webinar summary
transcript
[00:00:00] So, my name is Shareef Mahdavi. I’d like to welcome you to our Modern Vision Correction webinar. Uh, I serve to help with patient experience and make it as great as it can be at Laser Eye Center in Silicon Valley. Um, we have a lot of people who have, uh, signed up to be part of this webinar, which is fantastic.
[00:00:23] And in a little bit, I’ll be introducing our three surgeons. Uh, just a couple, uh, logistics issues. Uh, we love answering questions live from people who are on the webinar. So if you’d like to ask a question, please use the question button at the, uh, at the bottom of your screen. You got a little toolbar within zoom and you can ask a question that way.
[00:00:43] Please do. So we’ll be monitoring that throughout this and we’ll take as many as we can. Um, if we can’t get to them and. You will answer all of them after the fact. We’ll send you an email, but we need to know who you are. So if you’re registered as anonymous when you ask your question, please put in your name and email in there so we can take care of it as well.
[00:01:03] Um, what you see on the screen here are people who have decided to have, um, Oh, uh, Dr. Benny, do you see what I do? You see, I think I just your desktop actually. Okay. Let me, uh, let me stop share and do it the right way. Uh, yeah. Okay, share. I’m trying to share
[00:01:28] of a take two in a second here. I apologize for that. Fine. Let’s try again.
[00:01:41] Okay. Do you see the slides now? No, you’ll see the webinar. I see that as well. So just give me a moment. Everyone, I’ll ask you just to bear with me while I, uh, while I make this, uh, happen and let’s go ahead. Sharif, while you’re doing that, I can just, thanks for kicking it off, but I was going to say, um, welcome everybody.
[00:02:00] Thanks for being here and thanks for taking time out of your day. Um, the whole purpose of this webinar is just so you can, uh, get a feel for if looking into a vision correction procedure is something that you would want to pursue. further or not. Um, and just for you to learn a little bit more about the kind of problems that we solve here every day at the Laser Eye Center, um, to help people see better.
[00:02:21] Um, so while Sharif is working on that, I mean, the, the general concept here is just in 2020, in 2025, it just, it’s really not far fetched to be able to wake up in the morning and not have to reach for the nightstand to grab your glasses just to be able to start your day. Or to be able to drive to a restaurant and drive to the restaurant and when you arrive, actually see the menu without having to put on readers or bifocals.
[00:02:45] And, and I mean, just typical things that people do if you’re sitting on your couch to be able to watch TV and also look at your cell phone. Um, I don’t think I’m the only anybody who, the only person who does that, but these are the things that we’re, um. We solve here every day. And Sharif, it looks like you just might’ve gotten the first slide up.
[00:03:03] So I can give it back to you, but we’re going to be talking about modern vision correction. And Sharif, why don’t you go ahead and I’ll just continue after you kind of do your intro. Absolutely. And let’s, uh, let’s see if this, uh, if this works, do you see it now? Full screen, Dr. Bindi. I can see it see great pop and Cameron.
[00:03:19] Yeah. You know, when we think about who it is that has modern vision correction that undergoes it, it’s it’s professionals like Greg Papa and who’s announced for the 49ers. Cameron Brink, who’s now in the WNBA after a star season number seasons at Stanford. It is people who are adventurers like this gentleman, Yoel, who does a lot of things outdoors.
[00:03:42] And it’s also people like us, the rest of us. And, and I, what I want to do is share with you just a story of just one of the many patients that comes in. And what you’re gonna see here in this quick video is a gentleman waiting for his wife as Dr. Ling completes custom lens replacement. Oops, that didn’t work.
[00:03:58] Let’s try it again. See if this works. I’ve got everything. Video.
[00:04:04] I love you. So Chris, Christine. Christine, how was that for you? Very, very easy simple felt nothing It’s a great project in the middle here. Come on. Yeah, let’s go We’re gonna have this forever Awesome. Okay, but thank you for letting us take care of you christine. We’re going to see you tomorrow morning.
[00:04:22] Yeah Okay, absolutely
[00:04:28] You know, I think I speak on behalf of all the employees at Laser Eye Center that, uh, this is why we do what we do. It’s those kinds of moments and just seeing the joy in people who have a procedure with us and their family members who are typically waiting for them. On today’s webinar, we’re going to learn, uh, a number of things, uh, among them, we’re going to talk about what this whole category of, uh, procedure is all about and how this differs from traditional vision correction.
[00:04:54] We’re going to help you understand if you’re a candidate. And we’re going to describe the different procedures. So you might get a sense of which procedure would be best for you. Uh, we are going to talk about recovery. We’re going to talk about some possible side effects. And we’ll talk about cost and whether or not this is covered by insurance as we round this thing up.
[00:05:13] I expect us to be on for about 40 minutes. Uh, again, feel free to submit questions. I see that people are already doing that. We’ll answer them as we can. Um, and with that, I’m going to hand it off to you, Dr. Bindi. I’m going to put up this slide so we have a little quick anatomy from you. Uh, well, good. So, I mean, what you’re seeing there is a, it’s a diagram of an eye.
