Step #1 to Getting Rid of Glasses Webinar

[00:00:00] Welcome. Welcome to this first step in learning how you can be free of glasses and contact lenses. My name is Shareef Mahdavi. I’m the chief experience officer for the Laser Eye Center of Silicon Valley, and I’m so pleased today to have with me Dr. Craig Bindi, Dr. Joseph Ling, and Renee, all from the Laser Eye Center, and we’re going to be helping guide you through this educational process.

[00:00:27] Um, you know, this webinar is all about helping you learn what happens to your eyes, especially as you age, as we get older, and we’re going to cover four main topics. We’re going to talk about custom lens replacement. We’re going to talk about how CLR and LASIK are similar and different from one another.

[00:00:45] Uh, we’re gonna talk about recovery and what procedure day is like, and we’ll get into cost insurance, uh, before the end of the webinar. But But first, Dr. Bindi, I wanted to, uh, just turn it over to you. And can you describe, because most people are familiar with LASIK, can you describe how LASIK works? And then can you talk a little bit about how it’s similar and different from this custom lens replacement procedure?

[00:01:07] Uh, sure. And, and first of all, Shareef, welcome to everybody. But I’d also like to say, uh, welcome. Thanks for taking time out of your Your busy day and to learn about what we do here every day to help, uh, to help people see better. Okay? So, um, so most people have heard of the word of LASIK. It’s interesting because if somebody’s trying to learn about what’s the difference between a procedure we’re going to talk about today, CLR, I always start off just thinking of what they have in common and what they, what they have in common is the goal is the exact same.

[00:01:37] It’s so people can wake up and see they don’t need to wear glasses and contacts to do all the things they love to do. And, um, we use different procedures, different instruments, and there are different scenarios where we might pick. a laser treatment versus a lens treatment. But as an example, I’ll begin with LASIK.

[00:01:54] LASIK is what I’ve, um, that’s been my main interest throughout my entire career. And LASIK is a procedure where we use a laser, the laser is able to reshape the cornea and it fixes prescription. So if somebody comes in to see me and they wear. prescription glasses or contacts. Let’s say they have near sightedness or astigmatism or even far sightedness.

[00:02:14] Um, we can fix the prescription with a laser by reshaping the cornea. And then people don’t need to wear prescription glasses or contacts. Um, the plot thickens though, as people move through their forties and fifties and sixties. Um, I’m sure a lot of people on this webinar can, they can relate to something changes.

[00:02:31] And, and usually people will say it’s subtle, but they’ll notice it’s getting more difficult to see a menu or their cell phone’s not as clear. Or you’ll see them holding things farther away. They get this gesture where they can’t hold things as close as they used to. And it’s because there’s an age related change.

[00:02:46] And if somebody had LASIK a long time ago, or if they wear glasses or contacts, none of these block the aging process. And as people move through their forties, fifties, and sixties, There’s an internal lens in our eye, it becomes less flexible, it gets difficult to see up close, and that’s when near vision gets worse.

[00:03:03] And so, CLR is a procedure, custom lens replacement, is a procedure that can fix this problem. And it, it does it by going right at the problem. It fixes the dysfunctional aging lens, uh, so people don’t need readers. Bifocals, progressives, and um, so we’ll be talking a lot about CLR. Invariably, some people say, well, which one’s better?

[00:03:25] Is LASIK better or CLR? Doc, give me the answer. And, and what we try to have people learn and understand in our offices, that’s what Dr. and Dr. Ling and I, Help people understand every day. Is there scenarios where one might work better than the other? And sometimes there’s some overlap and we can go over some of the nuances of that.

[00:03:43] Um, Dr. Ling, since your area of expertise is, is CLR and, uh, these lens treatments. Can you talk a little bit about, uh, CLR and what it does? Yes, Dr. Bindi put it perfectly in which that custom lens replacement is a procedure that addresses the aging component of the eye as well as correcting vision. LASIK is also an excellent procedure, however, it doesn’t directly address the aging component of the eyes.

[00:04:10] So you could largely look at it stratified by age as well, but there’s, again, a gray zone like Dr. Bindi referred to. So for folks who started to notice that their eyes, uh, have started to change, in terms of maybe graduating from regular glasses to progressives, or you’ve never worn glasses before and suddenly started needing reading glasses, that’s anthat’s an age related change that you’re experiencing right there.

