cornea thickness and how it affects LASIK candidacy, please click here. If the cornea is not thick enough to result in a corneal bed, the remaining cornea beneath the flap, of approximately 300 microns then LASIK is likely not the best refractive procedure for you. During a refractive exam at Price Vision Group, the doctor runs calculations to ensure that the cornea is thick enough for LASIK.

Cross Section Visian ICL in eye

A phakic IOL may be a better refractive option to eliminate your need for glasses or contact lens visual correction if the cornea is not thick enough. The Visian ICL (Implantable Collamer Lens) is FDA approved to correct myopia ranging from -3.00 D to -15.00 D. This small lens implant is implanted behind the iris (colored part of the eye) and in front of the natural lens inside the eye to correct the refractive error. The lens is designed to stay in position in the eye and requires no special care and the corneal thickness is not altered as in LASIK. The best candidates for this refractive surgery option are those under the age of 50.
If you are above the age of 50 and not a candidate for LASIK because of a thin cornea, then a refractive lensectomy or refractive lens extraction may be a better refractive surgery option. The natural lens is removed, as in cataract surgery and an IOL is implanted. The IOL is calculated to correct your refractive error. There are implants to correct astigmatism and even multifocal IOLs that allow patients to see well at both distance and near. This refractive surgery allows for the correction of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism without altering the cornea thickness.
If you have been told you are not a candidate for LASIK there are other safe surgical options that can eliminate your need for glasses or contact lenses.

Admin

11/Dec/2020

Price Vision Group conducting LASIK study

Price Vision Group is currently enrolling participants for a LASIK clinical study. If you are nearsighted and need glasses/contacts to see clearly, you may qualify for this study. Qualified study participants will be compensated for their time.

There is no cost to the patient but the clinical study will require participants to attend several postoperative follow-up visits.

If interested, please complete and submit the following form.

Enrollment for the LASIK study has been placed on hold for the time being due to participant slots being full. We will update this post if additional slots become available.

Admin

24/Jul/2020

Indianapolis, Indiana – Back in May, Price Vision Group started a promotion to thank the hardworking essential heroes by giving four lucky winners free LASIK eye surgery. Hospital worker, Carolyn Rogers was the first contest winner to undergo the procedure on Tuesday.

“The idea came up during a staff meeting for the refractive department. We were talking about a time when a staff member went grocery shopping and noticed that the cashier had her mask on but her nose was exposed. When it was pointed out that she was wearing her mask incorrectly, the cashier complained that her glasses kept getting fogged up when her mask covered both her mouth and nose,” said Brian Hogan, Practice Administrator for Price Vision Group. “These grocery store employees along with hospital workers, first responders, and other essential workers are out there every day putting their health on the line to keep our community safe and stocked with supplies. We wanted to do something to thank them and help make their lives a little bit easier and safer,” he added.

The promotion started with a nomination process where anyone can submit their story to nominate a frontline hero to get free LASIK. “We were in tears reading all of the stories about the sacrifices these heroes make day-in and day-out. It was definitely a tough decision to narrow down the list to a select few finalists,” said Erin Simpson, Refractive Coordinator for Price Vision Group.

Twenty four finalists were chosen among the hundreds of submissions. “Once we determined our finalists, we then had to call them in for a screening to determine their candidacy for LASIK,” said Refractive Consultant, Rochelle Vega. When all finalists were confirmed to be good candidates for LASIK, the voting process commenced on the Price Vision Group website. Throughout the month of June, visitors to Price Vision Group’s website were able to read the stories of all of the finalists and cast their votes for their favorite frontline hero. Over 24,000 votes were cast and four winners were selected to receive free CONTOURA Vision LASIK.

“CONTOURA Vision is topography-guided LASIK and is the latest in LASIK technology. It scans up to 22,000 reference points on the cornea and uses that data to offer a truly personalized LASIK treatment,” said Dr. Francis Price, owner of Price Vision Group. “We’re proud to be the first in Indiana and one of the first in the country to offer this new technology. Our patients have been extremely happy with the results; roughly 80% of them are seeing better than 20/20, like 20/16, 20/12.5 or even 20/10,” added Dr. Price.

