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Could LASIK Lead to 'Permanent Vision Problems'?
ABC News ^ | 9/22/10 | Kim Carollo

Posted on 09/22/2010 1:08:07 PM PDT by Nachum

A former Food and Drug Administration official who helped get the vision correction surgery LASIK approved back in the 1990s but later spoke out against the procedure is taking his concerns directly to current regulators at the FDA.

Morris Waxler, who is now an independent regulatory consultant, filed a citizens petition today urging the agency to take steps to stop what he calls "the epidemic of permanent vision problems" caused by LASIK.

Waxler's petition implores the FDA to take actions to crack down on the procedure, including issuing a public health advisory that warns the public about the dangers associated with LASIK and implementing stricter controls over LASIK device manufacturers and practitioners who perform the surgery.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: could; lasik; permanent; problems
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To: EyeGuy
One of the best kept secrets in eye care, is that regular overnight wear of modern soft contact lenses is, with the proper lenses and regular quality professional care, a very safe alternative.

I much prefer the daily disposables and suspect they're even safer. I make my living with my eyes and don't care to have them carved up by laser beams.

41 posted on 09/22/2010 1:45:12 PM PDT by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order)
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To: SeekAndFind
the price of LASIK procedure per eye has DROPPED by over 100% because of increasing competition.

Day-um. We been missin out on FREE LASIK? Shoot!

42 posted on 09/22/2010 1:47:11 PM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Islam is a violent and tyrannical political ideology and has nothing to do with "religion".)
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To: ccmay

“I much prefer the daily disposables and suspect they’re even safer.”

####

They do enjoy the large advantage of a fresh lesn substrate in contact with the corneal surface daily.

However, the latest technological advances in lenses (oxygen permeability, deposit resistance, and water content stability) are to be found largely, in one month replacement lenses.


43 posted on 09/22/2010 1:49:36 PM PDT by EyeGuy
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To: SeekAndFind
I can’t be him, I am just stating history, the link you provided has him trying to predict the future (wrongly of course ).

Dude, neither in the past nor in the future will you be able to reduce ANYTHING by more than 100%. It's like getting decimated to the last man.

44 posted on 09/22/2010 1:52:44 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: Newton
My husband had it done in 2002, he went from needing glasses/contacts all the time, - unable to see distance - to not needing them at all, to just needing reading glasses (apparently we still need for the discovery of age reversal for that to be fixed ;-) )

Yep, I'll be going down that road in another ten years or so.

45 posted on 09/22/2010 1:55:09 PM PDT by xjcsa (Ridiculing the ridiculous since the day I was born.)
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel
Day-um. We been missin out on FREE LASIK? Shoot!

No, no. THEY pay YOU!

46 posted on 09/22/2010 1:55:55 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: CodeToad

“In my mid 40s and I still don’t need reading glasses. I couldn’t be happier.”
Oh yes, there I was.
Perfect vision after wearing contacts for 28 years. They told me I would need reading glasses, Ha I laughed......
Now as I close in on 47 I have excellent distance vision, better than 20/20. But the loss of near vision is terrible.
But I would have had that anyway.......


47 posted on 09/22/2010 1:56:11 PM PDT by 9422WMR (Illegal is not a race)
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To: donozark
Why not? Nothing was said to me at the time by either the doctor who tested my vision (as a pre req for the surgery) or by the doctor who performed it to suggest unusually bad vision was a reason for *not* performing the procedure.

There was a time (early 1980s)when I was told my nearsightedness was so bad I'd have to wear hard contacts all my life and could never upgrade to softs . They said the curvature of my corneas was such that the lenses would bend to fit and distort my vision. But I switched from hards to rigid gas perms in the early 1990s and then to softs in the late 1990s, and none of the doctors involved seemed to think there was any reason not to.

Going from 20/925 (split the difference) to 20/15 in a matter of minutes...There are just no words for what a difference that made in my life. Best $3000 I ever spent!

