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| - I give the BDPEC facility three stars because, while I am sure you can go here and get great results, the surgery they recommend for you may be in their best interest but not necessarily yours, the patient's. As a patient myself, I would like to help out fellow patients with a little insight I received during my shopping experience.
My consult resulted in a 'prescription' for PRK - one eye was too unstable for LASIK, according to BDPEC. However, I shopped around and a competitor said I was a great candidate for LASIK. I questioned this, as BDPEC said this was not the case - but the actual surgeon I met with said I would be fine. Ultimately I chose the competitor for LASIK.
After much digging and personal research, I found that there are many things that can disqualify you for LASIK at BDPEC. They have a tighter set of qualifications. This can be great for people who actually qualify for LASIK there because 1) they are so conservative with risk that your surgery will probably go completely hitch-free and 2) their price for LASIK is actually pretty great. The problem comes in if you DON'T qualify for LASIK. They won't volunteer the information that their guidelines for 'prescribing' surgery are strict - they'll just tell you that you don't qualify. And if you don't shop around or if it's the first place you go, you'll probably just believe it! It was only after I went to the competitor and started asking more pointed questions (such as, 'What exactly is it about my cornea that disqualified me?' and How did you arrive at that conclusion?') that I was given the answers I needed in order to make the best decision for myself.
I am now three days post-surgery from LASIK with the competitor. I did have a complication in the eye (the same eye that was flagged at BDPEC, which may or may not have actually been what they were actually concerned about. BDPEC had said I was at more risk for halos and starbursts, while the complication was that my eye dried out during my post-surgery nap and I dislocated the flap when I opened my eye - which turns out is frightening and not terribly comfortable, but also not the end of the world, at least not for me). However, the complication was easily solved during my next-day follow up when my surgeon just re-wet the corneal flap, laid it flat again and put a contact over top for me to wear through the weekend. It was removed today and I am quite pleased. Instead of having both eyes in discomfort and blurred with temporary contacts through tomorrow (as would have been the case with PRK) and the slower-to-realize results of PRK had I gone to BDPEC, I am now the happy, comfortable owner of great vision - on my own terms. I also think I will be getting a better ultimate result in vision from my procedure, as I had Custom LASIK instead of PRK (custom LASIK uses a laser that corrects more finite errors in refraction than the laser used in PRK or regular LASIK. I liken this to the difference between Zeiss eyeglass lenses and regular eyeglass lenses...when I was in eyeglasses, the step up in vision to Zeiss lenses was incredible and worth the extra cost).
As I said at the start of this review, I give BDPEC three stars because I am certain they provide fantastic results to the folks who qualify for LASIK. I am even certain that their PRK results would be great. However, I take issue with the fact that they will disqualify you from LASIK very easily - and won't be particularly transparent about why and won't tell you that other places might be able to treat you with the surgery you want. I suggest going to BDPEC and listen to what they have to say. You won't be meeting with the surgeon, but you'll meet with an optometrist and your surgery plan will be reviewed by a surgeon prior to your surgery date. If the optometrist says you can have LASIK, you'll probably be very happy - I am confident that they won't treat you unless your surgery will be an easy one (but do your own research on LASIK vs Custom LASIK, because they just have regular LASIK). However, if you don't qualify, make sure you ask why so you can shop around and see if other docs are capable of accommodating you. They will not offer this information voluntarily - you need to ask, and you need to ask very specifically. I just hate to think of myself having gone through PRK because that's all my eye could supposedly handle, and later find out I could have had the surgery I really wanted if I had been more informed and shopped around a bit. A friend of a friend just had PRK done (not sure where) and is still in pain two weeks later and 'wouldn't recommend it to anyone'...supposedly her eyes were 'too bad' for LASIK and I can't help but wonder if she could have had LASIK if she had just gone somewhere else. Thus, I feel I must share my experience and insight for the sake of other patients.
Best wishes to all in the quest for great vision! And, as with any surgery, always remember to get AT LEAST a second (maybe even third) opinion
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