Carolyn Rogers is the Operational Lead in the Emergency Department at Parkview Hospital Randallia in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her role is both in management and also at the bedside. “Staying on top of the countless meetings and emails to ensure the department was up to date with the current information passing down from Incident Command. I would assist my staff with the care of the patients coming in – going from room to room, helping in any way possible,” said Carolyn when asked about her responsibilities. “Wearing glasses or contacts during this pandemic definitely has its challenges. Wearing glasses presents its own difficulties with wearing a mask as your glasses constantly get fogged up. With contacts, making sure my hands are EXTRA clean and disinfected before inserting or removing my contacts every day,” she said.

“I am also incredibly honored and grateful that I was chosen as a finalist. I know there were many others that had been submitted, that are just as deserving to be considered as I am. I want to thank each and every single essential worker out there – both healthcare and non-healthcare. We are all in this together,” said Carolyn Rogers.

After her LASIK surgery, Carolyn’s first reaction was, “I can see the clock!”

After her one-day post-op appointment, Carolyn was already seeing 20/16. Her vision will continue to improve over the next few months but she’s already excited with the results.

https://www.facebook.com/pricevisiongroup/videos/3368005906590965/

Kyle Davis, a firefighter with the Indianapolis Fire Department recently had his CONTOURA Vision LASIK eye surgery. Kyle was a finalist for the contest but was not a winner. Non-winning finalists were offered a 50% discount on their LASIK eye surgery and Kyle was quick to schedule his appointment. Kyle recently came in for his one-week post-op appointment and was seeing 20/12.5. He was able to read three letters on the 20/10 line. “This is amazing! When I woke up from my nap, I immediately texted my coworker Nick (another contest winner), to let him know how happy he will be,” said Kyle Davis.

“We were so overwhelmed with the response of this promotion that we wanted to do more,” said Price Vision Group’s Marketing Coordinator, Sam Ven. “We want as many people as possible to enjoy the safety benefits of LASIK. We want to make it more affordable for everyone,” added Sam.

For a limited time, Price Vision Group is making its premium LASIK more affordable for everyone by taking $1,000 off. More information can be found here.

Admin

15/Jan/2020

Price Vision Group Celebrates 25 Years of LASIK, the first in the state of Indiana.

January 2020 marks the 25-year anniversary of Price Vision Group providing LASIK eye surgery. We continue to see happy patients from those early years when Dr. Price performed LASIK as part of an investigational study.
From the start, we were able to correct both nearsightedness and astigmatism. Over time we have continued to refine vision correction options and now provide the most cutting-edge, vision-optimizing treatments available in the U.S.
We began offering refractive surgery in 1983, 37 years ago! We began using a laser to correct vision in 1991. We initially offered surface ablation and in 1995 we began offering LASIK.
Technological advances in the past 25 years have further improved the safety and accuracy of LASIK. We can now perform topography directed treatments, Contoura™ Vision LASIK, in which we plot 22,000 points on the cornea to generate a topographic map. This allows us to smooth out small imperfections on the corneal surface that cannot be corrected with glasses.
In the clinical trials that led to FDA approval of topography directed treatments, 30% of the patients could see better postoperatively without any correction than they could see preoperatively using glasses.1 Our patients are achieving these same amazing results. In fact, most of our patients achieve better than 20/20 vision.
A vision of 20/20 means that your vision is normal, but surprisingly only 35% of all adults have 20/20 vision without some type of correction, such as glasses. If you have 20/20 vision, you can see at 20 feet what most people see at the same distance. If you are 20/16, you can see at 20 feet what a person with normal vision would need to move up to 16 feet to see, and if you are 20/12, you can see at 20 feet what others would need to move up to 12 feet to see. These are fantastic, life-changing results!
At Price Vision Group, we are proud to be at the forefront in researching the newest in laser vision correction technology. We will soon be investigating whether we can further improve upon LASIK technology with even more sophisticated imaging and analysis. Both the topography-directed treatment and the next-generation treatment rely more on objective imaging of the eye rather than relying so heavily on the subjective assessment of “which is better, 1 or 2”, for greater precision.
As we look back with pride at all that we have accomplished in 25 years, we are also excited about the new technologies we are and will be investigating to provide our patients with the best possible visual outcomes in the safest and most effective ways.

