Modern Vision Correction Webinar: July 19, 2024

[00:00:00] Welcome, everybody, and thank you for joining our webinar on Modern Vision Correction. We have nearly 600 of you who registered to join us, and you’re now logging on, and many of you are here because you’ve heard on the radio from personalities like Greg Papa, his on air partner John Lund, or perhaps Jack Armstrong, who just got treated recently with CLR.

[00:00:27] You may have read about Cameron Brink, the Stanford basketball star, who’s now in the WNBA. Uh, or you may have a friend who’s had a procedure and that person encouraged you to learn more about Modern Vision Correction could be a person here like Yoel, who’s a patient and he is a self described world adventurer, whether he’s flying on the water, you Uh, climbing mountains or flying through the air.

[00:00:55] Uh, and it’s just our privilege to be able to take care of patients like that. Um, my name is Shareef Mahdavi. I’m the Chief Experience Officer here at the Laser Eye Center of Silicon Valley, and I’ll be moderating today. Uh, we’d like to welcome our two surgeons, Dr. Craig Bindi and Dr. Joseph Ling. Thank you, gentlemen, for joining us after morning surgery.

[00:01:16] And before you pick up again with afternoon cases, and I’d also like to welcome Renee. She’s in the background. She’ll be monitoring the Q and a And letting us know about questions that you submit. And if you look at the bottom of your screen, you should see a button that says Q and A. So if you have a question for us, please do go ahead and submit it.

[00:01:35] We’ll do best to answer as many as we can on air during this webinar, but just rest assured if you submit a question to us, we will follow up with you after the webinar and make sure that we have answered your question. Uh, what we like to do is bring up questions that are asked by multiple people since there’s interest.

[00:01:52] Want to just review what we’re going to learn today in the next few minutes, and our goal is to be done in about 40 to 45 minutes. So by quarter of one, we should be concluding, but we’re going to describe modern vision correction and what problems it solves. We’re going to talk about how we determine whether or not you’re a candidate.

[00:02:09] I’m going to help you understand the different procedures and start to steer you towards which one might be the best for you. Um, we can talk about recovery and side effects and we’ll also cover things like cost and whether or not this is covered by insurance. But, uh, with that now, I’m gonna hand it off to Dr.

[00:02:26] Bindi. Uh, Dr. Bindi, welcome. Thank you, Sharif, and, um, and to everybody out there, happy Friday. Thanks for taking time out of your, your busy day to be with us for the next, uh, say, 40, 45 minutes or so. And, and, um, well, today, I mean, we’re gonna, we’re gonna cover a lot of things, but I think, um, one of the things that we’re gonna be talking about is the term Modern vision correction, which might be a little bit vague to people, but, um, but I have people think about, um, on a day to day basis, what people do.

[00:02:54] They go to restaurants, they go to movies, they’d like to play sports and look at computers and cell phones. And so when I think of, um, what we’re going to be talking about today, it’s really how can we fix the problems that arise when people wear glasses and contact lenses. And so in 2024, it’s really not too much to ask for somebody to say, wait, I want to be able to drive to a restaurant.

[00:03:13] And also see in the menu, or I want to look at my cell phone and I want to be able to jump into a pool. I don’t worry about contacts and I want to travel and not pack all this contact lens and solutions. So we’re gonna be talking about the types of procedures that we do to accomplish those goals. So we like to think we fix problems.

[00:03:29] That’s the main problem we fix. So people can simply wake up and see without needing these things. Um, So Shareef, if you’re putting up, uh, actually, that’s a good time. I’ll just start to talk since, um, we’ve all probably seen, uh, uh, uh, an eye like this when we were in sixth grade and science class or something.

[00:03:47] But, um, just to keep it real simple, we need light to be focused clearly on the retina. So light comes, um, through the cornea, the front part of her eye, and it’s focused by the cornea and the lens to a sharp image on the retina. And, um, if someone has near sadness or far sadness or astigmatism, that’s when light’s not going to be properly focused and people see blurry, and this can be corrected with glasses or contacts.

[00:04:12] And, and, um, for hundreds of years, as you know, glasses worked great and eventually contact lenses came into the picture to fix focusing problems and we refer to this as vision correction 1. 0 glasses and contacts and everybody knows about glasses and contacts and then you might be familiar with maybe in the late 90s these LASIK type treatments started to come into the scene.

[00:04:35] Most people know someone who had LASIK over the years and LASIK back in the early days even though it’s Maybe by today’s standards, it might be primitive. Um, LASIK is a procedure that can fix prescriptions. So people don’t need to wear glasses or contacts. And we actually, now we look back, we refer to this as vision correction 2.

[00:04:54] 0. And then when we use the word modern vision correction, that’s really when it’s a, it’s a collection of these procedures that Dr. Ling and I do, these are laser treatments, like. LASIK and EpiLASIK and SmileLASIK, and these are laser treatments. It also includes lens based treatments that Dr. Ling is going to talk more about, like the EVO ICL and CLR custom lens replacement.