[00:05:34] You can see light coming in from the left hand side. It passes first through the cornea. We’ll talk about the cornea. That’s where we do laser vision correction. Um, next, the light passes through the lens. That’s that structure in the middle. If sure, if you can do your cursor on the lens, then the light is focused on the back of the retina.
[00:05:50] And from there it’s, uh, the message is received and transmitted out to the brain. And we call this process vision. Um, now most people will have some degree of a focusing problem and this is why they wear glasses or contacts if they’re nearsighted or farsighted or have a stigmatism. Um, the light, as it enters the eye, it’s not clearly focused, sharply focused on the retina, and the patient will just perceive blurry vision.
[00:06:14] And so, for hundreds of years, people have worn glasses or contacts to correct, uh, focusing problems, such as nearsightedness and astigmatism. And, um, and those work great. We actually refer to, to, um, glasses and contacts as vision correction 1. 0. And that’s what probably a lot of you on the call right now, um, do.
[00:06:35] Um, and then in the mid 90s, um, the FDA approved laser vision correction, kind of the earliest versions of, of LASIK, and that’s where we could use laser light that could reshape the front of the cornea, and that could also treat nearsightedness, astigmatism, and farsightedness as well, and so we refer to kind of the earliest versions of laser vision correction as vision care 2.
[00:06:57] 0. And, and so today the focus of what we talk about will be modern vision correction, and we think of this as VisionCare 3. 0. And these are the most modern, most advanced versions of these vision correction procedures, so people don’t need to wear glasses or contacts. So, my area of expertise, what I base my career on, has been laser vision correction.
[00:07:20] So, this is all laser LASIK. Modern Epi LASIK and Smile LASIK, um, and then we’ll also talk about CLR and Evo ICL. Um, so right there, I guess, uh, what we’re looking at, if you can see, this is a, this is a picture of the laser we use every time we do, we do LASIK. And, um, so what you can see on the left side, there’s, uh, there’s a bed attached to a laser and Um, when people have LASIK, they lay, they lay on the bed, their head’s in the headrest on that image on the left, and when they look up, they’re able to see that image you see on the right, so that’s what a patient can see during the laser treatment.
[00:07:53] Um, All in all, the patient’s in the room about 15 minutes, and as the patient’s having the treatment, you can see that green flashing light. Um, the laser treatments take about, uh, maybe 10 to 15 seconds to correct vision, but the patient’s in the room for about 15 minutes, and so, if you’ve heard your friends who’ve had LASIK before, they’ll say the procedure takes 15 minutes, um, it doesn’t hurt, and it’s an, it’s an overnight recovery, so the next day people can resume, uh, normal activities.
[00:08:20] Um, again, since these are laser treatments, there are no IVs, there’s no injections, there’s no blood, there’s no blades, these are just laser treatments and that’s LASIK. Okay? Let me transition over now to you, uh, Dr. Koshik and welcome, welcome to the webinar and I want now for you to talk about another procedure.
[00:08:42] That is appropriate for people who are in that age range for LASIK, and you know that as the Evo ICL. I’m going to bring up that slide in just a moment. Sure. Yeah. Thank you so much. Sharif. Thank you. Dr. Bindi. Thank you. Dr. Lang. Um, great opportunity here to discuss Evo ICL. ICL just stands for implantable columnar lens or implantable contact lens.
[00:09:05] And so you can kind of imagine it just like that. You put a contact lens on your eye to correct your vision and you have to take it off. at the end of the day. With the ICL implantable contact lens, we put this contact lens inside of your eye and you don’t have to worry about it anymore. You don’t have to think about it, you just wake up and see, you go about your day.
[00:09:23] And so it’s something that you don’t ever feel, you don’t ever even perceive, uh, later on that something was then added to your eye, uh, but it corrects your vision and it, uh, lasts for decades and decades. Now this might be a procedure that would be a better option for some patients because they have a higher prescription and, uh, doing conventional laser vision correction for them might not be the best option.
[00:09:47] Uh, or they just have, uh, thinner corneas. So the anatomy of their specific eye, uh, might lend itself better to doing this implantable contact lens. So, uh, we do a comprehensive exam to make sure that this is the best option for you. And we talked to you about the, the benefits of EVO ICL and As everyone on the panel knows, I do have Evo ICL in my eyes, and I’ve definitely enjoyed having that and being glasses and contact free, um, and I can never feel it at all.
[00:10:15] I can’t tell that I’ve had it. No one can tell when they’re looking at me that that it’s there, but you can see in this in this slide just how small it is, um, and where it sits behind the iris, the colored portion of the eye and in front of the natural crystalline lens that we’re all Uh, born with. So it sits right in that location, corrects your vision, and you don’t even have to think about it.
