Learn About LASIK, EVO ICL and CLR Webinar: October 16

[00:00:00] I want to welcome everybody. Thank you so much for joining us for this webinar and Modern Vision Correction. Uh, hundreds of you had signed up. You’re all coming on now, which is fantastic. And many of you are here because you may have heard one of the radio advertisements. Greg Papa here has had custom lens replacement as has Jack Armstrong.

[00:00:18] Greg Papa’s on air partner, John Lund, Cameron Brink, uh, recent Stanford graduate, uh, went number two in the WNBA draft and has had the Evo ICL. Um, and and so we had we’re fortunate that we’ve had many people who for their livelihoods have come to us to help them simply wake up and see. But we have other people.

[00:00:40] Here’s an engineer, Yoel, who is just a very active guy, and he is all over it when it comes to outdoor activities. And you can see him here, uh, just doing some of the things that he loves to do. And then we have this video of the husband of Christine, uh, who is waiting for her as she came out of surgery.

[00:01:04] So Christine, Christine, how was that for you? That’s so easy. Very, very easy and simple felt nothing in here. It’s just a great process in the middle here. Come on. Yeah, let’s get a lot of this forever. Awesome. for letting us take care of you. Christine. We’re going to see you tomorrow morning. Yes. Okay.

[00:01:26] Absolutely. That’s cool. Well, and that that’s an example of why we do what we do and why our surgeons are doctors. Our entire team is so passionate. It’s these moments. That people can literally just get up, walk out with their loved one and they don’t need glasses anymore. So it’s, it’s a, it’s a wonderful.

[00:01:44] Uh, opportunity we have to serve patients and help more patients achieve this. Um, today, uh, on this webinar, you’re gonna learn a lot about what we do. You’re gonna hear directly from several of our surgeons. We have Dr. Bindi and Dr. Koic here. Dr. Ling should be joining us shortly. He’s, uh, seeing, he’s just finished morning surgery and he’s, uh, seeing a patient before he gets on our webinar.

[00:02:05] Uh, my name is Sharif Mondavi. I’m the Chief Experience Officer for the practice. Um. I’ll be moderating today, and I’d also like to welcome Renee. You see her name there and she’s monitoring the question and answer panel. So if you have a question, we want you to ask it. You’ll see at the bottom of your webinar screen, the Q and a button.

[00:02:25] You press that you submit your question. We’re going to try to answer as many as we can during the webinar. But if we cannot, And you have sent us a question and your email. We know your email. We will respond to you after the webinar. So don’t worry. What we like to do is if we see common themes come up by a lot of people will try to answer those and give those priority for being on the air.

[00:02:47] Um, tonight we’re going to cover a number of topics or I should say today, excuse me. Um, and let me just please get my, let’s see if this works. There we go. Okay, we’re going to cover a number of topics today. We’re going to talk about, first of all, what is modern vision correction? How does it differ from traditional vision correction?

[00:03:10] We’re going to help you understand whether or not you’re a candidate. Uh, we want to describe the five procedures we do so you can start to get initial feel of which one might be best for you, and we’re gonna help guide you on that. We’re gonna talk about recovery, and we’re gonna finish up talking about, like, how much does this cost, and does insurance cover it, things of that nature as well.

[00:03:28] Um, but with that, I want to first introduce Dr. Bindi. And thank you, Dr. Bindi. You are, uh, the senior surgeon. You’ve been with us for 25 years, the owner of the practice. And, uh, I thought you could start by just talking about monitor correction and the problem that it solves. Absolutely. So, well, first of all, welcome everybody.

[00:03:48] Thank you for taking time out of your day on a Wednesday to be with us and learn. Uh, what we do every day at the Laser Eye Center. And, um, so you said, what is modern vision correction? Um, well, first of all, just think of in 2024, it’s, it’s really not too much to ask to be able to drive to a restaurant and also read the menu without needing glasses or contacts, or sit on your couch and watch TV.

[00:04:13] And also look at your cell phone in the process. So, so what we do here, we help people see better, no glasses, no contact lenses. And so I think the types of problems that we fix, the people that come in to see us can range. We can see people who have worn prescription glasses and contacts since grade school.

[00:04:33] Um, we can also see people who said they saw great for most of their life. And then sometime in the forties or fifties, they noticed their vision got worse. And now they’re reaching for readers. bifocals, progressives. And so we, these are the types of problems we fix is just so people can simply wake up and see.

[00:04:50] Um, so, um, Sharif, do you have a picture of the, yeah, this picture of the eye is maybe just a good starting point just to understand, um, when we talk about ways to fix vision, um, this, um, graphic kind of, uh, old school from maybe sixth grade science, but it shows. Light coming into the eye. Uh, it passes through first the cornea, the front part of the eye.

[00:05:11] Next, it passes through the lens, which is just behind the cornea. And then the light needs to be focused on the back of the eye, the retina. And you can see in that image. It’s focused sharply and this person will perceive clear vision because the light is focused perfectly. Um, lots of people, that’s not the case.