[00:04:35] And typical time of onset is around your mid 40s. And sometimes you’ll just kind of, uh, tough it out, you’ll hold it, hold things a little further or you use a little bit of reading glass to get by. But again, this is a, an inevitable, progressive, intractable process, um, which is aging. So, let’s talk about the anatomy here, and I see that Cherie has brought up the anatomy of the eye.

[00:04:58] The aging component of the eye, luckily, really is, is focused at the lens structure here. Everything else about your eye stays pretty stable. The cornea, the shape of the sclera, but really just the internal lens, that’s what’s aging. This lens works really well. And what Shareef is showing us is this lens refocusing.

[00:05:17] It can stretch, it can refocus for up close. And we can refocus for distance as well, but as that lens starts to age, it really, uh, loses ability to do that as easily, and that’s when the need for glasses, readers, progressives, bifocals starts to increase. Now, you can, of course, address those with glasses,

[00:05:43] or our intolerant of contact lenses. Lens replacement and you can also, uh, come in and see if LASIK makes sense for you are both options in terms of addressing the need for glasses. But aging components here is really just lens replacement that we’re gonna be looking at. So Dr. Lanza put up this other image here, which is just a full side view.

[00:06:05] of the anatomy of the eye. Uh, again, talk a little bit about what we do with custom lens replacement. What are we, what are we replacing? So, let’s look at custom lens replacement in, in all its benefit in a nutshell and I can explain it, what we’re doing and all kind of come together. So, when we do custom lens replacement, we’re replacing the aging lens.

[00:06:25] So that lens structure there that you have in front of you, it looks pretty clear. That looks like a 20 year old lens, okay? But as we age, it’s gonna start getting cloudy. And on the right hand side of this page, you see that that’s an aging lens. And what happens is you lose the ability to focus and light becomes scattered as that lens also becomes cloudy.

[00:06:45] So this lens is ultimately what become known as a cataract, and it’s a gradual progressive process here. So we want to replace this degenerating lens with a synthetic lens. And when you do that, many great things happen. So number one, we replace the cloudy lens that scatters light with a clear one that doesn’t scatter light.

[00:07:06] So the quality of your vision, both in terms of clarity, contrast, color, I have patients that says, wow, I’ve never seen blue this blue before, or I never thought my bathroom wall is actually white, not, I thought it was beige. So all these interesting things happen. And that’s just benefit number one, you get better optics.

[00:07:26] Number two is this synthetic lens has a power built into it that’s customized for you. That’s why we call it custom lens replacement. The customized synthetic lens that has a proper prescription help you see far, or help you see near, or a combination of both. So you don’t need to wear, uh, glasses, progressives, or readers.

[00:07:46] Once this process is done, CRR is completed, the aging component of your eye is taken care of. The vision effectively stops changing, so you can expect the result of this procedure to last you a lifetime. And thirdly, the cataract that you may have already developed or have yet to develop will never come back.

[00:08:07] Meaning that you will never need cataract surgery in the future. So this procedure both has the ability to correct vision, improve the poly vision, have permanence, and prevent cataracts. So Dr. Ling, um, what you’re saying is, it’s a similar procedure technically to how we perform cataract surgery, but we’re doing it much earlier, much earlier in the process.

[00:08:29] That’s right. So, custom lens replacement has very similar techniques to traditional cataract surgery. However, there are several major differences, both in terms of the goal of the procedure and also the technology we use. So, the goal of the procedure, let’s just take cataract surgery. Everyone has heard of, you know, cataract surgery.

[00:08:50] Cataract surgery is really to replace a cloudy lens and just replace it with a basic lens. lens in which you’ll see better because of the optics, but the power and the accuracy and the customization isn’t really there for cataract surgery. Therefore, many people still wear progressives or readers or some form of glasses and if they’re understanding of that goal, they’re very happy with it.

[00:09:10] It’s like, hey, I just see much better because I don’t have cataracts. Custom lens replacement, the goal is a little bit more aspirational. It is to get you out of glasses. It’s to so that you have this opportunity when you replace your lens to get the most customized one for yourself So that you can see with minimal amount of glasses far or near and depending however you want to do it So the technology we use for custom lens replacement Is more advanced we have advanced vision analysis here.

[00:09:38] We have advanced lens technology here And those are all used for you with no limitation to get you the best results that you need Thank you, Dr. Lange. And I just want to remind everyone, if you have a question at the bottom of your screen, you should see a Q and A icon. Please go ahead and feel free to type that question in there.