[00:05:17] And the goal of all these procedures, it’s the same goal, it’s just so people can simply wake up and see. But then, the measurements help us know which one, which one to pick. And so, um, I think if I see somebody who has nearsightedness or astigmatism, and they’re between 50 and 60, 18 and 55 years old.

[00:05:35] Often a laser treatment is going to be a great option for somebody, but sometimes I’ll meet people and they have a different, maybe they’re in their seventies or maybe the corneas are too thin and that’s going to guide our suggestions for people. And so, um, as a good example, if I see somebody who has a huge amount of prescription, maybe they’re minus 18 or they’re minus 12, maybe the corneas are too thin for a laser treatment.

[00:05:57] That’d be a good example where I’d say maybe we should think about doing something else like the EVO ICL and Joe, Dr. Ling, I guess if you could just talk a little bit about EVO ICL. Well, Dr. Binney, before he does that, would you just describe what it’s like, let’s just stay on LASIK for a moment and just talk about what it’s like for a patient who has LASIK and you have the image up on the screen.

[00:06:18] So, um, when people have LASIK, generally, they might be excited to see better, but on the day of the surgery, people are generally pretty anxious. On some level, people might come in anxious, so that’s why we give a pill of allium so people feel relaxed. Um, these procedures don’t hurt at all because your eyes are numb with eye drops for anesthesia.

[00:06:36] Um, we don’t need to do, uh, IV lines. There’s no numbing injections or blades or blood. Um, it just, um Eye drops and a pill of allium and then the laser treatment, but I guess on that picture, you can see on the left hand side, that’s what the laser looks like. But imagine if someone is laying on that bed on their back, their head’s in the headrest and they’re looking up and then when a patient looks up from a patient’s perspective, they would see the image on the right and you’ll see that green flashing light.

[00:07:03] And so when somebody does laser vision correction, they’re in this laser room for a total of about 15 minutes or so. Um, the laser treatment usually takes about 10 to 15 seconds, depending on the amount of prescription that someone has. And, but that’s what a patient sees. Um, it’s funny, patients will often ask me beforehand, they’ll say, Wait a minute, what if I move, or what if I blink, or I, I get nervous and I, I shift around, or I cough or something, but, um, but these lasers are highly evolved, so they’re able to track eye movements to stay lined up, they track eye movements a thousand times per second, um, there’s a little instrument that keeps eyes from blinking and closing, so we’ve gotten around a lot of the, the typical things that people might ask about.

[00:07:44] Um, and then after laser vision correction, they’re in the laser room for about 15 minutes, but, um, people do need to arrange for someone else to drive them home. They’re kind of groggy from the Valium. Um, vision’s not that clear the first evening and then it healed up overnight. So the next day people can, they can drive and go to work and do their normal activities.

[00:08:02] So, um, if most people have heard of someone who’s had LASIK, so not to re recap what people may already know, but if people talk to their friends who’ve had LASIK, they’ll generally hear the story where they’ll say, I did a procedure, it took 15 minutes, it didn’t hurt, and I was normal the next day. And that is a LASIK procedure, that’s a LASIK experience.

[00:08:20] Okay. Well I’d like to introduce Dr. Joseph Ling. Joe, great to have you again with us today, in between morning and afternoon surgery. And um, we’d love for you to talk a little bit about one of these new specialized procedures as part of Vision Correction 3. 0. Let’s start with the EVO ICL. Yeah, Dr. Bindi gave a great introduction summary of LASIK, and now we’re going to transition to lens based vision correction, uh, from what Dr.

[00:08:49] Bindi was saying, laser based vision correction. Now, laser based vision correction, like LASIK, SMIL, PRK, are excellent options for, for many individuals. However, we are in an age of many options, and we realize that with all these options, there’s not one size fit all. Each individual may require a certain type of treatment that is better for them.

[00:09:13] Some individuals anatomy may require one versus the other. So for, for LASIK, there are some indications where The cornea may be too thin or an individual may have certain pre existing conditions such as, uh, severe dry eyes. And what you may want to look for alternative options, uh, from LASIK or, or laser based vision correction.

[00:09:37] And this is where we, uh, luckily have EVO ICL. EVO ICL, uh, Uh, stands for Insertable Contact Lens. Um, that’s what it’s colloquially known as. And it is what you essentially kind of think of as is a lens that is insertable right behind the cornea that has all the prescription you need to be able to see better.

[00:09:57] It is a five minute procedure. It’s a painless process. where you’re just looking towards a bright light, and that lens is placed very comfortably and, uh, securely behind the cornea. And you just open your eyes and you look right through it, and we’ll be able to see everything in focus. Uh, the idea behind using ICL, this insertable contact lens, is that it’s, it’s in fact not much like a traditional contact lens.

[00:10:23] It’s not something you have to maintain. That’s something you have to, uh, um, essentially take out, put in, something that stays with you essentially for your entire adulthood. Um, this lens has very little side effect, doesn’t change your natural anatomy of your eye, which for some individual is, is a big, uh, reason to do it.

[00:10:44] Uh, the reason for keeping your anatomy may be because it is not suitable for alterations, such as with laser vision correction. And it can also treat a very high range of nearsightedness, which is an excellent option for those who have, say, minus eight, minus nine or above in terms of their prescription.