[00:05:27] If somebody has nearsightedness or farsightedness or astigmatism, uh, light won’t be focused properly on the retina. So for years, what everyone has had done is they would wear glasses or contacts and, and we refer to this as vision correction 1. 0 and it works very well. I know a lot of people on the call wear glasses and contacts, um, and then eventually, uh, maybe in the later nineties, early 2000, uh, that kind of range.

[00:05:55] Um, the FDA approved laser vision correction, and that’s where we could reshape the front part of the eye, so if you see the cornea, using laser light, we can reshape the cornea, and by doing that, it can treat near sightedness, far sightedness, and astigmatism, and it fixes these focusing problems, and, and then people would need to wear glasses or contacts.

[00:06:15] Um, and so, Sharif, you said, what is, modern vision correction. And so let’s start with you. We refer to modern vision correction as, um, kind of the most highly evolved treatments that we do in 2024. And that includes laser based treatments, LASIK, EpiLASIK and SmileLASIK. And what we’ll talk about also lens based treatments like CLR and Dr.

[00:06:37] Ling and Dr. Koshek will talk about that as well. Well, since you put a picture up here, um, this, these are the lasers we use when we do, um, when we do laser vision correction correction nowadays. So, um, the picture on the left, it just shows a bed laying next to a laser in. Um, so when somebody wants to see better and they want to get out of their prescription glasses or contacts, um, they come in for a procedure.

[00:07:01] They lay on that bed for about 15 minutes. Um, eyes are numbed with numbing eye drops, so it doesn’t hurt. Um, of course, people feel a little nervous often, so we also give a sedation pill, like a Valium pill, just so people feel relaxed. But they lay on that bed and when they’re on the bed looking up, The image on the right is what a patient can see from a patient’s perspective.

[00:07:22] And so when a patient is looking up, they’re staring at a green light. Um, the green light’s flashing in this case, and as a green light flashes, uh, the laser itself is invisible, but laser light’s able to reshape the cornea, and it can treat the prescription, so it gets people out of glasses or contacts.

[00:07:39] Um, the most procedures, the actual laser treatment takes about 10 to 20 seconds. Um, common question people ask me is, what would happen if I move? Or what would happen if I blink? And these lasers, they track eye movements a thousand times per second. And there’s a little instrument that keeps people from blinking.

[00:07:58] So common question, but we’ve gotten around those things. Um, and that’s what happens during the procedure. People need a ride home and it heals up overnight after LASIK and SMILE. So let’s now turn and include a lens procedure that we do. And Dr. Koshik, I’m going to ask you to talk about The Evo I C l, the insertable contact lens and procedure you do pretty much every day and you’ve done a lot of them and kind of explain what this is and how it’s different from using a laser to achieve great vision.

[00:08:29] Yeah. Thank you. Sharif. And thank you, Dr Bindi. Uh, the Evo ICL is a wonderful procedure. It’s an implantable, uh, columnar lens, or colloquially we call it an inseparable contact lens. And it’s very similar to a contact lens. It goes, uh, inside the eye. And so we’re not altering that cornea, that clear dome like windshield of the eye that you can see in that rightmost image.

[00:08:53] We’re not altering that. We’re putting this lens inside the eye and kind of the advantages of this are the reversibility. So if we ever did need to remove it, we could remove it and also preserving that cornea, that clear dome shaped portion of the eye for any future procedures, if you were to ever need it.

[00:09:11] Very quick. It’s painless, just like LASIK, like Dr Bindi had outlined, and it’s a procedure that I’ve actually had myself on my eyes. So I’m very intimately familiar with it. Even from a patient perspective, this is really helpful in cases like my own, where my prescription might have been wrong. Thank you.

[00:09:30] too high for traditional laser vision type surgery. And so removing, uh, or altering that cornea would not have been the best approach in my unique case. Uh, so inserting this EVO ICL was a much more preferred technique. And so it really helps patients who might not have been able to have something like LASIK in the past due to their high prescription.

[00:09:51] Uh, they can still have a wonderful option to restore their vision. Just wake up and see, uh, with the EVO ICL. I know I see a lot of patients, um, Dr. Koshek, who they come in, they’re familiar with LASIK and they might know other people, friends that have had, had LASIK and they come in to have their LASIK procedure and, um, but often we’ll see somebody where we say to do the EVO ACL and it’s usually, like you said, a really high prescription or somebody has thin corneas and also sometimes the people have dry eyes, um, and EVO ACL, one of the nice things about it is, It does not induce dry eyes.

[00:10:23] So if someone has severely dry eyes, sometimes Evo ICL can be the treatment of choice in that scenario. And there are other times we really think laser vision correction is the treatment of choice. And so that’s where during the consultation we talk about which procedure is most, most appropriate. But, um, but great, great overview, Dr.

[00:10:40] Koshyck. Dr. Koshyck, let me also just add, because we’re seeing some questions coming in about the Evo ICL. Yeah, I see it. Can you feel it? What happens if you rub your eye? Will you hurt the I C l? Could you just kind of do a little summary of that horse? Of course. Yeah. So the best part is you cannot feel it at all.