[00:09:57] When we see them, we’ll answer as many as we can on this webinar. But if we don’t get to answer your specific question, worry not. We will have a list of all the questions that were asked. And through your email, we will communicate with you and answer every question that is asked today, either collectively or individually.

[00:10:15] Dr. Bindi, I want to take it back over to you. Um, can I have CLR even if I’ve had LASIK in the past? Common question we get. It is, and it’s, it’s a common question. It’s a common scenario. People that we’ve seen in our office, we’ve, you know, we’ve done nearly a hundred thousand, uh, patients who’ve had LASIK over the year, over the last 25 years, and those people invariably come back 10, 15, 20 years later.

[00:10:38] As they get older, they, they notice their neurovision gets worse, and they can absolutely do, if it’s appropriate, they can do a lens, lens treatment with CLR. Um, sometimes, it depends, we could do a LASIK touch up just to fine tune it. And it, it really depends on how far along they are in that process. So if it’s a patient where the lens is changing, it’s getting yellow or cloudy.

[00:11:00] Um, it might be more appropriate to do a lens treatment. And if it makes sense to do a laser treatment, sometimes we can fine tune the distance or often with LASIK, I’ll do an age adjustment where I had a little bit of near sightedness, which can also fix near vision and get people out of needing reading glasses.

[00:11:14] And, and so I always think my, my suggestion without really knowing for anyone on this webinar. should they do LASIK or should they do CLR is it really depends on the actual measurements. So the first step is to come in for one of these, uh, comprehensive consultations with Dr. Ling or myself. And that’s where we go through the advanced vision analysis.

[00:11:36] And then depending on age, depending on the status of the lens, and depending on all the measurements, we can see if it’s appropriate to do a procedure or not. And in my experience, about 80 percent of the time, um, The answer is yes, we can, we can fix this. And about 20 percent of the time I’ll say there’s some reason to hold off or just to be safe.

[00:11:53] We’ll say it’s better to not do it at this time. And as usual, we, I never try to forget what we’re trying to accomplish here. We want to get people out of glasses or contacts, but this is a safety first sort of business. So 20 percent of the time we’ll say, just let’s not do this right now, or maybe come back in a few years to reconsider.

[00:12:11] And so that’s what we do in the consultation. Thank you. Uh, Dr. Ling, can someone be too old to have CLR?

[00:12:21] Dr. Ling, you are muted. Thank you. So, a person really can’t be too old for CR. Now, of course, we look at the person as a whole, not just their eyes. We make sure that they’re healthy, their eyes don’t have any comorbidity, meaning that they don’t have any other issues associated with their vision that can prevent CR being the most optimal procedure and have the most optimal outcome.

[00:12:46] But I have treated a patient that was like 105. You know, there’s really no, uh, age that is too old, just as long as you’re a good candidate. And, and the main takeaway from today’s webinar is that, you know, CLR is an excellent procedure for many, many people. There are so many options, many technologies. I see that some people talk about multifocal lenses, light adjustable lenses, monofocal lenses.

[00:13:10] These are all tools I use. And each individual, depending on their needs, And and also on their condition would qualify for one better than the other. And that’s the the reason that you have a consultation process to figure out. Okay, what are your goals? What are what is your situation? Which one fits you the best?

[00:13:29] So I use all technology. We are Okay. Uh, here in Silicon Valley, we pride ourselves being at the cutting edge here. We have all the necessary technology to help as many people as we can. But again, each individual need to figure out, uh, in the consultation process, what exactly is the goal here. So, not too old, and of course we look at each person.

[00:13:50] Uh, in terms of their age as part of the process. It’s an age related process. You certainly could be too young. So that’s one way I would kind of frame it is, if someone has no issue from age related issues, in fact, that’s why we do LASIK. This is why we do SMILE, PRK, or ICL. These are allI’m just writing out all the procedures that we do.

[00:14:10] We do the full spectrum of vision correction here at the Laser Eye Center. So for anyone that’s interested in vision correction, Uh, you’re in the right place here. Dr. Ling, I’m putting up on the screen a, uh, image that you’d like to show to help people understand, uh, about lens technology and just how, how incredibly precise this whole procedure is, including the implant.

[00:14:34] Yeah. So intraocular lenses are essentially that synthetic lens I was referring to. These are very advanced optics. They come in many different types of strategies, optical strategies. And optical goals. Some lenses can help you see ultra sharp at distance. Some lenses give you a nice extended depth of focus.

