Nobody can tell you that from an advertisement. It is decided by corneal measurements and a stable prescription, in an exam room. We match Utah patients with surgeons who do that evaluation properly — and we are a referral line, not a clinic.
Corneal thickness, corneal shape, pupil size in dim light, tear film, and whether your prescription has held still. That is the conversation worth having first.
Five approaches to correcting vision surgically. Which one is even available to you is a question the evaluation answers, not you.
A thin flap is raised in the cornea, the tissue underneath is reshaped, and the flap is laid back down. The appeal is the recovery pattern rather than anything about the end result.
Learn more →Often the recommendation when the cornea is thin, the shape is borderline, or your work carries a real risk of impact to the eye. Slower to recover, and frequently the more conservative choice.
Learn more →A newer corneal approach with a smaller incision than a flap procedure. The range of prescriptions it can treat is narrower, so the evaluation decides whether it is on the table for you at all.
Learn more →Often the route discussed when a prescription is too high or a cornea too thin for laser correction. This is intraocular surgery, and the risk conversation is a different one.
Learn more →Usually discussed with people past their mid-forties, particularly with high farsightedness. The natural lens does not go back in, so this is a decision to take slowly.
Learn more →Three steps, and the one that decides anything happens in an exam room, not here.
Roughly your prescription, whether you have been evaluated before, and where you would like to be seen. We do not need your medical records and we do not ask for them.
One that performs the kind of correction you asked about, and close enough that attending follow-up visits is realistic. Follow-up is the part people underweight when they choose on drive time to the first appointment.
You go in, you get measured, and you find out. Some people are told they are not candidates. A practice willing to tell you that has told you something useful about how it operates.
Refractive surgery is almost always priced in tiers, and the figure in the advertisement is the bottom one. That tier typically covers the mildest prescriptions, often with little or no astigmatism, and sometimes only the older and simpler treatment approaches. It is a real price. It is just not a price many of the people reading the ad will be quoted, because a person with a mild prescription and no astigmatism is generally the person least motivated to look into surgery in the first place.
None of that is a scandal, but it does change what you should ask. Find out whether a quoted number is per eye or for both. Find out what it includes: the candidacy evaluation itself, the follow-up visits, and any enhancement later — and if enhancements are included, for how long and under what conditions. Ask what a re-treatment costs if you fall outside that window. Get the answers in writing before you book, not after, and treat a same-day discount that expires when you walk out as a reason to go home and think.
Clinics compete on equipment because equipment is easy to advertise. It is the wrong thing to shop on. The systems in routine commercial use are all capable of doing the job they are approved for, and the variable that separates a good outcome from a bad one is not which machine sat in the room. It is whether you should have had the procedure at all, and which one, and that is decided by the screening.
A proper evaluation maps the shape of your cornea, measures its thickness, checks your pupil size in dim light, looks at your tear film, and confirms your prescription has actually held still for a meaningful stretch. The point of all of it is to catch the people who should not be treated — an irregular corneal shape, a cornea too thin for the correction being asked of it, dryness severe enough that surgery would make a bad situation worse. That screening, not the laser, is what you are really buying. So ask who performs the measurements, whether the surgeon reviews them with you personally, who you will see at each follow-up visit, and what happens if something turns up that rules you out.
Salt Lake, Utah, Davis and Weber counties.
No to the first and no to the second. LASIK 801 is a referral service. We connect Utah patients with eye surgeons and refractive practices, and we do not perform procedures, provide eye care, or give medical advice. There is no charge to be matched. What any procedure costs is set by the practice you end up seeing, and you should get that quote from them in writing.
The common ones are a prescription that is still changing, a cornea that is too thin or irregularly shaped for the correction needed, dry eye severe enough that surgery would worsen it, and certain medical conditions and medications. Pregnancy and nursing are usually a timing issue rather than a permanent answer. Some findings rule out laser correction but leave lens-based options open. None of this can be settled without measurements, which is why the evaluation exists.
That is not something anyone should promise you, and we will not. Plenty of people reduce their dependence on glasses considerably. Reading glasses for close work still arrive with age regardless of what was done to your cornea, some people need correction for particular tasks such as night driving, and results vary by person and by starting prescription. Ask the surgeon what they expect in your specific case and what they would consider a disappointing outcome.
Because we do not set the price and quoting one would be inventing a number. Refractive surgery is generally priced in tiers by how much correction is needed and which approach is used, so the figure in an advertisement is the entry tier rather than a typical quote. When you get a real number, ask whether it is per eye or for both, and whether it includes the evaluation, the follow-up visits, and any enhancement later.
Sometimes yes, and a clear no from a surgeon who examined you is worth respecting. But thresholds and available procedures do differ between practices, and someone ruled out for a corneal procedure may still be a candidate for a lens-based one. A second evaluation is reasonable — take your measurements and records from the first one with you, and be honest with the second surgeon about what you were already told.
Tell us what you are considering and we will match you with a practice that will measure your eyes and give you a straight answer.
Request a ReferralA rough idea is plenty — we will follow up to match you with a practice.