[00:10:56] You can’t see it. You can stare right in front of your mirror in your bathroom and try and take a look. But it would be Not really easy to be seen. Your ophthalmologist or optometrist or eye doctor can definitely see it when they’re doing your exam, but it’s not visible to the naked eye. I can speak from first hand experience with it in my eyes.

[00:11:16] I do not feel it whatsoever. I never really notice it whatsoever. Uh, some other things that are of note basically are that because we’re not altering that cornea that clear dome like surface, I think a lot of patients who do have dry eye like Dr Bindi mentioned, um, are very pleased with this result because they’re not altering that corneal surface.

[00:11:39] They’re not really experiencing dry eye with this. So it’s a great option for those patients as well. Fantastic. And I want to move now to the second of our lens procedures. Custom lens replacement as we talk about that. Let’s first talk about, uh, Dr Bindi and Dr Cushick. Just let you what’s what’s that thing?

[00:11:58] What’s that thing below the surface that lens and what role does that play? And what happens as we age? Okay. So, um, Sharif, if you can run your cursor over it, the, the lens, the internal lens in the eye, it’s a clear structure, um, it’s designed very well to flex and autofocus. And especially if somebody is in their teens, twenties, thirties, and early forties, they can autofocus and see good up close and that we consider this, the aging part of the eye.

[00:12:23] And as people move through there, usually the mid forties and fifties, um, the lens becomes less flexible with age. And that’s when near vision gets worse. And it’s the age where if people have been wearing glasses, they switched to contact, I’m sorry, they switch to bifocals. If they’ve been wearing contact lenses, um, they start to notice their near vision gets worse and they start to put these store bought reading glasses over their, over their contact lenses.

[00:12:46] Cause it gets more difficult to see up close. And so, um, this, what we refer to as dysfunctional lens syndrome. Stage one is where the lens begins to get less flexible. But usually in the 40s and 50s, and then as people move through their 60s, the lens gets a little bit yellowed, a little bit discolored.

[00:13:03] And then sometime in the later 60s or 70s, the lens becomes cloudy. And when the lens is cloudy, we refer to it as a cataract. So a lot of people have heard of, um, cataracts and cataract surgery. And, um, here’s a picture on the left. The light is clearly focused through the clear lens and it’s focused on the retina.

[00:13:20] without any obstruction and then on the right the aging lens it has a yellowish discoloration and it’s it becomes kind of opaque not as transparent and that’s when light scatters so often these patients they might be sometimes in their later 50s but usually more in the 60s and 70s they’ll say their nighttime vision’s not as good, um, they notice their near vision is getting worse, Things don’t seem quite as crisp and even with glasses or contacts, they might feel like it’s not quite as clear.

[00:13:47] And it’s because the lens in the eye is changing as it gets yellow. We refer to it as stage two. Um, and then in stage three is when the lens is clouded, we call it a cataract. And so that’s what you see in those images. Yes. And Dr. Kosciuk, you are an expert lens refractive surgeon, as well as laser refractive surgeon.

[00:14:04] And you’d mentioned that you’d benefited from our, from the EVO ICL lens procedure yourself. But I’d like you to talk about how we handle this aging lens, how we get rid of it, and how we restore people’s ability to see. And talk about these little, these little things I brought up on the screen. Yeah, so, uh, Dr.

[00:14:23] Bindi laid, uh, laid, laid this up very well for me by explaining dysfunctional lens syndrome. Uh, so what we do with a clear lens replacement is we go to the root of the problem. We, we get rid of this dysfunctional lens and we put in an artificial lens that will help you see very, very well without needing, uh, glasses or contact lenses.

[00:14:42] A lot of patients do ask, uh, you know, what type of these intraocular lenses are you using? Is this a one size fits all? Am I getting the same lens that every other person got in their eye? And the simple answer to that question is no. Uh, we take very detailed measurements of your eye. Very sophisticated technology is used to determine the appropriate lens for your eye.

[00:15:05] And there are a myriad of different options that you can discuss with your surgeon. But we have that conversation with you and we’re able to guide you to the best possible lens for your situation. So it’s not a one size fits all. It’s very tailor made specifically for you. And like I said, there are very many options for these lenses.

[00:15:24] So we kind of go through that and pick the right one for you. It helps. These lenses can help you see very well at distance vision. So we’re talking, you’re watching a sports game or you’re watching TV at home when you’re sitting on your couch and they can also have the capability to see very near or look at your cell phone when you’re also sitting on the couch.

[00:15:43] So that ability to just adjust very rapidly from looking at the sports game on your Phone and then looking at a different game, maybe on the TV, uh, is, is just wonderful technology. So these are kind of things that we have at our disposal. Um, and we’re very excited to be able to offer the entire spectrum of all to give you the best possible vision.

[00:16:02] And Dr. Koshik, your volume’s fading out a little bit. Just FYI. Say something so we can hear you. Can you hear me? Yeah. A little bit louder. Speak a little louder or turn up your volume. But while, while you’re doing that, um, let’s talk about this procedure. Once someone has CLR or custom lens replacement, is that, is that how they get to see for the rest of their life?