[00:10:37] And Dr. Kushik, can someone, if you’re, if someone was looking at you, because you have this lens in, could they see the ICL in your eye? No, I mean, I think that’s one of the beauties of it is no one, no one can just know and look at it. I think it’s important to note that, um, you know, a health professional, an eye doctor, definitely when looking with their microscope, uh, can, can see it.
[00:10:57] And that’s important because as you continue to get, uh, care throughout your life, they’ll be able to see that you had that and make sure everything looks great. But the lay person just looking at your eye cannot see that it’s there. Great. Well, now I want to transition to you, Dr. Ling. And, uh, we’re going to talk about another.
[00:11:14] Procedure that we do, uh, custom lens replacement. I’m just going to bring up, uh, the slide to help you, uh, help set you up. Okay. All right. Thanks, Shuri. And, uh, thanks, Dr. Kaushik for introducing ICO. And thank you, Dr. Benny, for talking about laser vision correction, as well as Laying out, I’d love that analogy like vision correction 1.
[00:11:34] 0, 2. 0, 3. 0, modern vision correction. And this is a good segue into CLR. So, uh, kind of looking at the whole dynamic of modern vision correction is that, There isn’t a single procedure that’s perfect for every person. Everyone has their own unique anatomy, their own unique needs in terms of farsightedness, nearsightedness, astigmatism, uh, having had previous surgeries, and someone mentioned RK or previous LASIK in the past, and there’s also that age component factor that needs to be taken into account because our vision changes as we age.
[00:12:10] New, uh, uh, problem can arise, such as the need for reading glasses, which wasn’t an issue before, the development of cataracts. So that’s why I would, uh, like to introduce custom lens replacement and Sharif has it pulled up here. So, custom lens replacement is simply another tool in the modern vision correction, uh, armamentarium.
[00:12:33] And let’s understand a little bit about what custom lens replacement is. So, inside our eyes, there is a lens. And on the screen here, Sharif is playing a video of this lens within our eyes that we all have contracting and expanding. It’s a beautiful mechanism that we are working with. All born with, but also unfortunately over time loses.
[00:12:54] And so what is this expanding contraction doing is actually focusing for you so that when you’re young and whether you need a glasses or not, with that single pair of glasses or just the great vision you were born with, you could see far and near something that we have taken for granted for until. We reach our forties for some people.
[00:13:17] It’s either in their early forties or late forties, but most people notice some changes as the lens stops expanding and contracting. We call that accommodation. Uh, they start noticing the loss of that. And when you start to notice that you start to realize you have to hold things further away. Or put on reading glasses, adjust lighting, all these things that used to be so easy are becoming more and more difficult.
[00:13:43] And the enjoyment of simply just going to a restaurant or something off the menu in a dim light setting may become a challenge. So what’s happening to this lens? Well, it’s, it’s aging and an aging lens hardens up. And you can see here on the slide on the Left hand side, you got that normal lens light goes in very well focus, and it can dynamically expand and refocus depending on how far things are.
[00:14:09] And on the right hand side, you see the aging lens, which kind of has a yellowish hue to it. And that light going through it is scattering quite a bit. So quality of vision is affected by age related changes. And then, uh, the focusing contracting of that focus also becomes rigidified, not responding to the on demand refocusing that we have enjoyed the end stage of this, uh, aging process.
[00:14:36] Results in a cataract. So that’s what a cataract is, uh, but cataract doesn’t just show up on day one. Uh, in fact, it’s a gradual process that starts again in our mid forties. We term that process, uh, dysfunctional lens syndrome, and it’s only towards the end of that process, then we term it a cataract. So as you can now put together, it’s a spectrum.
[00:15:00] It’s a spectrum of how our eyes change and age throughout, uh, your life. And depending on where you are in that process, when you come in for an evaluation with Modern Vision Correction 3. 0, we figure out where you are in that process, and it may either be LASIK, Modern LASIK, Laser Vision Correction, which will still work very well for you, and knowing what to expect, how long it’ll last, or it might be ICL, or it might be Custom Lens Replacement, in which we directly address this aging lens.
[00:15:31] Now, uh, aging lens, And treating it directly with CLR is, uh, is a, is a condition that you want to figure out what the timing is because the reality is a natural young lens will always outperform a customized synthetic lens. So there is a threshold that we want to see you cross in which we say with very high degree of confidence that, oh, yeah, when you do CLR, you’re going to.
[00:15:59] recoup a lot of the functions that you have lost with this dysfunctional lens syndrome. Let me turn it over to you, Dr. Kaushik, uh, because there’s questions coming in. One of them is, will I still need cataract surgery in the future if I were to have CLR now? Yeah, no, this is a great question and thank you, Dr.
[00:16:17] Ling, for nicely explaining the anatomy there and how the lens is changing. Um, so the answer to that question is you will not. need cataract surgery after having a custom lens replacement. And we have to think about, you know, what we just did with the custom lens replacement. Um, like Dr. Ling mentioned, you have this dysfunctional lens, uh, and it’s a process.