[00:14:54] There are a couple of lenses called extended depth of focus. And then there are lenses called multifocal lenses, which gives you a wide range. And then there are light adjustable lenses, which are adjustable lenses that can be Uh, basically titrate it and fine tune after surgery. There are, we utilize all option here because all these lenses have pros and cons.

[00:15:17] And we help find the right fit for you in which, you know, the pros are, are the most optimal for you and the side effects are, Uh, whatever, uh, limitations are the least, uh, impactful on a person. So we help titrate. And again, uh, we only select the best candidate for these procedures. So if none of these really make sense or you have other issues that we identify for you, then we would say, you know, let’s look at something else.

[00:15:42] Very good. Very good. You know, Dr. Ling, I was going to say, one of the things that I hear when, um, when patients come in to see me, they’re familiar with what it’s like to go through LASIK, what the procedure’s like, or they, often they know several people have had LASIK, and they’ll say, LASIK seems so quick and easy and painless, and, and, um, how do you, how do you explain what it’s like to go through CLR to your patients?

[00:16:04] So I, Dr. Vinny, I explain it just the way you describe it is, custom lens replacement is a very LASIK like experience. It is a 10 minute procedure. It is a painless procedure. You’re just looking towards a bright light for that duration. Again, comfortable. That bright light is all you see. You really don’t see anything unusual or scary.

[00:16:24] You know, many people think, Oh, am I going to see my own procedure? No, it’s uh, it’s just a, a musical light show for 10 minutes. What I described is we have nice music. We take requests and there’ll be a bright light to look at and, and you’ll be done before you know it. And once you’re done, you just put on a pair of sunglasses.

[00:16:40] Most people can actually see well enough to just navigate, you know, to their car and their driver picks them up, go home and rest. And for vast majority of people, the next morning when they wake up, they can see the clock on the wall and the phone in their hands. So I know, um, after doing LASIK and paying so much attention to the patient experience with LASIK, we pride ourselves on what people would say afterward.

[00:17:01] They’d say, I walked into the laser eye center, had a procedure for 15 minutes, someone drove me home, and I was normal the next day. And then after looking at these lens procedures, Um, we thought we could do it better than how traditional cataract surgery was done. So, um, office based surgery is where these procedures, just like we do la Oh, there you go.

[00:17:20] Thanks, Shareef. So, that’s the laser room on the left that you can see. That’s where I do laser vision correction. And, um, on the right is the procedure room that’s just down the hallway. And so CLR and Evo, these are lens treatments that are done right in our office. So just like LASIK, uh, someone drives you to the office.

[00:17:36] You’re probably in the, in our office for maybe an hour. Um, we don’t need to do IVs, uh, or, or, uh, lidocaine injections or anything that just, you know, numbing eye drops for topical eye drop anesthesia. Uh, we give a pill of allium if people feel anxious and pretty much everybody takes it, they get nervous.

[00:17:55] Um, and then you need to ride home and then it’s an overnight recovery. So it’s, it’s, um, very much like LASIK. You know, this picture I put up here that we took of Dr. Ling with a patient, just a, a recent patient. I mean, that’s right after the procedure, right, Dr. Ling? Yeah, that was literally 30 seconds after her procedure, sunglasses on, able to navigate, walked to her car smiling, thinking that, wow, this is so much easier than, than I thought.

[00:18:20] It’s normal to be a little nervous before a procedure. I tell all my patients, because of course, it’s involving your eyes, but invariably everyone says it’s much easier than they think. Dr. Ling, we’re getting a lot of questions that are, I’m just trying to kind of summarize it into one thing you can answer, like what should I expect in terms of results?

[00:18:37] What is this monovision? Is this blended vision? You know, how does this work? Will I need glasses afterwards? Could you help to set realistic expectations around these? So we utilize, again, we utilize all strategy here. Yes, blended vision is something we use, which is similar to monovision. Monovision is where you have one eye for far, one eye for near.

[00:18:57] We use blended vision, which is an upgraded version of that, in which you have one eye that’s ultra sharp for distance, and they extend the depth of focus for intermediate and near. So the difference between two eyes is very little. But because of our goal of also seeing up close, there’s still a little bit of offset.

