Mater Private or Wellington Eye Clinic for Laser Eye Sugery??

Soap MacTavish

Hi I am looking into getting laser eye surgery, From what I have heard the Mater Private and The Wellington Eye Clinic seem to be the best for laser eye surgery, Im not worried about the cost, more so I want to be sure Im with the best possible place and surgeon, I dont want to take chances with my eyes. Does anyone have any experience of these places in particular or perhaps another clinic/hospital? My eysight is -2.75 in both eyes, and I have a time limit of 6 months to have this done, So quick responses would be much appreciated, Thanks

joconnell

Going to the Mater on june 10th for lasek. Professor O'Keefe in there has apparently done more procedures in the country than anyone else (doing it since 1992 apparently?) so I'll happily trust him. I only went in for the assessment last Thursday and I could get an appointment the week after if I wanted. Two friends have gone there to get Lasik done and they had no problems at all.

Soap MacTavish

joconnell wrote: »

Going to the Mater on june 10th for lasek. Professor O'Keefe in there has apparently done more procedures in the country than anyone else (doing it since 1992 apparently?) so I'll happily trust him. I only went in for the assessment last Thursday and I could get an appointment the week after if I wanted. Two friends have gone there to get Lasik done and they had no problems at all.

Thanks Joconnell for the quick reply , I have been looking into the Mater alot and have great things about Professor O'Keefe, heard he was the first in Ireland to do laser eye surgery aswell, I will probaly make an appointment to get a consultation with him as soon as I can, heard there was a 3 week waitng list or something? Thanks for the help definetly think I will go to Mater so, and Best of Luck with your surgery. Would Appreciate if ya let me know how ya got on, Thanks

joconnell

No problem, I'm booked in on the 10th of June, I could have gotten something sooner but I have a few projects to finish off first. Back in the celtic tiger years you'd be waiting months for an appointment! Will definitely report back here, have you been for an assessment to see which type you can get done?

Soap MacTavish

joconnell wrote: »

No problem, I'm booked in on the 10th of June, I could have gotten something sooner but I have a few projects to finish off first. Back in the celtic tiger years you'd be waiting months for an appointment! Will definitely report back here, have you been for an assessment to see which type you can get done?

Thanks, I just booked an assessent with proffessor o keefe today, but earlist date I could get was 29th July it seems, so I'll have to wait and see what kind of surgery he recommends then

joconnell

Change your date on that - the assessment itself is generic so there's no need to only use Prof O'Keefe for that. What they'll do is the following: A doctor will take a rough eyesight test reading first, then second a nurse will put some drops in your eyes to dilate your pupils and also check for tear generation to see if dry eye would be a problem. The nurse will then scan your eye to get it's shape, then a doctor will do another quick eye sight reading. All straight forward stuff that's done by machine so no need for a specific surgeon.

The actual surgery itself is a different story so definitely get O'Keefe for that.

buzz55

Hi, just wondering if you went ahead with the surgery? I had an assessment with Prof O' Keefe at end of July, he recommended Lasek for me. Didn't see any problems in me getting it done.
I'm still mulling it over, it's a BIG THING to take a risk on........gulp......but I think I may take the plunge.

What I'm wondering is if anyone here has gotten one eye done & waited a few months before getting second eye done just to make sure 1st one was ok? I asked Prof this question & he said I could do it that way but might find it difficult to have one good and one bad eye. But surely I could just continue to wear glasses for my 'bad' eye & just have a clear lens in the side of my good ye?

headmaster

I might as well add my piece. I've been told that there is a 50-50 chance of something going wrong, if it goes wrong, nothing can be done to put it right again. I believe this is routinely mentioned during meetings, etc. What can go wrong I don't know, but I also find it strange that no one talks of ever having problems other than the usual bedding in. One would imagine a certain % age not having success, yet we never hear. H'mm, it's not something i would do to my eyes and would I be correct in saying it only lasts a few years, or will we be told that because it only started a few years ago, then it's too early to say. I'm very suspicious of this. The price is mad as well, for something that takes a relatively short time.

Soap MacTavish

buzz55 wrote: »

Hi, just wondering if you went ahead with the surgery? I had an assessment with Prof O' Keefe at end of July, he recommended Lasek for me. Didn't see any problems in me getting it done.
I'm still mulling it over, it's a BIG THING to take a risk on........gulp......but I think I may take the plunge.

What I'm wondering is if anyone here has gotten one eye done & waited a few months before getting second eye done just to make sure 1st one was ok? I asked Prof this question & he said I could do it that way but might find it difficult to have one good and one bad eye. But surely I could just continue to wear glasses for my 'bad' eye & just have a clear lens in the side of my good ye?

Hi I ended up getting the Lasek eye surgery done in the Wellington Eye Clinic in Dublin instead of the Mater in the end as i felt I had more information about the Wellington Eye Clinic and knew they had the newest lasers etc, the surgeon I had was Dr Aurther Cumminigs, I got the LASEK surgery done, the one without the flap. Its almost been 6 weeks since my surgery and I must say the results are amazing, it took a while to heal as expected, but i couldnt recommend it highly enough, I found the wellington eye clinic to be very helpfull and friendly, and are now looking forward to my 6 week check up to see if everythings uo to scratch Good luck if you do end up getting it done

buzz55

Thanks for the update & delighted to hear all is going well for you. Can I ask did you get both eyes done on the same day?
And how many days after the surgery could you see ok/get around/drive/go back to work?