[00:11:05] Dr. Lane, would you also comment on astigmatism for the EYCL? And Dr. Bin, you also talked about astigmatism with lasers. Yeah, go ahead Joe. Yeah, so pretty much all modern vision correction procedures correct for astigmatism now. It used to be a common question that we get, you know, Am I a candidate? I have astigmatism.

[00:11:26] Um, and, and that’s a definitive yes. That’s pretty much, uh, all procedures that we do here. All six modern vision correction procedures correct for astigmatism. Just to add on to that, as you say, people often do come in thinking they’re not a candidate because they have astigmatism, but it’s interesting.

[00:11:43] Most people do have some astigmatism and now it’s just, it’s really considered routine. Anytime we do a laser treatment or a lens based procedure is to correct near sadness, far sadness, and at the same time it gets any coexisting astigmatism. Um, in some ways, uh, Uh, you know, if somebody has glasses on or contacts, those aren’t ideal ways to fit for contact for a stigmatism contacts can rotate around.

[00:12:07] You can get some distortions with glasses and with LASIK since we’re treating on the cornea, there’s nothing that could move or shift. And these lenses are, they’re not moving around. So that’s why it’s more of a stable form of astigmatism correction. But yeah, it’s pretty straightforward to correct for that.

[00:12:23] Great. Well, thank you, Dr. Lane, for that description of the Evo ICL. And now we want to make a little bit of a shift because these procedures are all appropriate for people who have issues with their cornea. As Dr. Bindi said, too, too steep, too flat. Uh, it’s not, not shaped properly to focus light where it needs to be focused.

[00:12:39] But what about Dr. Lang, when people hit their 40s and their 50s, there’s a different problem going on now that causes them not to see well, right? Right. So I like to differentiate kind of two types of needs for glasses. There are those who are born with a need for glasses or have, uh, develop a need for glasses as they’re, uh, growing up as a, as a young child.

[00:13:03] So I typically call it like an inborn need for needing glasses. Typically that’s someone who is nearsighted. couldn’t see far. And those are, uh, those patients are very suitable for the, the procedure we have talked about, all the laser vision correction options or ICL. And then there’s a category of, of age related need for glasses.

[00:13:23] Typically this starts in our 40s, where suddenly, you know, perhaps your vision was great your entire life and suddenly you need, uh, reading glasses, or perhaps you always needed glasses and suddenly you need a bifocals or progressives. That is from the age related portion of your eyes maturing to the next stage, uh, of adulthood.

[00:13:46] And what Shuri, uh, has up here is a natural crystalline lens that we all have inside our eyes. This is the age related component that gradually deteriorates, uh, significantly in our 40s, and is a major reason why we need reading glasses, progressives, or our vision just seems to start to deteriorate rapidly.

[00:14:10] And what Sri is, uh, doing here, you see that lens expanding and contracting? That’s, uh, An active focusing mechanism that our eyes have that allows us to see far and near. It’s an amazing, uh, tool that we’re born with, however, it gradually fades away. And through modern vision correction procedures, we have techniques to try to restore the ability to see far and near.

[00:14:37] Perhaps not directly like how we do it naturally, but salvaging the loss that we get, uh, through age. And doctor, can you describe what happens now once that aging lens gets to a certain point?

[00:14:55] So right here on the left hand side, you have what is considered a pretty well focused and normal clear lens. So you can see the light going through the cornea and then going through that crystalline lens and then focusing around the retina properly. As that lens age, in addition to losing ability to focus, It starts to get cloudy, and that’s what we call a cataract, essentially.

[00:15:20] So, uh, if you kind of follow this, uh, process along, you realize that this is where cataracts come from. It’s a, just a linear progression of our eyes aging, going from needing progressives, reading glasses, to developing opacities. And when it becomes severe enough, we call it a cataract. So now would you just describe this procedure that we have to take care of people whose lens is aging, who’s getting less dysfunctional.

[00:15:49] What can we do to help that? Yeah, so an age based problem requires an age based solution, and that solution is called custom lens replacement. So we directly address the root cause of the deterioration of vision, and as that lens really starts to mature, You essentially becomes, uh, it becomes a moving target year after year.

[00:16:11] So, custom lens replacement directly address that by replacing that deteriorating lens with a new synthetic lens. The synthetic lens, can be customized for each individual based on their needs. So if you always had a need for glasses and you never got vision correction until you’re in your 60s, you could have it all corrected alongside with the age related changes with custom lens replacement.

[00:16:36] Uh, the lens itself is ageless so that it’ll never deteriorate or get cloudy again. With the old lens being, uh, being removed, your eyes effectively stops changing in terms of prescription. So you can expect this new lens. to provide you with a correction that lasts you the rest of your life. And, and this may be obvious, but you also will never develop cataract after custom lens replacement.

[00:17:02] So let me bring up a, another, uh, slide up here for you, Dr. Lange. Just give me a moment and you can keep talking about what this, the lens and custom lens replacement. Talk about that, please. Yeah, so there are many different options for, uh, replacement of your own, uh, deteriorating natural lens. And we call these replacements intraocular lenses, or IOLs, um, and there are many different types.

