Advance Vision Care Review


My eyesight has always been a limiting factor in what I could do. My prescription was a very serious -9 in both eyes, so I had no option but to wear contacts if I wanted to do anything active. Laser eye surgery had occurred to me as a possibility, but I was always scared (actually, terrified) of it going wrong. So when my optometrist informed me that I would only be able to continue wearing contacts for a couple more years because my eyes weren't getting enough oxygen, I was shocked into action.

I started researching the state of laser surgery. I read technical white papers about every eye laser I could find. I read FDA rulings, medical reports and studies detailing success rates of various lasers. I went onto forums to try to get an idea of which UK doctors seem to have a good reputation. Basically I spent days and nights reading everything I could find about laser eye surgery. I did not want to mess this up.

Before long I dismissed the possibility of *any* of the chain laser surgery clinics. Most do not let you speak to the surgeon first, I've read too many bad stories, and I did not want to be 'just another number'. So I focussed on the smaller clinics. I won't name them here, but all pre-eminent ones in south. After all this research, and quite a number of emails and phone calls for more information from different clinics, I ended up deciding on a free consultation at Advance Vision Care. My reasons for choosing them? Mr. Pillai has done thousands of surgeries, and comes very highly recommended by previous clients. His laser was one of the most up to date, and he used what I considered (after reading up on this) the most common-sense approach to surgery.

I was very nervous about the whole thing, and had many questions when I got there. Mr Pillai spent a lot of time going over all of my questions, answering them all with honesty, and providing me with all the options open to me. Because my eyesight was so poor, and because I also suffered from mild astigmatism and larger than average pupil size, i was far from an ideal candidate. He walked me through my options, gave honest assessments of what he thought the success rates were, and provided me with all the information I needed to make my own decision. There was never any sales pressure, and I was incredibly impressed with the amount of time Mr Pillai was willing to spend with me during a free assessment, his down-to-earth communication style and, most importantly, his honesty. He gave me more options than I thought I had, and explained the pros and cons of each. By the end of the free assessment I knew that Mr Pillai was the right surgeon for me.

I went away, thought about my options, and went in for surgery. I ended up having LASIK on my left eye, and LASEK on my right. (Because the prescription in my right eye was worse, there was a greater chance that the LASIK incision would have been too deep to do a full correction, so LASEK was a safer option.) I won't go into the differences between the two, as that information is readily available online.

The surgery itself is remarkably quick. You're in and out again before you know it. It is not painful at all, but it's not really a pleasant experience. (Tip: when you're on the table, focus on the light, and hold your eye as steady as possible!). Mr Pillai gave me pills and eye drops and then I was off to the (very nice) hotel that's included with surgery. My girlfriend was there to help me negotiate the walk to the hotel, but I could probably have managed on my own, even 5 minutes after surgery my left eye could see well enough to get around, although I couldn't read anything (like street signs) very well. My right eye couldn't see much at all, but that was to be expected with LASEK's longer recovery period. I didn't have any pain, but my eyes did feel like they constantly had an eyelash in them or something. I did not have to take any of the pills (for pain), but my vision was pretty blurry, and I wasn't very comfortable, so I tried to just go to sleep.

I had the surgery on a Saturday, and I could have gone back to work on Monday, but I took a day off, as I work with computer screens all day, I thought it was best to err on the side of caution. I was back at work on Tuesday. I did have to lower the resolution of my monitor for a couple of weeks, and tried to remember to focus away from the screen a few times every hour. I suffered from slightly blurry vision, and some starbursting at night, and had very dry eyes and had to use a lot of eye drops/gel. I could notice improvement almost every day that went by for a while.

As far as progress after the surgery - the eyelash in the eye sensation was mostly gone the next day in my left eye, lasted a day or so longer in my right. The vision in my left was really quite good by the next day, but it was around 2-3 weeks before i had good vision out of my right. However, with both eyes open, my left eye seemed to take over, so I had good overall (but not perfect) vision by the day after surgery. I had very dry eyes for some time after surgery. I had to use eye drops constantly for the first week or two. Slowly I needed to use less and less, but it was almost 6 months before I didn't need them at all anymore. I have since been in incredibly dusty, desert like environments, and haven't needed any eye drops at all. I also suffered from minor starbursting at night for several months. It really was minor, and I would have been very happy with the results of the surgery even if that had been permanent - however even that seems to have gotten better, and if there is still any starbursting, I do not notice it.

It is now 12 months later (I didn't want to write a review until a year had passed) and my eyesight is 20/20 in my right, and 20/40 in my left. I can see better than I ever have in the past, when I wake up in the morning I can see the alarm clock, don't need to reach for a set of glasses, and don't need to go straight to the bathroom to put my contact lenses in. I can go for a swim without worrying about my contacts, my eyes don't get tired anymore from having contacts in for too long, I don't forget to take them out at night and sleep with them in anymore. I went into surgery ready to be happy if I just got my prescription down to a -1 or something manageable. But I've now got perfect vision and I couldn't be happier.