[00:16:22] Are they going to have to do something, you know, 10 or 15 years down the road? How long do these implants last? Yeah, no, this is a fantastic question with a custom lens replacement. Since we are getting to the root of the problem, that dysfunctional lens, the lens that you were born with, that’s just not working as well as it used to, uh, we completely eliminate the need for cataract surgery in the future.

[00:16:44] So you might have some friends or people, you know, or parents who talked to you about cataracts by having this custom lens replacement. You will not need cataract surgery in the future. So that’s a gigantic benefit to doing a custom lens replacement. Uh, the second part of that question, uh, how long do they last and will I need to do something again, or is it going to change a simple answer to that is it’s going to last your entire life.

[00:17:06] Uh, once we’ve put that lens in the eye, uh, it stays in place. And, uh, that, that thing that was changing was the dysfunctional lens. So now that we’ve changed it and we’ve put in a lens artificially, that does not change and is not undergoing the same aging process that the natural lens went through. Uh, it, your vision remains constant.

[00:17:28] It’s not going to be fluctuating, uh, as you age 5, 10, 15 years down the road. So that’s another great advantage to having the custom lens replacement. You know, just to add to that, when, when people do LASIK, LASIK fixes all the prescriptions so people can see perfectly. It’s not uncommon if someone comes back 10 or 20 years later.

[00:17:45] And they get a little bit of prescription back and we might do a laser treatment to fine tune it. Um, one of the differences with these lens implants is the, the implant is an inanimate object, meaning, meaning it doesn’t age or change like Dr. Koushik was saying. And so, um, when we talk about custom lens replacements, CLR, we say it fixes four problems.

[00:18:04] It fixes distant vision. So people can see clear far away. It fixes near vision. So it’s easier to see up close without glasses. You never get cataracts because that lens implant doesn’t age or change. And, and because of that, that lens implant is, is it permanently stabilize the optics. So people don’t change, you know, 10 or 20 years later.

[00:18:24] Um, now if somebody is in their twenties or thirties, early forties, sometimes even the fifties. Still, we often think a laser treatment might be the treatment of choice. And this is where it’s a customized decision. If the lens gets to a point where it’s changing and becoming more dysfunctional, the equation changes a little bit, and we might say it might be a better option for a different person to do CLR rather than to do laser treatment.

[00:18:46] Um, so it really depends, um, on the measurements and the clinical scenario. And, um, I know just casually, I’ll be talking to friends around, I’m 54 around my age, and they’ll say, should I do LASIK or CLR? And the real thought is, I say, why don’t you come in for the consultation to see what you’re a candidate for?

[00:19:04] Um, it depends on, corneal measurements, corneal topography, the appearance of the lens, and the general health of the eyes, and the person’s age comes into play. And based on that, we, when we do our personal consultations, we’ll say which one makes the most sense. All told, it works out that about 80 percent of the time when people visit our office, All the measurements line up in a normal range and it makes sense.

[00:19:29] It’s safe. It’s appropriate to for someone to go undergo a procedure. We can fix their vision. Um, also about 20 percent of the time, we’ll just say it’s, it’s, it’s safer. It’s preferable at this time to not do it or to wait. Either way, we explain our rationale, but we don’t really know what we’re going to suggest till we look at the raw data and the measurements.

[00:19:47] So in this kind of a webinar, it’s, it’s useful to talk about laser treatments and EVO, But the next step is always finding out for your own measurements which one’s, which one’s appropriate. Everybody has a little bit of a different scenario. I know I see some people and they say, Dr. Mindy, you did my LASIK 20 years ago.

[00:20:04] Can I do a touch up? And sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the lens has changed and we say maybe CLR is more appropriate. Um, people ask me questions like, Well, if they had CLR, will they need to do it again? Or if they had LASIK, Could they still do CLR? All these things are what we talk about. So if somebody had LASIK a long time ago, we might recommend a CLR procedure, a laser treatment.

[00:20:27] Um, so, so one of the things we’ll talk about today is taking that next step if you want to look into getting your vision fixed. Let me try to just do a quick summary. So a couple of things, um, this is CLR, you replace your lenses permanent. You’re not going to need cataract surgery in the future. You can have CLR if you had LASIK or RK in the past, you can have CLR because that LASIK RK is about the front of the eye, the cornea, this is inside your eye with the lens.

[00:20:54] So that’s all great. Uh, and, and in a minute we’re gonna talk about where we do, well, actually let’s, let’s go there now because I wanted to cover things. First of all, Dr. Bindi, just explain, like describe what people are seeing here and what is it like on procedure day? What’s it like for the patient? So, um, The well, the picture on the left.

[00:21:12] That’s our laser room. Um, we call it the big house. That’s where we do laser vision correction, LASIK, EpiLASIK, and SMILE. Um, on the right, that’s Dr. Joseph Ling, and that’s where he do, he does his lens treatments at our San Jose office. Um, the, well, first of all, when, when, if you know someone who’s had LASIK, I know a lot of people on the call are, uh, they’re, they’re familiar with people who’ve had LASIK.