[00:16:37] It’s a spectrum. It’s gradually getting worse. You know, this might be year by year. Um, and it eventually at some point, We call it a cataract. Now, if we act when it’s starting to have this dysfunctional process, we preemptively are stopping this process of the cataract from forming and this artificial lens that we put inside of the eye does not go through the kind of processes that the natural lens went through.
[00:17:02] So you will not develop a cataract and the natural lens that’s removed and replaced with this artificial lens will last you the rest of your life. The artificial lens is fantastic, uh, and will not undergo any kind of degradation like that. So it’s a wonderful, uh, benefit to not have to do cataract surgery anymore once you’ve removed it with the CLR.
[00:17:22] And Dr. Bindi, we have a question about, you know, can I have, if I had LASIK at Laser Eye Center probably with you years ago, can I have custom lens replacement? Uh, as long as all the other measurements are okay. That’s, that’s a fairly common scenario, actually. I know I do see, um, somebody who wrote a question.
[00:17:42] Um, and I know on this, on this webinar, there are a lot of people that I did LASIK on 15, 20 years ago and then they went through the aging process and now they’re starting to feel like it’s getting more difficult to read. Maybe they’re starting to use reading glasses again. And, um, and so in that scenario, that’s where we say during the consultation, what would, what would make sense?
[00:18:01] Sometimes, we’ll say a laser treatment could make sense just to fine tune things a little bit. But if the lens is actually changing, it’s further down that process, that’s the point where a laser treatment probably is not going to be the best treatment. And we talk more about lens options, and that’s where CLR comes into place.
[00:18:16] And remember what CLR can accomplish. overlaps what LASIK probably accomplished 20 years ago for these people on the call. Uh, when we do CLR, it can fix distance vision, so people can see better far away. It can fix near vision, so you don’t need readers and bifocals. And then like, uh, Dr. Kociuch was just saying, you never develop a cataract, and that’s considered permanent because that lens implant is an inanimate object.
[00:18:40] It doesn’t age or change, and so that’s, that’s one and done. Um, so it can definitely be done if someone’s had LASIK in the past. And, um, we have a lot of questions about CLR. So Dr. Ling, how long has CLR been around? So let’s go over what CLR, custom lens replacement, actually is. I guess we, we haven’t really touched on that in detail yet.
[00:19:03] So as the name suggests, custom lens replacement, you’re replacing that dysfunctional lens. that we just talked about, and perhaps it has already progressed to a cataract. We’re going to replace that cataract. So, you may have also heard of a procedure called cataract surgery. So, CLR and cataract surgery share a lot in common, but the differentiating factor is you don’t need to wait until you develop cataract to get your lens replaced.
[00:19:31] So think of custom lens replacement as a very high level of cataract surgery, which can be done even if you don’t have a cataract yet. So that process of CLR just involves removing the dysfunctional lens and replacing it with a synthetic lens. And those synthetic lenses are called intraocular lenses, IOL.
[00:19:54] These can also be used in cataract surgery. Here, Sharif has pulled up, uh, IOLs, different various types. And so, custom lens replacement, if you just look at it as similarly as cataract surgery, we’ve been doing this for the past 60 years, and it has evolved remarkably, both in terms of safety And technology and the technology being both in being how we perform it as well as the IOLs that support the outcome.
[00:20:22] So that essentially is what custom lens replacement is. And let’s talk a little bit about the procedure itself. Uh, which we do is, you know, here in our, in our state of the art facility, uh, Dr. Lin, could you just take us quickly with kind of what to expect when you arrive, how long it takes, et cetera. Yeah.
[00:20:40] So modern lens replacement procedures take about 10 to 15 minutes for each eye. It is a painless procedure. It is an outpatient procedure in the grand scheme of the medical procedure. You could get a custom lens replacing cataract surgery. They’re one of the most commonly done procedure in the world.
[00:20:57] About 4 million are done each year in the United States alone, I believe. And the recovery is also a remarkably quick process. So, kind of summing it up, 10 minute procedure, comfortable, painless, just looking towards a bright light. Once you’re done, you walk out, just like the video that Sharif showed you.
[00:21:14] You know, the woman that I performed CLR on just walked out with a pair of sunglasses, and her husband will drive her home that day. And then she’s going to get a good nap in, and then when she wakes up the next morning, vast majority of people are already noticing that the vision has improved dramatically.
[00:21:28] Uh, and in terms of getting an idea of when life can kind of resume its normal routine, we tell most people they may be able to return to work after about five days. Dr. Kaushik, um, why is it that this doesn’t hurt? Because people say, does it hurt? Does it hurt? And Dr. Link said it’s painless. But could you help people understand why it’s painless?
[00:21:48] Yeah, sure. So, um, we can take a little brief discussion about the anatomy. The lens that we’re removing, that dysfunctional lens, it doesn’t have a nerve supply. There’s no nerve endings there. So when you look at things that cause pain, we look at it because you have a nerve supply there and the nerves are responding and you’re feeling that sensation of pain and discomfort.