[00:19:13] But it’s your brain that sees, not your eyes themselves, so it works extremely well. The brain just blends the two images together, you can see far really well, you can see near, and your computer and your phone really well. And, when someone asks, like, will I ever need glasses ever again, I always tell them, well, glasses can still be useful for you.

[00:19:32] You can now choose to wear glasses when you want to, not, and not wear them because you have to. So, for example, if you have blended vision, you see great far and near, and And you’re able to drive and check your phone, go, you know, order stuff off the menu and not need your readers. And, and if for some reason you want to do something else, like threading a needle or fix a watch and you feel like, oh, it’s still, you know, not small, a little too small, then you can, of course, wear, you know, a pair of readers and magnify things for when you need to or want to, but everything else is pretty much glasses free.

[00:20:07] Some people with blended vision likes a little bit of driving glasses. When they’re driving at night or in places, uh, where they’re not familiar and it’s like raining or snowing. You have one eye for far, one eye for, for intermediate and near. Then you can wear something that just have prescription for that intermediate and near eye.

[00:20:23] And then you have both eyes for distance. These are just rare, uh, occasions now where you can benefit from glasses, not because you can’t see. You can still see those things, but you just want to modulate things a little bit. So it’s all about convenience, flexibility, and, and freedom, really. So I know there’s at least one pickleball player in the audience because they said, I play pickleball and I’ve got to be able to see a distance and up close really quick fractions of a second.

[00:20:49] Would this work for a pickleball player? Dr ling? Absolutely. What? I just treated a pickleball player. Uh, just a week ago in which they really play seriously. And for her, you know, her specific eyes, she was Great for blended vision setup, which is the one we described. And again, you can see far and near and you can still judge depth perception and all those things.

[00:21:12] Any athletes do this? It’s a trick question. I always hear people say I golf. Will this help my golf game? And I say, we can help you see better, but your golf game depends on you have to practice and we don’t, we don’t overpromise what we can deliver, but we can help you see the golf ball. Dr. Bindi, you had said earlier that if someone has all has had LASIK or RK previously, they can still have a CLR.

[00:21:34] In fact, we’ve had patients say I had, I had LASIK with Dr. Bindi, I see five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. You already said they can come in, but let’s address astigmatism because people still have questions about astigmatism. We’ll CLR take care of that. Sure, I can go over that. It’s interesting, a lot of people think, they, they, they think of the word astigmatism like it’s just a bad thing, but, but glasses, contacts, lasers, and lenses, all these treat astigmatism And it’s very routine.

[00:22:02] So, um, lasers have been treating it since 1999. Um, the lens implants that Dr. Ling was talking about, they, they treat for astigmatism. The lens implant has that correction in, so it just neutralizes astigmatism. And in terms of clarity, fixing astigmatism with glasses, there’s a magnification issue where it’s not quite as clear as if it’s treated on the cornea.

[00:22:24] Contact lenses, they can rotate around, so that’s sometimes a variable way to treat astigmatism, but lasers and lenses are a more, um, effective way to treat astigmatism. Got it. Um, Dr. Ling, I’m actually seeing multiple questions on this webinar about where are the lenses made? And I think just describe that and also talk about the FDA approval process.

[00:22:46] Yes, so these lenses are under very strict and stringent quality control process with FDA involved. These are made by major, major medical groups, such as Johnson Johnson, Elcon, which is owned by Novartis. We also have very advanced, leading edge companies like RxSight, which produce the light adjustable lenses.

[00:23:08] Uh, we also have Bausch and Lomb, which is, has been a long dominant player in the, in the field of eye care. So, we use only premium, high end, quality lenses here. And, uh, and these have undergone very stringent FDA controls. And these are meant to last you the life, lifetime. So, I’ve treated, actually, pediatric patients as well.

[00:23:29] Some patients are young and they develop cataract disease. Very early and they benefited dramatically from lens replacement as well, uh, you know, a young kid that I just recently treated at a multifocal lens and did excellent with it. 2020 distance reading small prints, and this will carry with him for the rest of his active life and, you know, going through his career.

[00:23:50] So these lenses are of highest quality to the leading world standard. Dr. Ling, I’d like you to just mention complications because we had any questions about that, uh, complications as well as people are saying, is this reversible? Would you need to take the lens out with the body ever reject the lens? I could just address that.

[00:24:09] Then we’re going to hand it over to hear from an actual patient. Sure. Yeah. So again, custom lens replacement is very similar. Uh, in terms of technique to cataract surgery. So if you have any questions about safety, efficacy, just look at cataract surgery. It’s a procedure we’ve done for the past 60 years.

