Lets see what a non-biased
"Consumer Reports LASIK Survey" says:
Consumer Reports found that 55% of Americans who had LASIK surgery continue to wear glasses or contact lenses at some time. And many of them say they were misled by advertising for the procedure that led them to expect they would not need other eye correction after surgery."Laser vision correction surgery is a largely unchecked industry, and consumers need to know the right questions to ask to be sure they're protected and that they're getting good quality care for their money," says Consumer Reports Health Rating Center director John Santa. "Vision correction surgery is increasingly popular but there is a concerning lack of unbiased, concrete evidence about its safety and efficacy."
Survey results showed that 53% of patients experienced at least one side effect within the first four weeks after surgery, and 22% experienced them six months after surgery, especially dry eyes and visual symptoms like halos, glare, and starbursts around lights. Lasik eye surgery may be pitched as a "safe and easy alternative to glasses," but more than half of the people who have it or other laser vision-correction surgery still need to wear glasses at least some of the time. That's according to a Consumer Reports National Research Center survey of 793 adults who had laser vision-correction surgery in the past eight years. Side effects such as dry eyes, halos, and blurry vision were common among our respondents, and sometimes lasted at least six months after the surgery. That's particularly distressing, since Lasik eye surgery and similar operations are elective, not essential, medical procedures.
In our survey, 53 percent of the respondents reported at least one side effect after surgery, and 22 percent of the respondents were still experiencing side effects six months later. We found that 12 percent of the patients had to repeat the procedure. But nearly a quarter (24 percent) of not highly satisfied respondents said they regretted not learning more from people who had laser eye surgery before them... Side effects were a key factor in lack of satisfaction. Laser eye surgery is often viewed as safe, but 53 percent of the respondents experienced side effects, and 22 percent were still experiencing them six months later.
Consumers who experienced two or more side effects at four weeks after the surgery and people who continued to experience any side effects at six months were not as satisfied as those with fewer problems, or problems that didn't last as long. "While it's clear from the survey that many people have been very happy with their laser vision surgery, I worry about the patients who were not highly satisfied," said R. Linsy Farris, M.D., a professor of clinical ophthalmology at Columbia University in New York and a consultant for our survey. All may not be as rosy as the advertising suggests. In our data, the year of surgery made no difference in satisfaction, but it's important to recognize that techniques change.
One thing is for certain, I don't know anyone and no one I have asked knows anyone that has had depression or even suicidal ideation from wearing contacts or glasses! But charge a patient $5,000 to have an elective-cosmetic irreversible reshaping eye surgical procedure that they didn't need in the 1st place, which can regresss and ruin their ability to afford normal things in a normal life, then lie to these same permanently injured patients, then look out LASIK DOCTORS...and STAFF...you're going to have a lot of very disgruntled customers that want to avenge their situation that their doctor/staff put them in!