[00:22:09] the lens. Thankfully, there’s no, there’s no nervous tissue there. There’s no way for the lens to actually send you signals that there’s pain. So that’s a huge benefit in terms of when we’re removing it. There’s, there’s nothing there to signal that there’s any pain. We also take great steps to make sure you’re comfortable.
[00:22:24] You know, we do use a numbing medication on the, on the surface of the eye, as well as. some numbing medication inside the eye, and that makes you comfortable and relaxed and allows for a really pleasant experience. Um, so it’s a combination of factors, uh, that that really helped the patient get through this process.
[00:22:40] That’s very quick, relatively and also pain free. Dr Bindi. Is this similar or different from what we do in the LASIK surgery room? You know, good question. I can see in one of the chats, someone said how involved is this process to go through, I think, from a patient’s perspective is what she’s referring to, and, um, well, if someone’s familiar with LASIK, generally when people have LASIK, they’ll say something along the lines of LASIK takes about 15 20 minutes to perform.
[00:23:06] It doesn’t hurt and the recovery is quick. And, um, CLR and EVO ICL have really mimicked the LASIK experience. So, um, ICL, these are procedures, outpatient procedures done in our clinic similar to LASIK. They don’t hurt. overnight recovery to resume activities within the next couple of days at least. So these are, these are pretty easy procedures for someone who’s familiar with LASIK or has had that.
[00:23:32] It’s kind of on par with, with that. It’s one of the things that at the Laser Eye Center, we saw what people would go through with LASIK and people would say how easy it was and how quick. And then we saw how, um, Cataract surgery done in hospitals just seemed like a whole different process altogether where people would go to a hospital, they’d wear gowns, they would have to find a new place to park, and all new people, and, and, and so what we really tried to, um, as we evolved over the last several years, working with Dr.
[00:24:02] Ling and Dr. Kosciuk was we wanted CLR to be as LASIK like as possible, and so, um, all of our operating suites that are right in our office, with the people that you’ve already known, the people we work with every day, and there’s, um, there’s, there’s no need to do anything other than just come to our office, get your vision fixed, arrange for a ride home, and the next, the next day is when people start to feel like they can see the benefits.
[00:24:27] And I just want, I want to touch on this, uh, Dr. Ling, here’s a question. I’m just, will CLR give me 20 20 vision for the rest of my life? I have astigmatism and I’m farsighted. How do you answer? Because you’ve been asked that many times. A very commonly asked question. So, it all depends on the consultation process, what we find.
[00:24:47] So, astigmatism, myopia, nearsightedness, farsightedness, those are all numbers on a, on a prescription pad that can be translated into, say, a pair of glasses. And if those numbers correct your vision to 20 20, That tells us that absolutely custom lens replacement, which is just another form, uh, of, uh, correction through a, an IOL can be used to correct for your vision.
[00:25:13] But, you know, we’re professionals. We know that vision is complex. We will evaluate when you come into our office, evaluate millions of data points here in which we will understand what are some preexisting conditions. That you may not even have, you know, realized that you may have that we’ll pick up on and put it in context, both in terms of your overall eye health.
[00:25:35] And also your visual potential, uh, both now and into the future and whether we would recommend CLR for you and to what degree can you expect your vision to be great and kind of a related question to you, Dr kosher around Evo people. I’ve seen things like, you know, is this the latest? version of the Evo ICL that you’re using or using an older generation.
[00:25:57] Uh, you know, what can you expect from Evo ICL in terms of how quickly and you’re the perfect person to answer that because you have them. Yeah. So, good question. I think, um, Evo as a, as a piece of technology is implantable columbar lens. And, and, uh, as we mentioned implantable columbar lens or implantable contact lens.
[00:26:16] has been around for a long time, decades. Uh, and so it’s gone through different generations and different iterations perfecting, uh, this formula about how to get the ideal lens to correct the vision and, and help patients see well. And so, yes, we use the latest version of the Evo, uh, ICL and, uh, that’s through the, the company Star Surgical.
[00:26:39] And so we use that technology. And we make sure that all the details in our exam with you, uh, match up to make sure that Evo will correct your vision to, to the way that you want to see, to have that good quality of vision, to just wake up and see, um, and, and improve all aspects of your, of your vision. If there’s anything we notice on a comprehensive exam that would limit your vision, of course we would let you know, and then we would be able to workshop those things with you.
[00:27:05] But in terms of direct technology, yes, we’re using the latest version of the Evo ICL. Great. Dr. Bindi, uh, what are the risks of the laser, the LASIK procedures? And then, Dr. Lee, I’m going to go to you to ask, answer the same question about lens. When people do LASIK, the most typical symptom is dryness. So, especially the first four to six weeks after, since our natural tear production decreases and it takes usually a month or two to bounce back up to normal, so people use lubricating eye drops so their eyes feel more comfortable.
