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Given the sheer number of places to have laser eye surgery and the plethora of laser eye surgery reviews available online, the question of which is the best laser eye surgery company or surgeon can be daunting.
Treatments, prices and aftercare vary significantly so hopefully this article will help you shortlist one or two that you’d like to research further. We split the list into Nationwide clinics and those in London & The South East only.
View clinics by area:
They have 121 clinics throughout the UK (45 in Scotland, 42 in Southern England, 30 in Northern England, 2 in Wales and 2 in Northern Ireland). Reviews of Optical Express tend to be good but there are some patients who have had a negative experience which they have shared on review sites and facebook. Negative reviews are expected given the tens of thousands of patients they treat each year so it is important to look at the ratio of positive to negative reviews and also try and ascertain which are genuine and impartial.
They have 25 experienced surgeons listed on their website.
They use VISX STAR S4 IR lasers which are highly rated by surgeons worldwide (For what its worth, the clinics that treated Tiger Woods and Cindy Crawford used a VISX laser).
They use a IntraLase iFS 150 femtosecond laser to create a protective flap at the beginning of every LASIK treatment they offer.
Patients also have the option of using iDesign for LASIK and LASEK Treatments. This captures over 1,200 micro readings of patient's prescription which is five times more than Wavefront technology. This allows them to correct refractive errors with a higher degree of accuracy than glasses or contact lenses as well as enabling them to treat more complex cases than was previously possible.
Their aftercare programme (included in the price) includes a visit to the surgeon or optometrist the day after your surgery to check your recovery is progressing without any issues. All patients are also invited to appointments 1 and 3 months from the date of their treatment. They also offer an out-of-hours medical helpline giving access to 24-hour clinical advice.
Optical Express started in Edinburgh in 2001 as store selling contact lenses and grew through the purchase of various other brands. One year layer it started offering refractive eye surgery when it acquired The Health Clinic. Two years after that it purchased the ophthalmic treatment assets of Boots Group plc from nine sites in the UK. Since then it has expanded to over 120 branches across the UK and now offers:
* Ultralase was purchased by Optimax’s founder and CEO Russell Ambrose in 2013. Although they continue to have different websites and the brands have not been merged, they share the same locations, surgeons, treatments and prices.
They currently have 22 clinics in the UK (3 in London, 8 in the South outside London, 3 in the Midlands, 4 in the North, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Wales and 1 in Northern Ireland)
Their medical team includes 15 specialist ophthalmic surgeons and 60 ophthalmic opticians.
They use the IntraLase® laser to prepare the LASIK corneal flap by using a femtosecond laser. They have also introduced Schwind laser technology in a number of of their clinics.
For LASIK patients, aftercare appointments usually take place the day after surgery. A second follow up appointment is normally made after another week and then 6-8 weeks later. If all is well after this, no other appointments will be required.
For LASEK patients, an appointment will be made to remove any bandage contact lenses used 3-4 days after the surgery. The next aftercare appointment will be 7-10 days after the surgery and then 6-8 weeks later. If all is well after this check up, no other appointments will be required.
Optimax can arrange further aftercare appointment with a local Optician which will normally be charged at £15-£20 (payable to the Optician). The optician will forward your results to Optimax.
As well as the 2 follow up appointments outlined above, ICL patients would also be required to attend an Endothelial Cell Count test at regular intervals. This is to ensure that the lens hasn't moved and that no cell damage has occurred. You have the option of doing these tests with your local Ophthalmologist or at Optimax's London, Birmingham, Peterborough, Manchester, Newton Abbot or Glasgow clinics at a cost of £50.
All patients receive a Lifetime Aftercare Guarantee that entitles them to one free laser retreatment for distance only correction.
They operate out of 7 hospitals and 2 clinics in England only (2 in London, 2 in the South, 1 in the Midlands and 4 in the North).
The have 79 surgeons working for them across all their locations (many also work for other clinics which is why they have so many across only 9 locations). All are NHS trained and Fellows of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCO).
They use Femtosecond Lasers for LASIK surgery. The Ziemer LDV is available at the Surrey Yorkshire, Hampshire and North London hospitals. The IntraLase™ iFS™ is another advanced technology femtosecond laser used at their Manchester, Birmingham, London Hospitals.
They also have access to the Zeiss Visumax® laser in their London hospital which they use for all-laser LASIK as well as ReLEx® SMILE.
They also have the Wavelight Allegretto Excimer and Schwind Amaris® 500e Excimer Lasers available.