[00:21:33] And if you ask them, what is it like, they’ll usually say three, three things. I’ll say the procedure takes about 15 minutes. It doesn’t hurt and it’s an overnight recovery. And we just describe that nowadays as a LASIK experience. That’s what it’s like to go through. And then as, as other procedures, um, procedures like EVO became really mainstream.

[00:21:54] We, we wanted to make CLR and EVO ACL the exact same process from a patient’s experience. We wanted people to be comfortable. We wanted people to come in our office where they’re familiar. We didn’t want them to have to go to a hospital or like some distant, um, surgical center. We, we, these are all office based procedures nowadays.

[00:22:15] We do right in our very office. So. To answer your question, Sharif, people come in our office, and they’re usually at our office for maybe an hour or two. Um, the anesthesia is topical eyedrop anesthesia, so eyes are numb and it doesn’t hurt. Um, a pill of allium, uh, just so people feel relaxed. Um, we don’t have to start IVs, there’s no needles or, or, or blades when we’re doing laser vision correction.

[00:22:37] But, um, each eye takes maybe five to seven minutes, I would say. And, um, afterward People need to arrange for a ride home on the day of the surgery, people are kind of groggy from the Valium and they just had the procedures. So we say arrange for a ride home. Um, and then we see people the next day and the next day people are typically back to their normal activities.

[00:23:00] So they’re comfortable the next day. We check vision and people are typically functional to do the normal things the very next day. Um, and we, we set up a couple of follow up appointments. So the day after the procedure, um, about a month later and about three months, and we might add another one or two appointments depending on the procedure of the process.

[00:23:19] So Dr. Kaushik, I’d like to talk about Risks, risks, complications, you know, things that happen because people are asking, they want to know. And of course we want to discuss that as well. Yeah. So, I mean, I think any procedure, uh, that you have carries some inherent risk and, and it’s important to ask your doctor about those risks.

[00:23:37] And we go over that in a detailed consultation to outline that with you, um, in terms of, uh, risk from things like, uh, LASIK or. Uh, laser vision correction. We are looking at things that, uh, are related to a little bit of dryness in the eyes, and the vast majority of studies say that resolves within 6 to 12 months and can be managed with just simple artificial tears, and many patients don’t really deal with dry eyes right afterwards.

[00:24:00] So it’s, it’s just very much an individual situation. And then another risk that we talk about is things like needing a touch up, like Dr Bindi had mentioned previously, or what we call an enhancement. The rates of that are incredibly low. Um, so we have, like Dr Mindy mentioned, advanced technology. I think part of that reduces our risk tremendously.

[00:24:22] Um, we’re only going to sign you up for surgery if we deem you to be a safe, great candidate for surgery. Uh, treat you just like a family member. So we’re not doing surgery on patients that have a higher risk for needing an enhancement. So With that type of risk, it’s incredibly low. And that’s something that we would discuss with you in detail.

[00:24:42] Um, I, um, oh, really quick. Sorry, Dr. I was gonna say, we never try to forget what we’re trying to accomplish here. We’re trying to get people out of glasses or contacts. But this is really a safety first kind of a thing where, where if it’s if it’s safe, the measurements are normal, the technology is appropriate, Then we’ll recommend a procedure.

[00:25:03] And like I was saying, about 20 percent of the time, we’ll just say, let’s just not do this. It’s preferable to wait or hold off. And that’s built into avoiding risk. And it’s just avoiding the problem, um, practically. Yeah. And, and, and let me now just switch over to another, uh, image. There we go. This is this is like, you know, right after the procedure with patients on and that one was on the right was treated by Dr Lang.

[00:25:27] This is literally two minutes after she got up from the table and walked right out and then had her driver take her home. So, and the one on the left, uh, Dr Vinny, that was a patient. I don’t know if there was the day of the procedure. Is that the day of their procedure, if you remember? That was the day of the procedure.

[00:25:43] And so, um, a couple questions. I see some of the, some of the questions coming up. Do we do both eyes on the same day? And, um, by the, the large majority, both eyes are done on the exact same day. There are some scenarios where people only need it on one eye, or they want to do one eye first, which is fine with us.

[00:26:01] If somebody has a preference to do the first eye and stagger it, the other eye later. But, um, these are typically Both eyes are treated on the same day. Um, and that’s that’s out of patient convenience, but we can do it either way. But these are all patients. They had their treatment. Um, I guess we took a picture right after this, and they went on their home to went on their way home to sleep off with their valium, take a nap.

[00:26:23] And the next day we check them out, see how they’re doing. Well, I’m gonna I’m gonna ask Renee to take a break from feverishly answering questions and come on camera. So we just, uh, yeah. interview her for a moment. Uh, Renee, thanks so much for all your hard work. Absolutely. You’re counseling Dr. Bindi’s patients today after they, uh, meet with him, but you had CLR.

[00:26:44] Tell us, uh, why you had CLR and what’s it been like for you? I did. Um, I’d love to talk about it. Actually, I had, uh, CLR a couple of years ago. I was not a great candidate for LASIK and I was getting really increasingly frustrated with my deteriorating vision. I was farsighted and I hit my mid 40s and it just started kind of going a little bit worse than than it had been and I was not comfortable with wearing different glasses for every single thing I was doing.