48 posted on 09/22/2010 1:58:53 PM PDT by kaylar (It's MARTIAL law. Not marshal(l) or marital! This has been a spelling PSA. PS Secede not succeed)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

I have also wondered about how LASIK affects vision as one gets older and the cornea naturally begins to thin somewhat.


49 posted on 09/22/2010 1:59:14 PM PDT by fightinJAG (Step away from the toilet. Let the housing market flush.)
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To: Nachum

bump


50 posted on 09/22/2010 1:59:52 PM PDT by GOPJ (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2589165/posts)
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To: SeekAndFind
...has DROPPED by over 100% because of increasing competition.

Err....? So you mean it's free...? Me thinks your math needs some work...

51 posted on 09/22/2010 2:01:30 PM PDT by Freeport (The proper application of high explosives will remove all obstacles.)
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To: Reeses

“Unlike Lasik a contacts prescription can easily be changed over the years. While the odds are good with surgery, the cost of failure is off the charts. For conservative me, no thanks.”

#####

This is an interesting phenomenon, I have to deal with nearly every day.

Lasik does not in any way slow down or stop natural changes, that tend to accelerate with age, in one’s prescription.

Yet patients who have undergone the expense and often the angst involved in Lasik surgery, are suddenly willing to accept compromises in their vision that they would never have considered acceptable with spectacle or contact lens correction.

With Lasik outcomes, there is a huge amount of the self-fulfilling prophecy phenomenon.


52 posted on 09/22/2010 2:02:11 PM PDT by EyeGuy
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To: SeekAndFind

“the price of LASIK procedure per eye has DROPPED by over 100%”

You mean THEY pay YOU now to have it done? I think maybe you mean that it’s dropped by over 50%?


53 posted on 09/22/2010 2:02:17 PM PDT by -YYZ- (Strong like bull, smart like ox.)
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To: Nachum

This, from the agency that has put DIY abortion into the hands of mothers?


54 posted on 09/22/2010 2:02:43 PM PDT by anniegetyourgun
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To: kaylar

I was that extremely nearsighted also, and the radial keratotomy my eye surgeon did 15 years ago gave me perfect vision.

To me, it’s a miracle. I’m still thrilled to wake up in the dark, and be able to see the time without hunting up my glasses. Goodbye contact lenses, glasses, prescription sunglasses, reading glasses, solution, etc. etc.


55 posted on 09/22/2010 2:03:41 PM PDT by Judith Anne (Holy Mary, Mother of God, please pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.)
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To: CodeToad
I can see the sex of a mesquito at 10 feet.

Though I'm not sure what a mesquito is, since you used the singular, rather than the plural, you must be talking about one of those mesquitos masturbating.

We don't need to know any more about this, thank you very much.

;-)

56 posted on 09/22/2010 2:04:15 PM PDT by savedbygrace (But God.)
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To: Slyfox
Floaters are caused by the eyes aging and would not be caused by Lasik.

Not true. I got one immediately following my Lasik back in 2000. Wasn't there before the procedure, been there ever since.

57 posted on 09/22/2010 2:05:05 PM PDT by al_c (http://www.blowoutcongress.com)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

I had the “Eagle Eye” version of this done in my right eye about 5 years ago -— which had become legally blind.

I am now 20/5 in that eye. (In other words, I see as well at 20 feet what a typical person sees at 5.)

Best medical procedure I’ve done.


58 posted on 09/22/2010 2:05:12 PM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (Nothing to see here. Move along.)
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To: -YYZ-

RE: You mean THEY pay YOU now to have it done? I think maybe you mean that it’s dropped by over 50%?


I just realized it was a typo, unfortunately, FR does not have the tools for you to correct it.

But yes, the drop in price is MORE than 50%. I remember it was $4000 per eye at its early commercialization. Now I believe there are some places that charge less than $2000.


59 posted on 09/22/2010 2:05:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: donozark

My ophth surgeon said, “The worse the vision, the happier the customer with the results.”

I was wearing contacts AND glasses at the same time.


60 posted on 09/22/2010 2:05:36 PM PDT by Judith Anne (Holy Mary, Mother of God, please pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.)
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