Eye surgery treatment choices
Everyone's vision correction treatment starts with a FREE eye surgery consultation »
The staff performed some tests on my eyes to check my prescription, then they explained the treatment procedures and told me what to expect.
Sarah Buck, Bristol
At the consultation, a vision correction specialist will carefully check your eyes and take many detailed measurements. They will then explain your options for treatment - and the advantages of each one. You can ask all the questions you like and together they will help you to choose a vision correction treatment that is right for you. You can find out more about treatments here, but you will only find out your personal options at your FREE eye surgery consultation.
At Ultralase, we find eye surgery treatments can help around nine out of ten people as we specialise in vision correction. The best treatment for you depends on your prescription. This is why it is best if you visit us for a FREE eye surgery consultation.
The most common vision correction treatment is laser eye surgery. And the most popular here is UltraLASIKplus™ with IntraLase® our Wavefront laser vision correction treatment. This is because it is the most precise, safest and most accurate. It is the 'Gold Standard' of laser eye treatments. NASA has approved the use of this treatment for US astronauts following a review of extensive military clinical data. This showed that it provided superior safety and vision.
However, for reasons of prescription or affordability, not everyone chooses or has this treatment recommended. Other laser eye treatments may be best for you: if you are hyperopic (long-sighted), then it's probably LASIK laser eye surgery with Intralase®; if we need to spare tissue, it will probably be UltraLASIK™ with Intralase®; if you have an active lifestyle or a thin or unusually-shaped cornea, then LASEK, UltraLASEK™ or UltraLASEKplus™ may be best.
Intralase® is now standard with all of our LASIK laser eye surgery treatments as it has been proven to be more accurate and safer, and has shown significant improvements in recovery time. This means that Ultralase is the ONLY national provider to offer completely blade-free laser eye treatments. So you can go ahead with any of our treatments totally confident that no one at Ultralase will ever be using a blade on your eyes. We are the only national provider who can promise this.
Not all our treatments involve a laser. If you have a strong prescription, we can probably help with IOL treatment, or if you have reading glasses, with Ultra-CK.
But, don't worry about which is right for you as we will give you expert guidance as all part of Ultracare™ from Ultralase, what we believe to be the highest level of care from the specialists in correcting vision. Book your FREE eye surgery consultation now.
Overview
Laser eye surgery involves the precise reshaping of the cornea, the transparent window that covers the coloured part of the eye. For treatment to be permanent, it must take place beneath the thin, protective outer layer. This layer is gently moved aside in order to let the laser do its work.
There are two fundamental types of laser eye treatment: LASIK and LASEK. They differ only in the way the eye is prepared for treatment. The actual re-shaping process is exactly the same in both cases.
All Ultralase LASIK laser eye surgery treatments are now blade-free, exclusively utilising Intralase® for safety and accuracy reasons instead.
Testimonials
"I had considered laser eye surgery for a number of years but always decided that it was not for me. What has recently changed is the number of people I know who have had the procedure, all of who had had very positive outcomes. I think it was the fact of laser eye surgery no longer being an abstract concept but being an actual real world experience for people I knew that quickly changed my mind.
"From deciding to go ahead, booking a consultation, and being treated was a period of no more than 3 weeks. Ultralase was the only provider that I had contact with...It is the confidence with which they present themselves, the audited results, and this very forum that made my mind up for me."
Forum member 'teeceegee'
Affordability
At your FREE laser eye consultation, we help you choose the vision correction treatment that's most appropriate to you. We also explain our wide range of payment options designed to suit your budget and make laser eye treatment affordable. We guarantee there will be no hidden extras and you will never be surprised by extra charges. Laser eye surgery treatment can be from just £995 per eye. With a 5 years interest-bearing plan, you will pay from around just £5.18 per week. What price clear eyesight? We think it's priceless. Priceless is now affordable.
Overview
These laser eye treatments are customised both to fit the shape of your eye and to correct the tiniest imperfections of your eye's optical system using Wavefront technology to assist with vision correction. Eye specialists all over the world agree that Wavefront has taken vision correction to a higher level. UltraLASIKplus, with Intralase®, is the 'Gold Standard'.
A sophisticated computerised diagnostic aid 'reads' your eye to identify areas with even microscopic flaws. These are then plotted on a chart and transferred to the laser, together with iris recognition information to ensure maximum accuracy and safety. When the laser is applied, hundreds of tiny beams home in on exactly the areas needing correction. The result is the highest quality of vision, from a treatment completely customised to your unique requirements.
There are both LASEK and LASIK laser eye surgery options.
Testimonials
"Ultralase actually recommended the ultra lasek plus, but the only reason I wanted to go ahead with the standard lasers was because of the price implication, but after reading other patients' comments on this forum and elsewhere, I'm seriously considering the wavefront!"
Forum member 'Siwan'
Affordability
At your FREE eye surgery consultation, we help you choose the vision correction treatment that's most appropriate to you. We also explain our wide range of payment options designed to suit your budget and make laser eye treatment affordable. We guarantee there will be no hidden extras and you will never be surprised by extra charges. This laser eye treatment is from just £1,695 per eye, inclusive of Intralase®. With a 5 years interest-bearing plan, you will pay from around just £8.74 per week. What price clear eyesight? We think it's priceless. Priceless is now affordable.