[00:27:08] So I came in to be considered and determined I was a good candidate for CLR. I went from wearing glasses 24 seven. Well, okay, 15 7 to just about never on occasion with really small prints. I’ll throw in some plus one readers, but I never leave the house with glasses. I go through patients charts and I do my work all day long without the need for any visual aids.

[00:27:31] And it’s been a real life changer for me. It’s awesome. And it’s been now coming up on two years, two years, two years this month. Which is fantastic. Congratulations to you. Um, you know, it’s interesting. I’m going to bring up another slide here. I can just get to the right screen. I just want to show everybody.

[00:27:50] This is just a really nice little Thank you. Renee. Um, thanks for that. A nice little tidbit. Here are 3 surgeons. And our three surgeons have all had a procedure with us at one time or another. Uh, Dr. Min as you know, I had PRK now many, many years ago, 29 years ago. I was very young. Uh, you had LASIK how many years ago?

[00:28:16] In 2000, so 24 years. Right. And in the last few years, Dr. Ling has had SMILE. Uh, Dr. Kochig already mentioned he’s had the EVO ICL. So between among the five of us. Uh, including Dr Ling. We have had each of the five procedures offered by the Laser Eye Center of Silicon Valley, and I did ask Jeannie, our practice manager, the number of our employees.

[00:28:38] It looks like most of our doctors and almost half, if not more than half of our employees are also enjoying the benefits of modern vision correction. So I think it’s safe to say that we’re patients, too. And, uh, we take our own medicine. Yes, I think that would be a great statement. A very good summary of us.

[00:28:57] It is. It is. And so the next step, we have a lot of questions coming in. I’ll just say some of them are very, very specific. And so we can’t answer him here because they really only apply to you as opposed to most of the people on the call. And just in the respect time, I’m gonna ask that you, uh, also you need to include in your question if you want a direct answer, and you came up as an anonymous attendee, and most of you didn’t.

[00:29:20] But some of you did. Please respond back in there and say, Here’s my email. Here’s my name on the email. And then we will be glad to answer every question we get. Do give us a couple days because we have a lot of them. I know Renee’s been answering them, but it’s just impossible to get to all of them. But I will ask about one question that’s come up and that’s Really?

[00:29:40] They’re asking Dr Bindi about blended vision about, you know, and how we approach that when people are in that presbyopic, maybe the early forties and getting their fifties, how we would approach a blended vision, whether it’s laser or lens. Good. So we’ll think of anytime we do a laser treatment, we can select wherever we want people to be in focus.

[00:29:58] So if somebody wears prescription glasses or contacts and their goal is they want both eyes perfect at distance, that’s straightforward to do. We call this a full distance correction, but especially as people move through their mid forties and fifties, people start to notice as their lens gets less flexible.

[00:30:15] It’s a little more challenging to see up close, and so to help people not need reading glasses right after they get their vision fixed with laser vision correction, we’ll often make an age adjustment. We’ll just leave, we’ll intentionally leave a little bit of near sightedness so people can preserve good near vision as well, and so we call this blended vision, and blended vision is the age adjustment on people in their forties and fifties so they can see distance clearly, but also it’s easier for them to look at cell phones menus without glasses.

[00:30:42] And so, um, A lot of, a lot of times I think people come in and they ask me should they do CLR and they’re 39 years old or they’re 42 years old and often it’s actually, that might be a little too early to consider lens treatments. Um, so often laser vision correction is still the treatment of choice and in the 40s or 50s.

[00:31:01] We still do a lot of laser vision correction. And then like I was saying, there’s a point where the equation changes and we start to talk about the benefits of maybe a lens treatment like CLR could be more appropriate. Um, I personally, you know, um, um, I said I had LASIK 24 years ago. I personally do blended vision.

[00:31:17] So I had my LASIK a long time ago. Um, as of today, my right eye does have 20, 20 distance vision, but my left eye is about 20, 25. And by having a little bit of near sadness, On my left eye, it’s easier to look at things up close without glasses to see this screen without glasses and, uh, cell phones, menus, computers, and my watch.

[00:31:37] Very good. So I want to welcome Dr Ling. Dr Ling, thank you for joining us. I know you were busy taking care of patients and surgery and then you had to see a couple in the exam lane. So thank you for being with us. Uh, I do want to throw a question to you if it’s all right, because it came up, uh, gentlemen said.

[00:31:54] He’s 74 years old. Is he too old to have CLR? Hi everyone. Uh, thanks for having me. Uh, so, in terms of your question, are, you know, would I be too old to have CLR if I’m 74 or 80 or 90? The answer is no. Uh, no. CLR is a procedure that addresses the aging component of the eye. Therefore, as you go through this process where your vision deteriorates due to cataract forming, the results are just going to be even more amazing because the contrast will be even more distinct when you have that aging factor becoming more and more mature.

[00:32:37] So there’s no limit, uh, in terms of age. We of course want to make sure that the condition of the eyes, uh, any, you know, pathology that may be preexisting are identified, but my oldest patient, uh, was 103, so they’re great. And Dr. Lin, can you just say is, is CLR cataract surgery or what’s the difference?