A follow up appointment will be made within a few days of your treatment.
As well as laser eye surgery and lens replacement surgery they also offer other treatments for patients suffering from AMD, glaucoma or floaters. All their treatments are below:
Whilst Optical Express, Optimax and Optegra all have clinics in London, the following four clinics are based in London only and differentiate themselves with the quality of their surgeons and clinics. They are more expensive than the national clinics. Centre for Sight, has 2 other clinics outside of London in the South East but has been included in this list as it’s similar in type and quality.
You may also be interested in reading our more comprehensive list of the best laser eye clinics in London here.
Founded in 2002 by the chief surgeon David Allamby, Focus has continued to generate excellent reviews and says it has a 100% success rate for 20/20 vision. One particular selling point is the 10 year guarantee they offer (most clinics offer just twelve months). They have had plenty of celebs trust them with their laser eye surgery including Denise Van Outen, Mary Portas, David Gandy and Sue Barker.
Price for both eyes:
Founded in 1805, Moorfields Eye Hospital is the oldest it is the oldest and largest centre for ophthalmic treatment, teaching and research in Europe together with its next door neighbour, the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.
It’s private Eye Hospital is well respected with consistently good reviews. They offer laser lens replacement surgery (ICL, RLE) as well as laser eye surgery (PRK, LASEK, and TransPRK) to paying customers or those claiming via insurance. Unfortunately, they do not publish prices on their website.
The London Vision Clinic is a highly respected clinic on Halrey Street founded and led by Professor Reinstein. Their prices are more expensive than most but they claim to have a 100% success rate and offer a more personal approach. 96% of their patients have ReLEx SMILE or LASIK surgery.
Price for both eyes:
This is their standard treatment for LASIK, PRK/LASEK, ReLEx SMILE. This will be suitable to treat the prescription most patients.
This more expensive price is charged to the minority of patients with a very high prescriptions as it requires extra screening and planning. The most suitable LASIK, PRK/LASEK or ReLEx SMILE will be selected.
Center for Sight have been offering LASIK eye surgery since 1996 which is longer than any other UK clinic. They currently offer LASIK / IntraLASIK Laser Eye Surgery, Lens Replacement, Cataract surgery, Corneal Grafts, Stem Cell Transplants and Lens Implants including the ICL.
Price for both eyes:
The ‘Intra’ component denotes the use of the revolutionary Intralase iFS Femtosecond laser.
Proprietary LASIK treatment for shortsighted, farsighted and astigmatism patients that uses a specific and highly sophisticated treatment profile.
The more expensive price is for premium Toric lenses. They have astigmatism built in to the implant and used in those with astigmatism on their cornea above 1.25D.
The more expensive price is for premium multifocal Toric lenses.
Founded in 2003 by refractive specialist Dr Pillai, Advanced Vision Care was based in Harley Street offers Laser Eye Surgery, Implantable Contact Lens Surgery, Cataracts Surgery and Keratoconus Surgery.
Unfortunately AVC ceased trading 8th Jan 2020 leaving a few unhappy customers who said they have not received their deposit back and now have no way of contacting them.
It is also worth looking at the inspection reports published on the Quality Care Commission for the clinic you are interested in. They are totally independent and go into depth about their findings.
Do take care to consider factors that will have affected the previous patients’ reviews and don’t be put off straight away if you find a small number of negative reviews. The nationwide clinics like Optimax and Optical Express treat thousands of patients each year so it is natural they that they are going to have at least some unhappy customers. It is therefore important you look at the proportion of negative vs positive reviews.
Although websites like Trustpilot, Reviews.io and Doctify can be useful you need to be aware they can be managed somewhat by the company being reviewed. If the clinics are paid subscribers of the review site they have more control on which customers are asked for reviews and what reviews get published.
However, the reverse is also true, a company can also have overly negative feedback on a review site it does not manage as it is often the only disgruntled customers feel compelled to go online and leave feedback when not promoted to leave a review. That is why it is not uncommon to see a company have an average score of 4.7 on Trustpilot and just 1.8 on Reviews.io.
To form an overall impression we’d recommend you review multiple review companies including Google reviews where companies have less control over what is published. Also, you should take in account that some ex-patients give negative reviews because they experienced complications that may not have been avoidable no matter what clinic they used. Surgery results will depend not just on how good the surgeon is, but also on the patient’s sight problem and prescription, as well as the type of procedure used.
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