[00:17:32] And all of these have amazing benefits. And also some limitations. And that’s a key thing to understand. You know, there’s no perfect lenses out there, but there are certainly amazing ones that will improve your vision from where you started from, especially if you’re a great candidate and we help navigate with you through all these options, seeing what your needs.

[00:17:55] What your expectations are, uh, and set them realistically for you and telling you, Hey, this will work great for you, but here’s what you need to expect and finding a really good solution that we are confident move forward with. So there’s many, many different types, uh, ranging from, uh, very, very sharp distance vision to a wide range of vision, uh, to ones that are adjustable as well, that we can really fine tune.

[00:18:21] And the, the idea of these different lenses is to fix distance vision, so if they have near sadness or astigmatism, fix the prescription so they have good distance vision, also help people with near vision, and then like Dr. Ling was saying, and also they never develop a cataract, and then that lens is an inanimate object, so since it doesn’t age or change, when he says it’s ageless, that just means you’re arrested right at stage one forever, you never, you never go on to go into the other stages and cataracts.

[00:18:49] And, Dr. Ling, what would you say is the kind of, I’m going to call it success rate, or what percentage of patients are really living their life without glasses after CLR? So, it’s nearly 100%. It’s all about expectation, and it’s all about, uh, what kind of needs you have. So, this technology works. It’s, it’s optics, so, and it’s based on a very well known procedure.

[00:19:12] So, custom lens replacement isn’t a, a, a new procedure that just came out. It is. established upon a traditional procedure called cataract surgery. The idea of cataract surgery and the techniques in some ways is very similar to custom lens replacement. Of course, we have better lens technologies, we have more refined techniques, we have very accurate diagnostics to make the result of custom lens replacement a vision correction procedure, as opposed to just cataract surgery getting rid of cataracts.

[00:19:44] So, Dr. Ling, I know a very common scenario for me will be I’ll see a patient, maybe I did their LASIK treatment 20 years ago. They come back and see me and they say, Hey, Dr. Benny, can you fix it up again? And maybe they did their surgery when they were 40 or 45, but now they’re in their 60s. And I tell them about CLR and, you know, all these things that we’re talking about.

[00:20:05] One of the questions always look at me and they’ll say, LASIK was so easy, but does CLR hurt? Or what’s it like to go through? What do you tell people when they ask about the process? Now, I tell the patients that I see that if they had LASIK, that custom lens replacement is very similar to a LASIK experience.

[00:20:21] It’s approximately 10 minutes for each eye. Again, painless process. We have excellent topical anesthetics for the eyes. We’re looking towards a bright light. You don’t see anything scary or unusual. It’s just a beautiful light show for about ten minutes while you listen to music and then you’re done. And the recovery is also pretty expedient.

[00:20:40] Uh, most people are seeing quite well within 24 or 48 hours. But most people the next day when they wake up, they’re noticing dramatic improvements to their vision. And, uh, most are able to start resuming normal activities within just a few days. Dr. Ling, we’re getting questions about some of the, the lens technologies people are actually mentioning multifocals, or I see the Panoptics and Vivity brands being mentioned in the QA.

[00:21:04] I think the, the question I would ask is how do you decide which lens for which patient? Right? So those are, those lenses you just mentioned now are in, are in part of our offerings, our ARMA moratorium of options for our patients. All these lenses have great pros and cons, you know, certain side effects, certain huge benefits that comes along with it.

[00:21:27] And we have a very advanced diagnostic suite to help each individual figure out which lens is more suitable. There are objective measures that can tell us, okay, well this lens is definitely an ideal choice for you. Or this lens, such as a multifocal lens, may give you some side effects that you may not have expected.

[00:21:46] So, we have all lenses, uh, available to us. We’re a, you know, we’re basically a state of the art facility here, uh, leading in. The United States for vision correction. So all the companies offer their lenses for us to use here. So if there’s a lens you’re interested in, we can absolutely talk about it, but typically we will help guide you, introduce you to lenses that we know works very well for you.

[00:22:12] And it’s interesting because all the time we’ll see people, they might be 18 years old, all the way up to sometimes in their eighties and patients will often say they’ve done tons of research. They’ve looked into this and they’ll say, this is what they want. And they, they want this, they want smile LASIK or they want panoptics or light adjustable lens.

[00:22:28] I guess a lot of the philosophy here, kind of what our, our role is to help people navigate through the process by taking actual measurements, what we call the advanced vision analysis. That’s where we take. a million data points of measurements and the data helps us, kind of informs us. So we know how to guide people along.

[00:22:47] Um, it works out that about 80 percent of the time people are candidates for a procedure and we’ll explain our rationale, but also about 20 percent of time. We’ll say, I, this is probably not going to be a good fit for you. It’s probably preferable to, to, uh, wear glasses or contacts or stick with nothing.

[00:23:00] And so, um, this is a safety first kind of, uh, a company. So when we think we can really add and help and provide value, we’re going to talk about which procedure works well. And if we think it’s not a good fit, sometimes we’ll have to say, let’s just, let’s just pass it at this time. And then sometimes patients will come in with their mind made up and then they start to hear our perspective and our thought process.