[00:24:26] It’s been around longer than LASIK. And, and, and why custom lens replacement exists is a complement to how extremely safe cataract surgery is. Technology has improved, and will continue to improve, uh, to make the outcomes and safety better. It has gotten to a point where it’s extremely safe. This is one of the safest procedures you can have in medicine.

[00:24:49] And in terms of how much we do them, in terms of worldwide, well, cataract surgery and lens replacement is the most commonly performed surgery in the whole wide world. Because again, it’s inevitable that a person develops them. Because again, it’s aging. So, in terms of these lenses, these lenses are extremely compatible with the body.

[00:25:08] You can, uh, I saw a question, you can go through MRI, you can go through CT scans, you can go through metal detectors. Uh, these lenses are made of acrylic or silicone, uh, silicone, and they don’t have any reactivity, uh, outside or within the eye. The eye is a very immune privileged space, so it’s not like a implant you have in your joints, where youin which you need to, uh, maybe get steroid or havewear and tear.

[00:25:31] The lens itself will outlive all of us. So these lenses are extremely, extremely stable. And what do you say about complications? How do you, how do you frame that? So I talk about number one, just the safety itself, uh, and it kind of frame a few statistics so people understand kind of, well, this is a procedure.

[00:25:49] So of course we’re going to talk about, uh, infection or inflammation. Those are invariably, uh, tied to any procedure, but let’s look at the actual rate. So global data for rate of an infection associated with this procedure is 0. 014%. And this is including, you know, third world countries. So here in the United States, we do full sterile procedures here at the Laser Eye Center.

[00:26:12] Good access to sanitary conditions. The rate is likely even lower. So extremely uncommon to have those type of surgical related complications. Now each person of course is unique in themselves. So at the exam, at the day of consultation, we assess the person’s anatomy, their health, look at the eyes, and do a risk assessment for each individual.

[00:26:37] We talk about anything that we find. And many of our patients, in which they’re an excellent candidate, I tell them so because again, they’re, they’re healthy, no health issues, have never had any eye injuries before, never had any major, you know, eye surgeries. Uh, you know, LASIK, PRK, other type of practice surgery are not considered major.

[00:26:57] They actually are a great candidate for lens replacement. You know, but if you have any other sort of eye injuries, we can take that into account and talk about, okay, is this procedure right for you? What are some things to consider? If you’re a great candidate for it, that means your risk is minimal. The procedure itself has a very reliable outcome.

[00:27:13] So, if you’re a great candidate for this, we do this knowingly that it’s an elective procedure. You do it because you choose to, not because you have to. So we take that into account, absolutely. And Dr. Ling, just to clarify, people are asking, do you do one eye at a time, which is traditional cataract surgery, or do we do both eyes at once?

[00:27:31] Well, custom lens replacement, we do both eyes for you on the same day. Uh, we treat each eyes individually as if it’s a different person, essentially. So again, full sterile, full separate process. What this allows is high level safety, but also a high level of recovery for each individual. So that the next day when you wake up.

[00:27:50] You’re basically good to go. And the recovery process is very expedient. It’s both in terms of efficacy and convenience for our patients. Well, all four of us on this procedure have had, on this webinar, have had modern vision correction, but one of us is a patient of yours, Dr. Ling. Uh, Renee, welcome, and would you just like to share your experience as a patient, what it was like going through CLR and why you, why you chose it in the first place?

[00:28:15] Oh, I’d love to. Um, I was not a good candidate for LASIK. Um, so I, I was not, I was never able to treat my vision. Um, it was really not until I was early forties and I started wearing reading glasses and, uh, within a few years that turned into wearing reading glasses all around, and then I got to where I needed them for different things, whether I was playing tennis or whatever else I was doing, I needed different glasses for.

[00:28:38] And to be really life impacting and, uh, looked into CLR. met Dr. Ling and was, was nervous and excited and hopeful and decided to dive in. And, um, I can tell you that the morning after the procedure, I can attest to all the things that’s pain free and, and not uncomfortable. And I was not going to take the sedative.

[00:29:01] And I walked in the door saying, give me the sedative. Um, so there’s, you know, there, I can relate to everything that’s being said. Experientially, but I think my, my moment of impact was the morning I woke up and I got in the shower and I could see the shampoo and the conditioner bottle and I could read them and it had been a while since I could do that.