[00:27:34] Um, if someone has pre existing dry eyes, I guess it can take a little bit longer than that, but four to six weeks is a good, uh, ballpark range for most people. Um, a re treatment is a concept, let’s say it wasn’t quite 20 20, so the, the only goal here is so people love their vision and they can see great, and they can see at least as good as their glasses or contacts.
[00:27:53] Um, between two and four percent of people might say one of their eyes is not quite 20 20, so we give it about three months time to let it settle and stabilize, and if it’s perfect, we’re done. Two to four percent of people fine tune to get a little bit more clear if we can do better. Um, Halos and glare, especially if, if people, the, the older versions of LASIK were definitely more likely to see halos or glare as a side effect.
[00:28:16] Um, and even if they could, they could resolve with time, that was a pretty typical thing. Um, but now, um, with modern technology, it’s pretty rare actually. People usually see at least as good as their glasses or contacts. Um, larger prescriptions, larger pupils, sometimes it’s a little bit more likely.
[00:28:32] Infection is one out of 10, 000. So we have people using antibiotic eye drops. So those are the, the typical side effects that we can see. And Dr. Lang, how would you just add to this in terms of lens procedures? Yeah. So in terms of lens procedure and just vision correction surgery overall, uh, these are elective surgeries.
[00:28:52] We have the utmost highest standard in terms of safety to, to be in place in order to be offering these procedures because these are things that you choose to do and not because you have to do. So we, we already have a very good understanding of and typically what the safety margin is and they’re quite good cataract surgery or custom lens replacement in the way that we do it as one of the highest safety ratings in terms of any procedure you do, but nonetheless, they are surgery.
[00:29:18] So Dr. Bindi already mentioned. That, you know, there’s a risk of infection, 000, we, I believe that, you know, for one of the studies that we looked at, infection rate is like 0. 14%, extremely low. And what we really spend most of our time on in terms of the consultation process is picking up pre existing conditions or things that may affect your outcome from the surgery.
[00:29:41] Uh, or simply tell you, hey, this may not be the right time to do, you know, option A, or maybe option B would be preferred. So we’re very conservative in our approach and recommending certain procedures. So that the result of the surgery for you who are a candidate would be just dramatic. So both in terms of visual outcome as well as safety.
[00:30:04] So we will work on that with each individual to maximize their outcome and minimize the risk. Thank you. And I’m just going to put up a slide here and ask Renee to get ready to come on screen if she would. Um, this just shows you that our three surgeons, uh, uh, you know, we take our own medicine, we eat our own cooking, uh, doctor, all three of our surgeons have had one of the modern vision correction procedures.
[00:30:30] Dr. Koshik Evo, Dr. Bindi Lasik, uh, Dr. Ling Smile, uh, I myself have had, uh, EpiLasik PRK, uh, just over 30 years ago. And I want to introduce Renee, who’s been answering questions in the background. Thank you so much, Renee. Uh, you’ve had custom lens replacement. And so amongst the five of us on the panel, we’ve covered the entire range of the procedures performed at Laser Eye Center.
[00:30:54] Uh, what was it like, what, why, what were you struggling with and what’s it been like since you had CLR? Uh, yeah, sure. Uh, I was struggling with my vision. It was, I was meeting to our glasses almost all the time for almost all the things, whether I was playing tennis or reading or driving or looking at my computer.
[00:31:12] And it was really frustrating and I was not a great candidate for LASIK, sadly. Um, but, you know, I’ve been hearing about custom lens replacement, wanted to learn a little more about it. came in, got my consultation, determined that, you know, yeah, I could be a good candidate for CLR. And, um, you know, I went from needing glasses.
[00:31:29] I really couldn’t leave my house without them. And I had probably five pair at any given station, uh, to, uh, leaving my house with zero glasses. And, you know, I might need a pair plus one readers every once in a while, I’m doing some real small print, but, uh, otherwise I am. virtually for all my functional vision, I’m glasses free.
[00:31:49] And so it’s been just about three years now. And, you know, I’ve made some good decisions, but this is definitely at the top. Awesome. Thank you. And Renee is one of the team at Laser Eye Center. She’s one of our counselors. Some of you will meet her. You come to our Pleasanton location, but I think somewhere around half of our employees have have had a procedure of everyone, the technicians and front desk team and and call team.
[00:32:14] And we’re really proud of that. And most of the others are just because they’re not a candidate. They don’t, they have great vision. They don’t need to wear glasses. So we believe strongly in the procedure. And Dr. Bindi, there are a lot of questions coming in about, you know, I’m a minus five. Am I a candidate?
[00:32:28] Or I have a floaters. Am I a candidate? And What is it that people need to do? Uh, and, and, you know, I’m putting the slide up here about our AVA. Right, well, um, the first step is really, if somebody says they’re interested in, in seeing better, the first step is to, is to book a consultation, one of these free consultations at our office.
[00:32:47] And that’s where we do what’s called the advanced vision analysis. And in that process, it takes about, Uh, maybe an hour, hour and a half, and we get over a million data points, and that’s where we can really, that, that’s, that’s really what informs us so we can see would it be safe to do a procedure or not.