[00:23:22] They’ll say, Oh, so a 30 year old who did all the research and wanted to have CLR, maybe it’s more appropriate for them to do laser vision correction. Or a person who’s 68 who had LASIK, they want to do it again. Maybe a CLR procedure is better. Someone’s minus 10. They’ve wanted LASIK their whole life.

[00:23:36] Maybe EVO is a better procedure. And so I really, um, I really started to just believe there’s not any one procedure that’s the best for every single person, but they’re clinical scenarios. And if somebody is farsighted, we might pick something different than a nearsighted person or thin corneas are big.

[00:23:51] All this stuff comes into play. And that’s what, that’s why we do our, our initial consultation. So people can learn about what’s appropriate and they can decide if they want to, um, pursue it further. Dr. Ling, I, I want you just to, uh, kind of restate about, uh, if you have CLR, would you ever need to have cataract surgery in the future?

[00:24:12] No. Uh, custom lens replacement is effectively replacing the need for cataract surgery for you in the future because that lens, that dysfunctional lens we’re replacing, It’s what is going to become a cataract. So if you preemptively treat it, it will never become a cataract since it won’t be there anymore.

[00:24:32] So think of CLR as a proactive preventative procedure in addition to a therapeutic procedure for your vision right now today. And, um, if you’ve, uh, well, if you’ve had CLR, then you, you, you, I’m sorry, if you’ve had cataract surgery, someone’s asking that question, you wouldn’t have CLR, because you, you basically had the cataract procedure.

[00:24:55] Exactly. So, typically, that’s already done. We typically wouldn’t go back to revise it with another lens exchange, so to speak. Um, for some individuals, you know, whose results from cataract surgery was never meant to be a, Uh, a vision correction procedure, so to speak, to get them out of glasses. We have done LASIK for those individuals who have, you know, came in and said, Hey, I had basic cataract surgery.

[00:25:20] Um, that’s what was decided, uh, at the time. But now, I want to see if I can get out of glasses after my cataract surgery. And for some individuals, that’s a viable option. Is it fair to say that if you live long enough, you’ll get cataracts? It is very safe to say that. Yes. It’s, it’s, uh, many people ask, well, is it hereditary when, you know, my, my mom, you know, who lived till she was 90, never had cataract surgery.

[00:25:47] Um, does she have cataracts? She seemed to see pretty well. Um, however, it’s inevitable, inevitable as developing wrinkles and white hairs as we age, when our lens get cloudy. Whether someone choose to or have cataract surgery done is actually just a matter of access to healthcare or they choose to just delay.

[00:26:06] Right, right. And you know, I see a question here that I want to bring up because it really builds on what you said earlier about expectations. It was, so CLR solves all vision issues forever? Question mark. I want you to comment on that so people have the right expectation. Yeah, that’s a very strong statement in terms of like forever, you know, the aging of the eyes is, It’s mostly within that lens itself that’s aging.

[00:26:33] So the reason why lay sleep doesn’t last forever is because our natural lens gradually degrades. Uh, our vision doesn’t stay clear. Uh, you know, for reading, it’s because our lens, which focuses for us, deteriorates. So when we replace that, we fix a lot of the age related changes. However, it doesn’t prevent you from developing, you know, other types of diseases, which are unrelated to age, or some of them are directly related to age, but it’s not because of the natural lens becoming cloudy itself.

[00:27:01] Things like macular degeneration, or if you have diabetes, diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy, you know, those are all many different other types of, uh, conditions, which can affect, Your vision. So when you come in for a consultation, we’re going to do a full analysis, not just for your candidacy, but for the health of your eyes, which plays a big part into your candidacy, uh, for vision correction and tell you that, hey, you have these, uh, conditions that you may not have been aware of and we’ll introduce you to them.

[00:27:30] Or if you don’t have them and we say your risk for developing these are extremely low, then you should have a pretty high, uh, probability that you won’t have any issues, uh, with your vision from those causes. And just to add on to what Dr. Ling said, all the time when people come in for laser vision correction, they’ll say, well, this fixed my vision forever.

[00:27:50] And I always say, well, we’re going to treat all the prescription and basically reset people so they have perfect vision in their 20 20. But then as Joe said, down the road, if someone comes back 15, 20, 25 years later, and they get a little bit of nearsightedness back, it could be fine tuned. LASIK. can be adjusted.

[00:28:07] It just doesn’t block aging. So we, the way I have people think about with a laser, we can remove all the prescription and calibrate people to be 2020, but then if they age and it gets worse, there are ways to fine, fine tune it. And it’s almost the same discussion with, um, with a lens based treatment. We can, we can, We can fix the optics of the eye, but then other conditions can also invariably develop.

[00:28:26] If someone happened to get glaucoma down the road, they would have had that, whether they had CLR or not, but this would just fix the lens problem. And then it doesn’t affect how we treat those other conditions either though. So that can also be adjusted, right? Dr. Bindi, I want to shift gears a little bit because I want you to talk about, about where we do our procedures, kind of the philosophy at Laser Eye Center about how we take care of people.

