Las Vegas Eye Institute is dedicated to providing the highest quality of care in the Las Vegas Valley.

Enhancements of all procedures (Wavefront Guided if appropriate) for the first 2 years if needed (generally enhancements are not needed due to high accuracy of the iDesign 2.0 platform)

PRK Procedures with advanced alcohol assisted epithelium removal and MMC placement

Punctal plug placement if indicated (permanent or 3 month or 6 month dissolvable) to alleviate temporary eye dryness

At Las Vegas Eye Institute, Custom LASIK is included with each LASIK procedure at no additional cost. With Custom LASIK, specific data points unique to your eyes are taken into consideration when planning your LASIK procedure. Small abnormalities in your eyes are measured with the advanced technological device called the iDesign 2.0. The iDesign 2.0 was FDA approved in 2018 and can capture over 1,200 data points to design your LASIK treatment while older technology can only capture about 250. With this device, treatments are customized to patients individual eyes and provide better visual results than that offered by older technology.

You will notice that at Las Vegas Eye Institue, Dr. Swanic does not offer LASIK procedures that are performed with a blade (known as a microkeratome). Although the microkeratome is an excellent device that Dr. Swanic previously utilized, he feels that with recent advances in technology, the new Visumax femtosecond platform which is a bladeless, all-laser platform, provides for a significant improvement in the safety of LASIK. The Visumax platform, in particular, is also remarkable in that the flap thickness can be programmed to any depth that Dr. Swanic customizes for your case and it is accurate to a 3-micron standard deviation. This means that most flaps should be within 3 microns of target and nearly all flaps should be within 10 microns of target. To give you a frame of reference one strand of human hair is 75 microns in thickness. The accuracy of modern all-laser LASIK is truly marvelous.

Some patients may experience a temporary period of eye dryness that can make vision initially slightly less clear than targeted or provide mild discomfort in the weeks following the LASIK procedure. The good news is that at Las Vegas Eye Institute, we treat your case according to your individual needs and provide punctal occlusion at no additional cost if we find that it may be helpful after the procedure. Prior to Dr. Swanic starting his own ophthalmology practice in 2013, he worked at other ophthalmology practices where patients are told to pay for punctal occlusion at the time they sign up for their LASIK procedure as an add-on to the initial LASIK cost. We do not do this at Las Vegas Eye Institute because this is not necessary for many patients and it is not easy to predict prior to the LASIK procedure who will need this service. Regardless, patients of Las Vegas Eye Institute can rest assured that punctal occlusion, if necessary, is an included portion of your procedure. Some patients may benefit from very short-acting plugs that dissolve in 3 months or 6 months. These are simple to place and you will not feel them at all. Dr. Swanic also utilizes permanent plugs that are made of silicone, but we don’t use them often for our LASIK patients. The reason is that the dryness of LASIK is temporary and is usually fully resolved by 6 months. Also, permanent plugs can be felt by a small percentage of patients after placement for about the first week, so we would prefer to only use them for patients that really need them.

Our treatments all include 2 years of LASIK enhancements if needed. Fortunately, with the new Visx iDesign 2.0 platform our current enhancement rate is well under 5%. Again we feel asking patients to pay for some form of “assurance” enhancement package doesn’t make sense because the vast majority of patients will never need it. Ultimately, when choosing the right doctor to perform your LASIK surgery, finding the right surgeon is more important than price. Dr. Swanic completed his ophthalmology residency at Tufts, his refractive surgery fellowship at UCLA and is dedicated to providing the highest and most technologically advanced level of care to all his patients.

What is the LASIK Provider’s Cost to Perform LASIK?

There are several components of the LASIK provider’s cost to perform LASIK that this article will explain:

The cost of the Femtosecond laser (the laser that creates the flap)

The cost of the Excimer laser (the laser that reshapes the cornea)

“Click fees” paid to the laser manufacturer for each of the above

The cost of the surgeon (and his/her years of training)

The cost of the postoperative care

The cost to run the practice and including overhead and marketing expenses

What is the Cost of a Femtosecond LASIK Laser in 2019?

This is not a simple question to answer since laser prices vary significantly with each manufacturer. In the United States, there are 3 major manufacturers of the Femtosecond lasers that are utilized to create a flap in the cornea prior to reshaping the cornea during LASIK. The three major manufacturers are:

J&J Intralase

Zimmer LDV

Carl Zeiss Visumax

Each of these lasers cost approximately $200,000 to $400,000 depending on their features and capabilities. What many people don’t realize is that the purchase of the laser itself does not include the fees a surgeon must pay to actually use the laser on a patient. The manufacturers of Femtosecond lasers charge click fees that are often referred to as “patient interface” fees which typically range between $150 to $200 PER EYE each and every time the laser is used. Therefore, for two eyes, the cost in click fees just to create the flaps is $300 on the low end.

What is the Cost of an Excimer LASIK Laser in 2019?

After the flap is created by the Femtosecond laser, an Excimer laser will then be used to reshape the cornea and correct your vision. The big LASIK laser manufacturers in the United States charge well over $100,000 for an Excimer laser. The typical range is between $150,000 at the low end to nearly $300,000 at the high end. The manufacturers of the Excimer lasers (except for the Nidek laser which is not commonly used today) also charge a click fee each and every time the laser is used. The click fee charged by most modern laser manufacturers is between $200 and $300 dollars PER EYE. Excimer lasers also are true LASERs (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) which create ultraviolet energy by exciting Argon and Fluorine gas. This gas that is used to operate the lasers typically costs ver $1,000 per tank and needs constant replacement. Even disregarding the cost of the gas to operate the laser, the total cost in click fees alone to operate the femtosecond laser to create the flap and Excimer laser to reshape the cornea totals approximately $350 per eye ($150 for flap creation + $200 for Excimer laser), and $700 for both eyes, on the low end. So when you see an advertisement for LASIK for $299 per eye, it is highly unlikely that $299 per eye is what you will be actually paying since at that price, a practice would probably lose money on each and every case performed.