[00:33:02] Um, in my experience, about 80 percent of the time, all the measurements line up in a normal range and people can do a procedure, um, and then about 20 percent of the time we will uncover a reason where we say it’s actually preferable to hold off for now. Um, and so we offer conservative advice about which procedure is going to work best for them.
[00:33:20] Um, and so the advanced vision analysis is the first step and that’s where people would come in to one of our offices either in San Jose, uh, kind of by Santana Row area, or in Pleasanton by Stone Ridge Mall, and that’s where they’ll meet firsthand with a doctor to explain these things and then we can give them a clear suggestion.
[00:33:38] They can decide if they want to proceed. Yes, and you know, we, we offer multiple ways for people to come and, uh, learn more about this, uh, after this webinar. Uh, as Dr. Bindi mentioned, our two locations conveniently and right off the freeway in San Jose and Pleasanton. Uh, also, some people want to have a virtual consultation, kind of a, a meeting like this over Zoom or over telephone with one of our counselors.
[00:34:03] And we’ll spend up to 30 minutes with you discussing your goals, talking about procedures, talking about pricing. Others of you say, Hey, I really just want to understand how much this costs. And, and do you offer financing? And we offer a 15 minute phone consultation to be able to handle that. And right on our website is where you can schedule all of these.
[00:34:22] And you just give us your name and email and phone number and tell us the best time to reach out to you. And one of our team will be glad to do that and spend the time with you so that you can understand how do I make this affordable for me? Um, people often ask, well, what are the prices of this? LASIC is around it.
[00:34:38] 6, 000 for both eyes. The Evo ICL is around 10, 000 for both eyes. And custom lens replacement is either 14 or 16, 000 for both eyes, depending on whether or not we need to use something called the light adjustable lens. All of that gets discussed after you’ve had your, your measurements, because as someone, uh, asked, said, Hey, I’m a minus five, you know, am I a candidate?
[00:35:05] Well, you know, maybe, right? Dr. Ling, when someone sees you on the street, says, I know my contact lens prescription, I’m a minus five, can you, can you do a procedure on me? How do, how do you respond to them? So just like what Dr. Penney said, 80 percent chance that you’ll be a great candidate because we can treat numbers, right?
[00:35:22] We treat the numbers, but whether your anatomy, your stage of life you’re in, your needs would match up with that procedure. You know, we have, you know, five major procedure types, perhaps one of those can be recommended for you. Or we may see that, hey, there’s certain things that, uh, may disqualify you, or there are certain things you need to pay attention to.
[00:35:43] So the main thing is we look at and evaluate the whole package here for you. It’s interesting. Also, um, it’s a very common scenario. I would say probably every day that I do consultations where people come in, they will have done their research and they’ve been online and they’ll say. I’ve studied it and I know I want to do Smile LASIK or something like this and I’ll say well you’re farsighted and Smile doesn’t treat farsightedness so we’ll, we give a suggestion what’s going to fix their prescription or other, other people they’ll say I drove all the way from the Reno area because I want to have CLR and we’ll say well you’re 26 years old.
[00:36:17] There are other treatments. And so, um, like I say, the first step is to come in and we can sort through and streamline which procedures are going to be safe and appropriate. And it’s really based on the measurements and the data and our experience. We can give people a clear cut suggestion. Um, often it lines up with exactly what they wanted, but they’ll learn, learn the facts and find out if they want to proceed.
[00:36:39] That’s great. That’s great. Well, as we start to kind of wrap up the webinar, we see we’ve answered many questions. I will tell you, uh, Uh, after Dr. Ling and Dr. Bindi leave because they need to get into surgery, uh, Dr. Kociuch, who’s got a little more time, is going to stay with me, uh, after the webinar. We’re going to continue answering questions.
[00:36:58] We think of that as the after party, and we’ll stay on as long as we can before Dr. Kociuch says he’s got to get back and see his next patient in afternoon clinic. But, um, I’ll just, I’ll just ask, you know, let, let’s. Let’s, let’s kind of have some closing comments here. And what you have on the screen is, uh, uh, once you enter our lobby in San Jose, we, we like to feature patients.
[00:37:18] We like to celebrate with our patients after they have procedures. And you can see here, these were all people who wore glasses until they didn’t. And Dr. Bindi, you know, why is it that people have been coming to see you now? Gosh, you know, well over 20 years, we’ve been around about 25 years. And why do people come see you and come see us at Laser Eye Center?
[00:37:37] Well, people come with a problem. They don’t like that they need glasses and contacts and and I think they’ve talked to their own friends and family members. who’ve had their vision fixed, and I think, uh, they’ve, they, people go word of mouth referral, they go where they trust, and, um, after doing, uh, you know, I personally have done over 70, 000 of these procedures, and, and so just over the years, um, we’ve seen a lot of people, we know when to say this is something to avoid, when is it something to do, and the goal is so people can just simply wake up and see, and we can see if that’s realistic.