[00:28:48] Sure. Well, um, the pictures you’re showing the, the one on the left, that’s where we do laser vision correction. And the one on the right, that’s where we do CLR and Evo that more of the lens based treatments. They’re all located in our office, um, in, uh, those two pictures in San Jose, but we can do what’s considered office based surgery at either of our offices.

[00:29:08] And, um, the main concept was after, after seeing our patients who had LASIK, who said it was so quick, easy and painless over the last 20 plus years. Um, we wanted all these lens treatments to be equally as easy for our patients and because patients they just want to see better regardless of the scenario they’re in.

[00:29:27] And so the philosophy is to make all our treatments as easy as LASIK. And so when people come to our office, they’re, uh, they’re generally in our office for maybe an hour, an hour and a half. Um, the, um, everything’s done inside our office. It’s the same staff that they met before. Uh, both eyes are done on the same day, whether it’s a laser treatment or a lens.

[00:29:47] Um, we have people arrange for a ride home, but then the recovery is quick and, and that’s the idea. We just wanted to make this, um, easy, convenient, and not intimidating like it would be going to a hospital with all these new people and being in a gown. We just want this to be like a lacing experience. So.

[00:30:04] And here are a couple patients, uh, right afterwards. Dr. Ben, do you want to comment on that? Uh, sure. So, when people finish, they, um, they’re a little bit relieved, and they’re usually, um, surprised how easy it is. Um, and both of those people, those are within maybe 30 seconds of finishing their, their procedure.

[00:30:24] And then, um, they get it right home, and we see them the next day for a checkup, and then a few other follow ups afterwards. So, with a laser treatment. Usually it’s one day, one month and three months. And with CLR, we add in a one week follow up as well. Um, just to watch the initial, initial healing. Dr. Ling, would you comment on what procedure day is like, whether it’s you’re doing a laser procedure, you’re doing a lens procedure, what’s it like for the patient?

[00:30:46] Does it hurt? If you want to, does it hurt? And how long will, can they see afterwards? All, all these kinds of things. Let’s walk them through that. Yeah. So the procedure for lens based procedures, It’s very similar to LASIK in that there is no synuclein pain associated with the procedure. You may feel eye drops, you may feel light touches, but again, our topical anesthetic drops are extremely effective for reducing any sort of, uh, painful sensations.

[00:31:12] You might feel temperature and things like that, um, but that’s really it. Uh, during that process, You’re not really seeing anything scary or unusual, like we had mentioned before. So you’re kind of dissociated from the actual procedure itself. So the main thing is to create an environment where, uh, a person may not feel too nervous or anxious inside their own head.

[00:31:33] So that’s why office based surgery, It’s such a wonderful option, uh, in which we, we provide for our patients so that you’re in a very familiar environment. You’ve been here before for your consultation, you’re seeing all the familiar faces, there’s no IV, you’re not on a gurney or a gown, that getting rolled around, it’s all very much like you’re getting a minor procedure done and, and it is, it’s an outpatient elective procedure.

[00:31:57] I was going to say about an hour ago, right before this webinar started, I had a patient who came in, she was doing, um, she was doing smile LASIK, but she had pink or she had purple leggings and she had a Prince purple rain t shirt on, and I use purple gloves when I do my surgery, it’s just purple or blue.

[00:32:14] And so that was our quick cue to tell Alexa to play. Purple rain for Prince. And so the patient before she know she knew it. She said, oh my gosh I’m wearing it Prince is my favorite, you know, favorite artist and purple rain was in the background But these are all things we can do just to make it easy and before you know it she was kind of thumping along to the music enjoying the music in a conversation and She was in out of the room in less than 15 minutes And so those are the things that we can do an office based surgery and it’s not really like that if you’re in a hospital I guess on our website.

[00:32:46] Well, we want all of you who want to have an exam come in. But on our website, you can actually take a virtual tour of our facility. And we’re really proud of what we’ve done to really try to make it as great for the patient as the procedure and the, uh, the staff as well. I want the facility to be up to snuff and have invested heavily to try to do that.

[00:33:03] As you can see from some of the pictures here, Dr. Bindi, would you talk about a little bit about Uh, that example you mentioned the advanced vision analysis and why that’s so important. Well, it really provides the, the, um, the, the framework. So we know what to suggest for people. And, and so when we say advanced vision analysis, that’s a bunch of different diagnostic, um, um, equipment tests that we do, including corneal thickness, corneal shape.

[00:33:29] Um, the length of the eye, the appearance of the lens, corneal topography, all these things are, are, um, that’s what provides the tools so we know what to suggest. And so people end up being at our office around an hour or so. Um, most people, most people don’t have to be dilated during the initial screening exam, but then sometimes we’ll say it makes sense to, you know, to do a dilation, but we have ways to do wild wide field retinal imaging even without dilation.

[00:33:56] And then if there’s a clinical reason, we might do that. But through the course of maybe spending an hour with us during the consultation, we can provide a pretty clear, concise Roadmap of what it’s going to take to get someone to see better. And so the consultation is really a meet with Dr. Langer, myself, meet with our doctors to see what’s appropriate after all the measurements.

