Icon Lasik

A little bit about the facility where I performed my LASIK eye surgery.

Icon is probably the cheapest LASIK facility in Denver. But that is not the reason that I chose it as the place where I would get my LASIK done (it was definitely the final nail in the coffin).

Icon has at its disposal multiple Lasik technologies - VISX Star 4 custom wavefront laser, the NIDEK EC5000 eye tracker, and the Intralase bladeless lasik system. This allows the doctor to recommend the best machine suited for your prescription instead of prescribing the only machine he might have to correct your prescription. In addition - the doctors are available to talk to you at all times. Dr. Rick Anderson is the person you will be in touch with most of the time, but if you ever needed to - you could talk to the eye surgeon who will perform the procedure - Dr. Timothy Christianson too. A doctor is available at all times and so you can talk to them about your concerns and questions up until the day that you will be performing the surgery. The staff at the facility is also very nice and hospitable.

A word about the Nidek Lasik Machine:

If you go to many of the other LASIK facilities around Denver and ask them about the Nidek machine - they immediately tell you that its not a good device and that it is often used against FDA recommendations. It is important to realize that the Nidek machine is extremely popular all over the world. It is just not the most popular machine in the U.S. And about the use of the machine against FDA recommendations - which is categorized as "Off-label" usage, all doctors do that with almost anything that is used on or in your body - even medication. It just means that the FDA hasn't verified the usage of the machine for certain prescriptions or in certain modes. Icon Lasik has performed over 60,000 procedures and its doctors know the limitations of their machines very well. The recommendation to go with a certain machine - definitely seems to come from their experience gained over these thousands of procedures.

In addition, Icon will tell you when the NIDEK is not for you and it would be better to use the VISX machine or one of the other technologies to perform the procedure. From my understanding - the VISX needs to remove less of the tissue and hence is suited better for those with thinner corneas. In addition it is good for those with high levels of astigmatism - cylinders. - warning - that was not a scientific explanation. You can ask the doctors at Icon as to why they recommended a certain machine over another - and they will be more than happy to answer your questions. (I had a similar question - wondering why I was asked to use the Nidek over the Visx machine - especially after doctors at a different facility scared me about the Nidek's results - which Dr. Rick Anderson answered and I was sure that Nidek would be great for me - saving me around $400 per eye).

Useful information:

NIDEK Clinical Study Results: http://icondenver.com/nidek-better-than-wavefront.html

Information on "Wavefront vs NIDEK" and "Intralase bladeless lasik vs Microkeratome" and "LASIK vs LASEK": http://icondenver.com/wavefront-intralase.html

Wavefront Results: http://icondenver.com/wavefront-results.html

Advantages of ICON: http://icondenver.com/advantages.html

All my posts on LASIK: http://blog.aggregatedintelligence.com/search/label/LASIK