[00:38:09] Usually, usually it is. And then the other thing is, is Um, just kind of building on what Dr. Ling said is we never try to forget what we’re trying to accomplish here and it’s, we want people to see great, but this is a safety first kind of a thing where if we think it’s not safe, it’s not a good fit or glasses or contacts are more appropriate, you’re going to hear it come out of our mouths right away.
[00:38:31] Okay, so if everything lines up as a straightforward option, after you learn your options, I think people can feel confident that this is going to be a good option. Um, and we can explain pros and cons, uh, depending on your unique situation. So Dr. Ling, what is it that, uh, as you think about what you do every day, what is it that gets you most excited?
[00:38:52] Yeah, the most exciting part is just helping someone realize the full potential, you know, in their, in their everyday life, you know, things that they. Couldn’t do before because of their vision or their dependency on contact lenses or glasses Or realizing that you know They were so preoccupied with that need for glass or contact lenses that they couldn’t engage in Something they always thought of or that now their life is just much simpler and they can enjoy to the fullest.
[00:39:20] So You know the communication up front in the consultation process. We get to know each other. This is a very much You know, it’s a given that we’re all experts, uh, here as a surgeon. Doing the surgery is actually, you know, easy for us. Communication is the most, uh, important part, actually, here. And we’re all great communicators.
[00:39:39] Hopefully that comes off, uh, here in the webinar. And it’s figuring out what’s the great plan for you, what are your goals, can we match them and meet your expectations, and then just carry and execute and celebrate together at the end. So that’s what, uh, brings me joy every day. And Dr. Kaushik, you, as with Dr.
[00:39:58] Ling and Dr. Bindi, you have dedicated your career to this, to the exclusion of doing other things you could have done in medicine or even ophthalmology, like manage glaucoma disease or retinal disease. Why’d you do it? Why’d you decide to become a refractive specialist? Yeah, I, I think, uh, echoing a little bit of what Dr.
[00:40:16] Ling said, just the, I think there’s no greater feeling than seeing patients after doing a procedure and seeing the smile on their face, seeing, uh, what they’re capable of doing now without glasses and contacts, the ease at which they kind of navigate through their life. Um, you know, I think all of us see patients who It’s a, it’s a frequent statement.
[00:40:35] Oh, I have, you know, three different pairs of glasses and, you know, I use this one for this activity, this one for this activity and, uh, and slowly over time it’s become a burden. And so to kind of help patients, uh, relieve that burden, get them back to doing what they love. There’s no greater feeling than that.
[00:40:53] So I think that’s what drew me the most to this field. It’s interesting. Afterward, the most common comment that we hear after the surgery is it’s the very best thing I’ve ever done for myself. And, um, and even though I’ve heard that tens of thousands of times, it’s, I think that’s, that’s the feeling that, um, people get after this when they can see better.
[00:41:15] Well, you know, Dr. Bindi, we’ve heard, uh, we’ve heard this described as an investment, an investment in yourself. And I think that’s really true. Um, having been a part of the refractive surgery community for many years. Uh, I’m just so proud to be part of this team because for all of you, uh, watching and listening, we want.
[00:41:34] the experience that you have with us at laser eye center to be as exceptional as the great vision that we aim to achieve for those of you that we perform procedures on. Um, and we want this to be different than the typical going to the doctor’s office. And I think you’ll notice that right when you walk in our front doors and here you see sarah on the screen and she’s just one of our lovely teammates.
[00:41:56] She is the one that administers eye drops to people before they’re having uh, Custom lens replacement or I see all with Dr Ling in San Jose, and we get comments back and people write reviews, and they often mention Sarah. And it’s just an example of how our entire team operates on. We ask people. We ask people after they come in for a consult to to rate their experience with us and to tell us where we’ve done well.
[00:42:20] And if we’ve fallen short and we take all the comments seriously. Uh, because it’s really about you at the end of the day, and we have this motto that it’s, uh, Dr. Bindi, uh, came up with years ago. It’s just about, you know, why do people have this done? It’s because they want to simply wake up and see. Uh, and that’s really what everything’s about here.
[00:42:38] You are welcome to send us questions. You can call us. You can go to the website, reach us that way. Uh, we’re here to help you. I want to thank everyone. for joining today. Those of you who want to stick around and, um, and ask more questions, we’re going to do that. Um, Dr. Bindi, Dr. Ling, I promised you we’d get out by 1245.
[00:42:57] So you can have a minute before you get back into surgery and it’s 1244. So I want to thank each of our surgeons. I also want to thank Renee, who’s been diligently answering questions in the background and anyone’s questions we didn’t answer, we’ll make sure we follow up with you by email. Lastly, I want to say that next week Uh, you will be getting, uh, a text from us with a link to the recording of this webinar.
[00:43:20] You’re welcome to go back and watch it again and share it with family and friends as you kind of think about whether or not, uh, modern vision correction is something that you want to pursue further again. Thank you so much. I hope everyone has a great rest of the day and a wonderful weekend. Bye bye.