[00:34:16] Um, and then as they learn about, they usually do have questions. Um, they meet with a patient counsel afterward, if they’re actually looking in to get their vision fixed, uh, more like logistics, the process, the recovery, what to avoid. What to expect, financing, pricing, payment plans. And so that’s all within the process of the consultation.

[00:34:35] And nowadays, a lot of people like to do some of that consultation beforehand, more like a virtual consultation. But eventually they do need to come in for an actual in office consultation. But that’s how we do it here is we provide information either virtual before and then the actual consultation so people can learn what’s going to be appropriate for them.

[00:34:54] Dr. Lang, um, I want to make sure that we cover things like side effects, right? Just generally, you know, generally speaking, you know, what should people expect in terms of side effects? It really depends on the strategy that’s being used for, uh, the procedures. So, uh, for, for laser based vision correction, if we’re, uh, altering, say, the cornea, there can be side effects associated with some temporary dry sensations, and there can also be changes to how lights look at nighttime, because we are changing how lights focus through the eyes and effectively getting people out of glasses.

[00:35:31] Both those things are very well tolerated and At the exam consultation, we evaluate how likely are these things going to be affecting you. And for our purpose of accepting patients for this procedure, we always are looking for people, uh, that may otherwise be intolerant of these. And we’ll say, hey, maybe this alternative procedure may be right for you.

[00:35:55] Um, for lens based procedures, there are less in terms of, um, dry irritations. There can still be some, it depends on the optics of the lenses that we use for lens based vision correction. For ICLs, there can be a little bit halo at nighttime, which is very well tolerated. But again, vision daytime and nighttime is excellent.

[00:36:17] And usually over the course of a few weeks, People stop noticing it, uh, any glares or halos at nighttime. So it’s temporary. The custom lens replacement side effects depends on the type of lenses we use, the strategies. We use many different strategies to help people see far and near. Uh, we always try to demo this option for many patients so they can understand what are the implications of potential side effects.

[00:36:43] Things like monovision, Uh, multifocal lenses, they all have their own unique properties. Um, but again, very well tolerated. No one has really seen worse after their procedure. This is all about improving people’s vision. I think it’s important too, because people come in with, they have a perfectly satisfactory plan, a, I guess, wearing glasses or contacts.

[00:37:08] That’s where all this comes, the safety first business comes into play because We only want to make things better and we don’t, we’re trying to avoid these types of things. And so if we see somebody who has abnormal measurements, that’d probably be someone to not do a procedure on. But, um, I mean, typically when I talk to people, they’ll be like, look, I don’t want to go blind.

[00:37:25] I want to see better. What’s the likelihood of that? And I tell people the common types of symptoms. Dr. Ling talked about this dryness is pretty short term, but with laser vision correction, um, Almost expected for the first month or two, um, infections, one out of 10, 000. So we have people use antibiotic eye drops just to be safe.

[00:37:43] Um, night glare, halos, and star bursting. That’s become pretty uncommon now that the technology has evolved so much. But if somebody has a really large prescription or certain measurements, we can go over like, what is the actual likelihood of that? Um, we’ve never had any go blind or lose vision ever at the laser eye center, but, um, but that’s really, these are what we talk about to risk stratify.

[00:38:04] What’s the likelihood of somebody having an issue like that? And Dr. Bindi, kind of related to that, because there’s people asking questions about, you know, do you treat floaters? Do you do this? And I want you just to talk about our, our very specific narrow niche of what we do and what we don’t do in terms of vision.

[00:38:19] So, um, well, what we specialize in all the, all the versions of modern vision correction. So these are these procedures we’ve been talking about, laser based treatments, so people don’t wear glasses or contacts, EVO ICL and CLR. And Those are vision correction procedures to help people get out of glasses, but we we don’t really do anything other than that.

[00:38:38] So that’s our area of expertise and our, our area of specialty. And then if we see somebody who has other conditions, we’ll refer people to wherever it’s most appropriate. If they have a retina problem. We know retina doctors are local. If they have glaucoma, if they have, you know, pediatric eye conditions, we can refer people, um, to where they’re going to be best treated, but that’s our area of expertise.

[00:38:58] And just since you mentioned floaters, um, floaters are common. I mean, most people, as they move through, you know, about 40 percent of people at the age of 40 will notice some floaters and it rise. So over 60%, once you get to over 60 years old and these procedures, They get people out of glasses, but they’re not necessarily going to fix the floaters.

[00:39:17] There is another field that can actually address floaters if they’re very, very significant. Um, but usually those aren’t addressed surgically unless they’re really problematic. But I’d say floaters, if they have them before surgery, they’ll usually have them after the surgery as well. And we help patients understand that we don’t do routine eye exams.

[00:39:37] We don’t prescribe glasses or cell contact lenses. We only do modern correction, and I love this question here that just came in from Phil. Have all of you had one of these procedures, Dr Bindi? Oh, no, of course. So I had, I had LASIK in this office, uh, 24 years ago at the latest update. My right eye is still 2020.