It's lasek I'm recommended for also - how bad is the pain level did you think yourself? I've heard that for the first 3 or 4 days it can be pretty bad.

Soap MacTavish

buzz55 wrote: »

Thanks for the update & delighted to hear all is going well for you. Can I ask did you get both eyes done on the same day?
And how many days after the surgery could you see ok/get around/drive/go back to work?

It's lasek I'm recommended for also - how bad is the pain level did you think yourself? I've heard that for the first 3 or 4 days it can be pretty bad.

Hi Thanks, I got both eyes done on the same day as I wanted them both to heal together and to ghet the pain out of the way all at once, also I have a time limit to have this done by for the Garda Reserves, After the surgery i could see to some degree although not very well, sunglasses are a must there is a glare off everything afterwards. I could see farely well after a week I was up to driving standard i was told, but i waited a bit longer. another thing is with the contact lenses in for a week, its harder to see, but once these are taken out it starts to improve, As for the pain during the surgery you feel nothing, right afterewards it wasnt really sore but when i closed my eyes there was like a burning feeling in my eyes, this lasted for the first day or two, there was once when i woke up on the night of the surgery and i got an intense pain in one eye for a few minutes and it kept watering, but other than that it was bareable i felt that i could manage it with just that intense buring feeling, I just used the pain killers they gave me on the first day. After the cintact lense was taken out on the fifth day my eyes felt extremely gritty but i jut kept my eyes closed for a 3 hour car spin home and it sorted that was i was told to do. Also the eye drops I was told to use hurt for a day or two when used after the lense was taken out, If you using the dry eye drops the day after the lense was taken out, use a small drop at a time, dont pure the whole dropper into the eye as i made that mistake of putting to much in at once and my eye hurt extremely badly for a few minutes, after a few days of the lense out there was little to no pain. Also seeing things up close will be blury for a while but thats only temporary, Hope That Helps, Any other questions just ask me

La Flama Blanca

I just got LASEK done in the Mater a few weeks ago - results are amazing, but the procedure itself was great.

I actually got a consultation done in the Wellington 2 years ago, but didn't feel ready to proceed. I was also waiting around 2hrs for the whole thing, which was hassle. It was quite an impersonal experience.

Then a few months ago I decided I would go again, so I did some Googling and found this forum. Everyone on here recommended the Mater - I read tonnes of topics. Went for a consultation - really liked the vibe & attitude of the staff, and was done in 40mins - was never sitting around waiting like in Wellington - I was always being seen to.
So I decided to proceed, and felt in safe hands all the way through. Procedure itself was fine & aftercare amazing. Prof O'Keefe is some guy - nothing put admiration for him as I found out more about him & how dedicated he is to his field.

So anyway - I went for a consultation in both, and ended up opting for the Mater. I've been in 7 times now in total (2 for op, 5 post-op care) and I've never been waiting more than 5-10mins to be seen to. That's huge for me - I hate going to doc or dentist & waiting 40mins past my appointment time - it's disrespectful, IMO.

I didn't even contemplate any of those places with "Express" in the name - it wasn't about getting it done cheap.... "Buy one, get the 2nd half price on all eyes - this week only!!" wasn't an offer that made me feel comfortable. The price shouldn't be the main selling point in such an important procedure - the quality should.

Milltrix

Has anyone had repeat surgery? I had lasek two years ago and notice a significant deterioration especially reading etc ... although to be expected at my age. My eyes might be suitable to have one corrected now for near vision. Anyone out there with experience of that they'd like to share?
Thanks

buzz55

Thanks for the feedback, more to think about!

I would not plan to get both eyes done at the same time, may even leave it a few months in between to be absolutely certain that the first eye was ok.

How did you psych yourself up for doing this? I'm really stuck on the whole risk side of it, what if I end up worse off than I am now? (at least I can wear glasses or lenses now). I know everyone is different & everyone heals differently, so I'm not expecting anyone to tell me to go ahead, just wondering how worried you were about it is all.

Sounds like I would need to allow around 10 days after the op before I'd be able to drive/get to work etc., would that be about right?

The annoying part is that either of the clinics in Dublin are a 3 hour journey away from where I live, but they do seem to have the best reputation.

My head is fried thinking about it & trying to decide whether to just get it done or to forget about it and just get used to my glasses

Soap MacTavish

buzz55 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback, more to think about!

I would not plan to get both eyes done at the same time, may even leave it a few months in between to be absolutely certain that the first eye was ok.

How did you psych yourself up for doing this? I'm really stuck on the whole risk side of it, what if I end up worse off than I am now? (at least I can wear glasses or lenses now). I know everyone is different & everyone heals differently, so I'm not expecting anyone to tell me to go ahead, just wondering how worried you were about it is all.

Sounds like I would need to allow around 10 days after the op before I'd be able to drive/get to work etc., would that be about right?

The annoying part is that either of the clinics in Dublin are a 3 hour journey away from where I live, but they do seem to have the best reputation.

My head is fried thinking about it & trying to decide whether to just get it done or to forget about it and just get used to my glasses

I wasnt too worried about the risk as I really had to get it done for the Gardai which is my dream job, and after talking with the surgeon he told me there was less than 1% risk in my case and it wouldnt be anything serious. I would say about 10 days would be alright but its different for everyone to be honest. Im 3 hours away from the dublin clinics aswell but i said to myself its best to get the best people to do it for such an important operation, didnt want to take any chances. Its a tough choice to make alright.