[00:29:20] And I think some tears happened, you know, in the, in the shower water. And, um, that was fine. And it was, it was. pretty substantially immediate. The effect that I experienced and you know, there’s healing process in that first couple of weeks for sure. And, but zero pain. A lot of smiles. And, um, I went from wearing glasses 100 percent of the time to 100 percent of the time, never needing glasses.

[00:29:46] When I walk out my front door, there are occasions in my home where I’ll throw in a pair of plus one readers because I’m just tired and I just, it’s easier. But, uh, as far as, um, I haven’t, I haven’t taken glasses anywhere for a year and a half, and I guess the rest of my life, I never will need to. So that for me is, uh, a life change that I was ready for.

[00:30:05] Thank you, Dr. Ling once again. Always love to hear people talk like that, Renee. Renee, you do play pickleball, don’t you? I do. I did not play when I got this procedure, but boy, my game has improved since I got it. But my tennis game, I did play my first tennis match one week after my procedure. And I will say it was one of my better tennis matches.

[00:30:27] And I think just not having the prescription sunglasses and contact lenses. dimensionally really did help. You know, Pickleball is kind of taking over my life from tennis. But yeah, that’s another topic. I want to just encourage people who have. Thank you, Renee. I want to encourage people who have been asking questions.

[00:30:43] Please type them in the Q and a because if

[00:30:49] She is one of our counselors, and she will be inter interacting with you. Uh, but there is a question that came up that I must ask you, Dr. Lang. If you use your eyes for airport security, like, will this change the interior look of the eyes to make it so you have to update your registration with the airlines again?

[00:31:06] You’re like, now they’re taking pictures, iris registration. I thought that was a great one. Yeah, very interesting question. So, So the way I understand it is the security systems, you know, at airport security, like clear, or if you’re a nexus, I believe they’re all using iris registration or the white part of your eyes and the color part of your eyes, but not the lens itself, nor the retina, uh, you know, is being changed here.

[00:31:33] So only the lens is being replaced. So, I do not expect you to have any issues with having to update your, uh, your security clearance when you have IRS registry. Good question. Hey, Shareef, can you just talk about cost too? Because I know we always want to know about complications and what the process is like.

[00:31:51] But I’m sure everyone is saying, wait, how much does this even cost? So let me just share with everyone that this is considered a refractive procedure, custom lens replacement. It is not covered by insurance or Medicare because it’s something we elect to do, uh, for the benefits that have been described earlier by the doctors, the ability to just see and live your life without glasses.

[00:32:13] Um, so it is, it is, it is not covered by insurance. It is just under 7, 000 per eye, and most patients have both eyes done, and we do offer financing at no interest over a couple of years to chop that up into much, much smaller patients to make it affordable for many people’s budgets. Um, I will say that some patients coming in, do show a sign of a cataract, and we diagnose that.

[00:32:37] We have our advanced vision analysis, and in those cases, if it’s significant enough, we can refer you to a third party reimbursement specialist who will do all the work for you. They will interface with your insurance company and will secure reimbursement for you. But you would pay us and then you would get reimbursement from your insurance company and it’s a way of potentially offsetting the cost, but it’s only if you were to have a diagnosis of cataract and many patients that Dr.

[00:33:04] Ling treats don’t have that yet. It’s prior to that, like when Renee’s case, they just wanted to see without glasses and were frustrated enough with readers and bifocals and progressives and all of that to say, this is a good solution for me.

[00:33:21] They recovered, recovered that. Um, let’s talk about Dr. Ling, the process of. figuring out whether if someone wants to move forward and find out if they’re a candidate, what would they do? If you’re interested in modern vision correction or you have issues and you find that the burden of needing contact lenses or glasses have been, you know, building up and too onerous, preventing you doing things you want to do, then the most important thing, uh, webinar and kind of understanding now kind of the process is to come in, come in for a consultation with us so that we get to know each other.

[00:33:56] Uh, myself or, uh, one of our refractive consultants will be able to meet with you and see what is the current situation, understanding that, uh, what, uh, prescription you have, any issues we, we can pick up and see if there’s a right fit here for you and describe in detail, hearing you, we want to know you and how you use your vision and what your goals are so that we can match the right technology For each person.