[00:39:59] This one has 0. 5 prescription, so I’m about 2025 in this eye, but I still have been glasses free for 24 years. Dr. Lange? I had a small LASIK, uh, both eyes. Still rocking. Right. And one of our associate doctors, doctor, well, most of our, I think more than half of our employees have had a procedure, but Dr. Vong has had, which one?

[00:40:20] ICL. ICL. Uh, Renee on our call had CLR with you, Dr. Ling, just, uh, what, a little, a year and a half ago, and now she’s one of our counselors and counseling patients on this. And I had PRK, epilasic PRK, because that was done before LASIK. Yes, it was. 1995. So I’m coming up on my 30th anniversary and, uh, I’ve not worn glasses since.

[00:40:42] So I’m grateful for that. But great question, Phil. Thank you for asking. You know, there was a study that was done that, um, refractive surgeons are about three times more likely to do refractive surgery than the general population. Just showing people who do this every day. They’re confident in it. Dr.

[00:41:00] Benny, there’s been some questions that come up about cost, and it’s okay, I’d like to cover that real quickly. Go for it. So, our laser procedures run about 3, 000 per eye, about 125 per month, and clearly most people have both eyes done. For the ICL, it’s just about 5, 000 per eye, and for CLR, custom lens replacement, that’s just about 7, 000 per eye.

[00:41:24] And the lens procedures are more expensive, they’re cheaper. Also more expensive to perform for us. Um, none of what we do is covered by insurance. Uh, this is all considered elective surgery. This is not disease related as Dr. Bindi and Dr. Ling have mentioned. But we do offer patient financing that, uh, cuts this and it’s no interest financing over two years that puts this into more affordable payments.

[00:41:46] Um, I did mention that while We don’t have insurance coverage of their people who have V. S. P. And we give a credit for that. And also, if someone is diagnosed by Dr. Ling or one of the other doctors to have a cataract, we can and you’re considering C. L. R. We can connect you with a third party reimbursement specialist who, after the fact, will help you get some amount of reimbursement for part of the procedure if it’s done with us.

[00:42:12] But yes, we don’t. We don’t take traditional insurance or have a billing department. Um, Dr. Bindi or Dr. Lin, we have just a couple more minutes. So I just wanted to ask you to make some closing comments. I’m going to put some contact information up on the screen. But Dr. Bindi, what makes Laser Eye Center so special for you?

[00:42:32] What drives you? Uh, well, this has been, the Laser Eye Center has been my home for 20, 25 years, and I was gonna say, um, it’s a special place. I mean, this, when I think of Laser Eye Center, um, I think of the people that I work with every day, and these are people that were, were, were people who love taking care of people.

[00:42:51] These are my friends and my co workers and um, I’m, we’re all pretty aligned into our goal here is to make people have a great experience. Uh, we have fun when we’re at work and the goal here is just people come into the problem and to fix it. So at the Laser Eye Center, we always say What we do is for people who wear glasses and contacts, we provide conservative advice about modern procedures that work.

[00:43:13] So you can simply wake up and see. And after doing this for my career, it’s, it’s been a joy. Dr. Ling, what would you add? Um, I would just add a piggyback off what Dr. Bindi, you know, went over is it’s all about the people, uh, That at the facility and the people that we treat it’s we have a very great team here.

[00:43:33] Everyone is expected to Uh to perform at their highest and they love it, you know, we bring in great people Uh, so teamwork makes the dream work and we just have a great group of people and we’re part of the community here We’re doctor own. We’re not part of a franchise. We’re part of a large medical conglomerate so Uh, dr run dr own and we’re here to stay But we are we are in San Jose and Pleasanton.

[00:44:00] So we are Purely in the Bay Area. We don’t go to other places, but this is where we are. And I was gonna say, so today, this is a Friday and, and Dr. Ling and I doing surgeries today. So this is a day that’s, it’s fun for our staff and it’s fun for patients. And, but what’s even better is tomorrow morning.

[00:44:16] There are a lot of people who are doing their surgery today, they’re going to come in tomorrow and drive to their appointment and say, for the first time I was able to simply wake up and see. And, and that’s really kind of the fun part about all this is people have said, I’ve relied on these things, these glasses or contacts since I was a youngster or whatever.

[00:44:34] And it’s just kind of fun to be a part of this where that whole part of their life goes away and they came in wearing glasses and now they don’t. Well, I echo that. It’s just so much fun being able to help patients, uh, achieve their dreams and goals, and we encourage you if, uh, you’d like to learn more, if you’d like to come in for an exam, please schedule one in either San Jose or Pleasanton.

[00:44:53] Uh, if you’re like, you want questions, you’re not ready to come in for the exam yet, you can set up a virtual consultation, and, uh, Renee, or a member of our team, will be glad to help you and spend some time with you on the phone or Zoom as part of your, uh, training. Learning process and decision process.

[00:45:06] And with that, we just thank you so much for spending time with us. This will be this is being recorded and we will make it available to all of you so that you can watch it again. You can share it with family or friends, and we’re here to help you. So please don’t hesitate to reach out again on behalf of everyone at Laser Eye Center of Silicon Valley.

[00:45:23] Thank you and have a great rest of your day.