[00:32:58] Custom lens replacement and cataract surgery share a lot in common. The way I describe it to my patient, when they ask this question, is that custom lens replacement, CR, is a upgraded form of cataract surgery, a more advanced form. And how is it more advanced? Number one is the technique is more nuanced and refined.

[00:33:20] These are minimally invasive procedures where the patients typically are seen well within 24 hours, no sutures, no sutures, which can be different from traditional cataract surgery in terms of recovery and techniques. Uh, it is also bolstered by more advanced technologies. which is different from cataract surgery.

[00:33:38] Cataract surgery, typically, you have basic IOLs, which may not correct for astigmatism, may not correct for, uh, far and near. Most patients with basic cataract surgery may still need glasses. Whereas with custom lens replacement, you’re utilizing the amazing IOL technology that has advanced over the past, you know, 60 years.

[00:33:59] That can correct for astigmatism, can be adjusted potentially, can correct for far and near, and it’s the level of precision, precision, as well as, uh, minimally invasive techniques that allows for such an accurate outcome. So if somebody asks, uh, either of you, Dr. Koshek or Dr. Ling, Is CLR new? How would you answer that to a patient standing in front of you?

[00:34:26] So basically I’ll answer this one. Um, I think like Dr. Ling mentioned the newness or the, uh, innovative, uh, aspect of CLR is the fact that we are relying on these newer, uh, techniques, newer technology to give the patient the best vision possible. I think the fundamentals, the basics of doing the surgery, whether you’re having cataract surgery or having a CLR is, uh, is.

[00:34:52] Similar in a lot of ways and the surgeons experienced in both cataract surgery and CLR. So the fundamentals are the same. I think, uh, where you have the difference is, you know, what type of technology are we using? What type of nuances are we, uh, implementing in treating a patient with CLR versus treating a patient with.

[00:35:09] Cataract. Yeah. Great answer. I’ll just add a few more thoughts here. CLR, uh, you know, if you compare it with cataract surgery, if you say those are pre equivalent, you know, you can say it’s been done for the past 60 years. It is the advancement in technology, the accurate outcome that has brought about the term custom lens replacement.

[00:35:32] You may have also heard, you know, refractive lens exchange. That’s, uh, another way to call it. And it is the way that technology can match the expectations that you start to hear more and more and more about these procedures. So technology is so good now that you don’t have to wait until you have a cataract and can’t really function anymore in order to receive a vision correction outcome.

[00:35:56] Many patients, uh, as I’m sure you guys already discussed have dysfunctional lens syndrome and have been told you just got to wait by, you know, a hospital or insurance companies. Uh, you know, want that lens to continue to agent to make a necessary procedure. But what we see is technology is good now that it can be done preventatively as well as therapeutically to get people out of glasses and functioning and living their best lives.

[00:36:22] And by the way, they’re asking, we’re going to get into cost in a moment, uh, and the consultation, but I do want to just, uh, make a point that if you have, uh, submitted a question anonymously, remember, we have no way of reaching out to you becomes anonymous. I want you to copy that question. Put it in another one and add your email address so we can answer it.

[00:36:43] That’s the, uh, the little process that you’ll need to go. And, and

[00:36:52] looks like has, has frozen, but, um, I was, well, Sharif is getting back, back up. I was going to say, I hear that question all the time, but I think of, um, modern CLR and modern LASIK for that matter. These are, these are the most highly evolved versions of the procedures that kind of built on. early versions of laser vision correction or early versions of cataract surgery.

[00:37:14] And so I think when I think of these lenses, we have long term data how well these lenses exist in the eye, the safety, how the procedure is done. Technology has bolstered these is now we have options so people can see distance and near. And with laser vision correction, it worked great 20 years ago. Now it’s just even better as it’s gotten safer.

[00:37:34] Um, it’s, it’s gotten more accurate, better nighttime vision. So the procedure is built on kind of decades of, of advancements in science and technology. And that’s what we refer to as modern vision correction. Um, I think, um, it looks like Sharif has left the building for a little bit. Um, and we try to keep this thing about to, um, 40 minutes.

[00:37:57] So I think we’re, um, we’re just about getting, getting to the end. As I say, um, I just want to say thank you for everybody being here. Um, as a closing thought, um, Joe, so you see people every day, Dr. Koshek, um, is there, is there a reason why you think the Laser Eye Center is special or different? Why should somebody come to the Laser Eye Center?

[00:38:20] So I’ll go first. So You know, Laser Eye Center is a practice that’s been around for the past 25 plus years. It is an establishment in the community, and it’s this way because we are surgeon owned, surgeon operated. We are not a large conglomerate franchise. We very much are invested in the community. We give conservative advices, and we utilize proven procedures to help people see better.

[00:38:51] So, you know, our reputation has been built on word of mouth, uh, and our standing in community. And, you know, another reason to consider us is we have a great team. You know, it’s not just any one individual, it’s the teamwork that we have here. We have such a great work culture here. It’s a, you know, it’s a pleasure for myself.