Admin

16/Jan/2019

When a patient comes to our office for a LASIK screening, one of the first things we check for is cornea thickness. So why is cornea thickness important for LASIK? During LASIK, an excimer laser is used to remove tissue (ablation) and reshape the cornea so images can focus accurately onto the retina. Since corneal tissue is permanently removed during the LASIK procedure, we want to make sure there is enough tissue remaining to ensure the cornea is structurally safe.

Typically, we will make a LASIK flap that is about 120 microns thick. Our excimer laser will remove approximately 14 to 16 microns of corneal tissue per diopter of treatment. To ensure that the cornea is structurally safe, there should typically be a minimum of 300 microns (μm) remaining before the LASIK flap is repositioned.

The following animation shows a hypothetical LASIK procedure for a patient that has a -4.00 diopter prescription with a cornea thickness of 500 microns (μm).

A 120 micron (μm) LASIK flap is created and lifted.
56-64 microns (μm) of corneal tissue are removed during the ablation process.
316-324 microns (μm) of corneal tissue remain before the flap is repositioned.

If it has been determined that your corneas are too thin for LASIK, we have several options to correct your vision and help get you out of glasses and contacts. Options include making a thinner LASIK flap, PRK, or Visian ICL.

To learn more about your options, schedule a free screening here at Price Vision Group, or call us at (317) 814-2933.

Admin

02/Nov/2015

Soft contact lenses have an inherent problem with trying to correct astigmatism.
The problem is that with each blink, contact lenses not only move up and down, they
also rotate either clockwise or counter clockwise. The rotation does not matter if
the correction is only spherical (meaning nearsighted or far sighted corrections).
However with astigmatism, the curvature of the corneal surface and the curvature of
the contact lens each vary in different directions (like the shape of an American
football). When the lens is in perfect position, everything is great, but then we have
to blink and the lens rotates a few degrees, and with the next blink a few more
degrees. Suddenly the soft contact lens is no longer correcting the disparity in
curvature, in fact when it rotates 90 degrees it actually makes the astigmatism twice
as bad as it was before!! In order to compensate for this rotational movement, soft contact lenses for
astigmatism are frequently made with ballasts or prisms so that when an eye blinks
and the lens rotates, the ballasts or prisms cause the lens to rotate back. This helps,
but many patients find this disorienting – especially as the two eyes rotate the
lenses in opposite directions. All contact lenses have to move up and down a little
with each blink to keep tears moving in and out from under the lens. So with each
blink the vision is made a little blurry with contact lenses, even spherical ones. But
with astigmatism we also get rotational disorientation typically different for the two
eyes. This is why many people don’t even have their astigmatism corrected at all
with their soft contact lenses. Lasik is far superior to soft contact lenses in correcting
astigmatism because the correction is applied directly on the surface of the eye.
The correction does not move with each blink; instead, it is stable in any direction of gaze.

THE LATEST NEWS FROM PRICE VISION GROUP

I have been told I am not a candidate for LASIK because my corneas are too thin. Does that mean I am stuck in these glasses and contact lenses?

Price Vision Group enrolling LASIK clinical study participants

Enrollment for the LASIK study has been placed on hold for the time being due to participant slots being full. We will update this post if additional slots become available.

Price Vision Group Frontline Hero Contest Winner Undergoes LASIK Eye Surgery

Price Vision Group Celebrates 25 Years of LASIK

Price Vision Group Celebrates 25 Years of LASIK, the first in the state of Indiana.

How Does Cornea Thickness Affect My Candidacy For LASIK?

How much corneal tissue is removed during LASIK?

Why soft contact lenses do not usually provide satisfactory astigmatism correction.