[00:34:21] There’s no one perfect technology. That’s why we do six different procedures here. And, but there is a right procedure for each individual. And the goal of the consultation from my point of view is, by the end of the procedure, is to definitively find out, are you a candidate for a procedure or not, which procedure is appropriate, and then we explain all about that procedure, and then you can decide if you want to do it down the road, or we can get it set up.

[00:34:46] Yeah. One of the comments that I hear from patients, whether they have LASIK, Evo ICL, or CLR, is how happy they are that they could then buy a pair of regular sunglasses. They didn’t need to buy prescription sunglasses. That’s called Plano. There’s no prescription of them. So if you need it for outdoor work or some people, I’ve been seeing questions need to wear glasses that one is a dental hygienist.

[00:35:07] Yes, you just wear Plano glasses, something like that. And, and, and you’ll be just fine. Um, We have on the screen, by the way, and this is right on our website, there are three different ways you can have a consultation. Two of them are to come to either our San Jose or Pleasant location. Uh, you can call us or you can book it online or you can have a virtual consultation that actually would be done with Renee.

[00:35:29] You could do that just like we’re doing Zoom here and she would discuss all of your issues and help you determine if this is right for you. Um, we are typically booking out 30 to 40 days in advance. Uh, and I think You know, four to six weeks, Dr. Lange, would that be a reasonable time from the time someone, you know, comes in, gets measured, maybe has their pre op to having the procedure, or is that a little too long?

[00:35:52] What’s your thought? That’s on the conservative side, but again, it depends on our availability and also our patient’s availability as well. Typical process can be as quick as a consultation. And we identify everything, have everything done, and then potentially even scheduling for the following week. So it could be as soon as a week.

[00:36:13] But if someone, uh, comes in, identifies, uh, you know, the need, and they’re a good candidate, sometimes we have them come back maybe a week later for a pre op. And then perhaps have their procedure the following week, so it could be a little bit later. So, it really depends on availability and also our patient’s condition, but it could be as soon as a week or as much as you have quoted just now.

[00:36:37] And Dr. Bindi, just to kind of close it up, um, I’d love to hear your perspective as being the, uh, Longtime medical director of the Laser Eye Center of Silicon Valley. Um, why do patients, why do patients come to us? Well, I think, I mean, most people actually come to us from word of mouth referral. So I think they’ve, they have several friends over the years.

[00:36:57] They’ll say, you did LASIK on my dad 10 years ago, and my neighbor, and then you did my dentist, and then finally I want to get my vision fixed. And then they might come in and they might be more appropriate for CLR, and I’ll introduce them to Dr. Ling. Uh, often we do a laser treatment, all these things that we factored in, but, um, I think by the time people come into our office and they see what we’re all about, they realize what we do is, is special.

[00:37:20] We’re, we, um, I think we’re exceptional at taking care of people. We’re authentic. We do the right thing. And it’s a fun place to be. It’s a fun place to work. And I think our patients, they see what we’re all about. Yeah. And Dr. Ling, you know, just add onto that, please, you know, what, what is it that makes Laser Eye Center so special from your perspective?

[00:37:40] It’s definitely the people. So, we, we have a heavy emphasis on, on just culture here, uh, be authentically human, do the right thing, like Dr. Bindi talked about, and just taking care of each other. This practice has been, uh, in, in its current location for close to 30 years. It’s gone through, uh, you know, three generation of doctors.

[00:38:02] So we are definitely part of the community. Uh, we’re not franchised. We’re not owned by, uh, large corporations or private equity. We’re doctor run. So, um, this is what makes the place special and why I love coming to work. We say we are faithful to the Bay , faithful to the Bay. Absolutely. Hundred San Jose and Pleasanton, all your pornography out there.

[00:38:22] And Dr. Bindi, it is. The only thing that you and Dr. Ling do is modern vision correction. We don’t treat disease, we don’t do retina, glaucoma, you know, dry eye, or we don’t sell contact lenses or glasses. So the, I say, the only thing we do, we give conservative advice. About procedures that work so you can simply wake up and see it’s beautiful.

[00:38:42] Well, thank you everyone for being on this webinar. You will have your questions answered as long as you type them into the Q and a, uh, you can reach out to us by email. C. L. R. 2020. I site dot com. You can call us to schedule an appointment or go right online. We look forward to helping you and helping those.

[00:38:58] You want to get out of glasses. Get out of glasses. Have a great day. Thanks. very much. Dr. Ling. All right. Bye. Everybody enjoy your Friday.