[00:39:10] I can speak for a lot of our employees to just come to work every day and help people see better. So you’ll, you’ll feel that when you come see us for your consultation, your procedures that, you know, how everyone is just, uh, very excited for your journey. That’s great. I would just echo what Dr. Ling mentioned, but I also wanted to add, uh, like Sharif had outlined, all of us have had some form of modern vision correction, uh, and I think that just highlights how much we believe in, uh, the modern vision correction and also how we can even tell you about it in such an intimate way.

[00:39:44] We can give you our personal experience. We can share with you these details that, uh, Uh, other people might not have been able to because they haven’t undergone the procedure. Uh, so we understand it definitely from a medical point of view and a surgical point of view, but we also understand it from the view of a patient.

[00:39:59] Uh, so we’re really able to relate with you and hopefully give you that sense of, uh, understanding when we’re going through these procedures. That’s great. And just to add to that, the Laser Eye Center, Silicon Valley, it’s, it’s been, uh, it’s been my life’s work and, and, uh, adding Dr. Koshek and Dr. Ling over the last, um, several years, it’s, I, I just feel like we’ve added the best of the best.

[00:40:22] And so now when I look at our team, I get so happy that this is something that we can offer, whether someone lives in the East Bay or South Bay. We do, um, what, what our area of specialty is we specialize in giving conservative advice. About modern procedures that work. And so the first step is finding out if you’re a candidate.

[00:40:41] Uh, Sharif is back online. So that’s exciting. And, and, um, these procedures are great, but I know a lot of people they’re sitting sitting there going, Oh, wait, how much does it even cost? And so Sharif, do you just want to, can you, can you hear us? Yeah, I can absolutely hear you. They’ve spent 30 minutes waiting to hear that.

[00:40:57] Thanks. So procedures.

[00:41:03] Do we perhaps I’m gonna I’m gonna add. I know. I know the prices. Sharif, if you would like me to go over, you’re freezing up a little bit. Okay, you’re back that better. Okay. So so for a laser procedure, looking at 3000 to 3500 per eye. And the difference there is simply that we honor VSP and we have some corporate programs that would bring it down a little bit.

[00:41:29] The Evo ICL procedure is about 5, 000 per eye and a custom lens replacement procedure is 7, 000 to 8, 000 per eye, depending on whether or not we use the light adjustable lens, because that’s a lot more intensive in terms of the follow up. Double that for both eyes. Most people have both eyes done, but not everybody.

[00:41:47] And we do offer financing. We offer no interest financing that brings the cost of that down, uh, to an affordable monthly payment. And many people take advantage of that. We don’t charge extra for it. Um, and then lastly, people ask, does insurance cover this? And the answer is no. Insurance does not consider refractive surgery to be medically necessary.

[00:42:06] necessary. So this is something that people pay for out of pocket. They are making an investment in themselves. And patients routinely tell us, our surgeons and all our staff, two things afterwards. They say, first of all, this is the best money they’ve ever spent on themselves because they are now free of glasses and contact lenses.

[00:42:24] And secondly, they say, wish I had done it sooner. Um, I, most of us have said that and we went through it as well. And, uh, the goal at Laser Eye Center is simply just to make this a safe, wonderful experience for all of you. Uh, Dr. Bindi, did you talk about the consultation and coming in for a consult? Did you cover that?

[00:42:42] So there are a couple things people can do, um, if somebody wants to, uh, look into getting their vision fixed. Um, they could make an appointment at our San Jose office, um, or at our Pleasanton office. And then, um, some people, they just want to get their questions answered. So some people do a virtual consultation, which is kind of like a Zoom.

[00:42:59] Um, or some people just want to discuss with a patient counselor, more like a, more of a financial consultation. Yeah, we can do those things over the phone or resume as well. But, um, but we do virtual and in, um, in person consultations. And ultimately, people need to come in and actually meet with us personally and have a consultation with actual measurements.

[00:43:19] But those are the different ways. And it was it was important that people understand that we will, by the way, be sending out a link to this recording so that you can watch the webinar with your family or colleagues or friends. You can share it with them. It’ll be up on our website by the middle of next week.

[00:43:36] And we’re here to help you. Someone asked you, how much do you charge for the consultation? We don’t charge for the consultation. We want people to come in and have this eye exam. And there are the slides that show it right there. It’s, you know, we believe. It is the best I exam you’ll ever have in your life because it is so thorough and we’re not going to recommend a procedure unless we believe it is going to be of great benefit to you.

[00:44:00] And it’s all this advanced equipment that we use to test your eyes and collect over a million data points to make sure our doctors have the data and information they need to make the decision. So with that, Dr Bindi, are we ready to wrap up? We’re all good. So I think we we covered everything we wanted to.

[00:44:16] We kept it pretty close to 40 minutes. Yes. I just want to say thank you for everybody taking time out of your day and we look forward to meeting you in person. Thanks everyone for taking the time here as well and you can reach us either by phone 408 984 1010. You can set up an appointment online. We are going to answer all your questions and we’re just glad you spent your lunch hour with us.

[00:44:38] Thank you. Bye bye. Thank you everyone. Bye.