Overview
In conventional LASIK laser eye surgery, the protective layer of the cornea is lifted back surgically by using a spinning blade. With Intralase®, however, no blades are used. Instead, the protective layer is lifted with the aid of a fine and delicate laser. As it is safer and more precise, the recovery process is proven to be faster and the results show more patients achieve true 20/20 vision. Because of the proven superiority of Intralase®, Ultralase have made the decision to include it as standard with all LASIK laser eye treatments. This makes us the ONLY national provider to move completely away from the use of blades in vision correction treatment. UltraLASIKplus™ is the Gold Standard in laser eye surgery.
Testimonials
"My prescription was -7.75 (R) and -8.25 (L) with mild astigmatism in both eyes. I had Lasik with intralase and wavefront and I am now 6/6 in both eyes and consider myself to be very fortunate. It really is the best thing I have ever done (with the exception of becoming a mum that is) and I wish I could have done it years ago but I wasn't suitable for treatment before the advent of intralase."
Forum member 'Idale'
Affordability
At your FREE eye surgery consultation, we help you choose the vision correction treatment that's most appropriate to you. We also explain our wide range of payment options designed to suit your budget and make laser eye treatment affordable. We guarantee there will be no hidden extras and you will never be surprised by extra charges. This sophisticated addition to all our LASIK laser eye surgery options comes as standard. Our experience shows that it leads to enhanced accuracy and safety. What price clear eyesight? We think it's priceless. Priceless is now affordable.
Overview
All eye surgery treatments involve the removal of a little tissue from the eye. This is how the necessary re-shaping is achieved. Advanced techniques now available allow us to use lasers to draw a very exact map of the surface of your eye. Our experts call this 'topography-assisted' laser vision correction.
Using this map to guide our lasers means the eye treatment is customised to the shape of your cornea. This means we can be much more precise and remove the minimum amount of tissue. This is also known as 'tissue-sparing'.
There are both LASEK and LASIK laser eye surgery options.
Testimonials
"I had UltraLASIK+ with Intralase. My prescription was about -5.25 right, -6.00 left, with 2.25 astigmatism in the right eye. I am a 39 year old man. What can I say about the treatment? I felt nothing. I knew I would not feel any pain but I fully expected to find it uncomfortable. In my case I was surprised that it was so easy. I'd be surprised if the whole thing took more than 10 minutes. It's early days yet but I can only say that I am delighted."
Forum member 'teeceegee'
Affordability
At your FREE eye surgery consultation, we help you choose the vision correction treatment that's most appropriate to you. We also explain our wide range of payment options designed to suit your budget and make laser eye treatment affordable. We guarantee there will be no hidden extras and you will never be surprised by extra charges. This laser eye treatment is from just £1,395 per eye, inclusive of Intralase®. With a 5 years interest-bearing plan, you will pay from around just £7.20 per week. What price clear eyesight? We think it's priceless. Priceless is now affordable.
Overview
With LASIK laser eye surgery, the protective surface layer of the cornea is lifted and the laser is used to reshape the layer underneath. The surface is then gently replaced, the whole procedure taking no more than 20 minutes. Traditionally, the protective layer is lifted with the use of a surgical blade and, understandably, this can cause concern. At Ultralase, we don't use blades: we use Intralase® as standard. IntraLase® means that a very, very fine laser is used to lift the protective layer. This makes Ultralase the ONLY national provider in the UK to move completely away from the use of blades in vision correction treatment.
Testimonials
"Well folks after my consultation on Monday, where I was sure that they would say that I was not able to have LASIK, I have been deemed suitable! As I write this I can't quite believe it. I have been wearing glasses since I was 10 and have a prescription of -10. So there is hope for all of us!"
Forum member 'Catherine-Emma'
Affordability
At your FREE eye surgery consultation, we help you choose the vision correction treatment that's most appropriate to you. We also explain our wide range of payment options designed to suit your budget and make laser eye treatment affordable. We guarantee there will be no hidden extras and you will never be surprised by extra charges. This laser eye treatment is just £1,395 per eye. With a 5 years interest-bearing plan, you will pay around just £7.20 per week. What price clear eyesight? We think it's priceless. Priceless is now affordable
Overview
With LASEK laser eye surgery, the protective surface of the cornea is softened and then folded aside. The laser then reshapes the layer beneath. Then, the surface is smoothed back into place and a special contact lens is placed on the eye for 5-7 days while the protective layer heals. You can expect to be in the Treatment Room for no more than around 20 minutes.
Testimonials
"Perfect eyesight from the second I got off the chair & no pain at all during the LASEK procedure and for the first hour thereafter. So glad I went ahead!"
Forum member 'Tamarabam'
Affordability
At your FREE eye surgery consultation, we help you choose the vision correction treatment that's most appropriate to you. We also explain our wide range of payment options designed to suit your budget and make laser eye treatment affordable. We guarantee there will be no hidden extras and you will never be surprised by extra charges. This laser eye treatment is just £995 per eye. With a 5 years interest-bearing plan, you will pay around just £5.13 per week. What price clear eyesight? We think it's priceless. Priceless is now affordable.
Overview
Not all conditions are suitable for laser eye surgery. You may have been refused laser eye surgery in the past, or have a strong prescription. Or, you may now need reading glasses. The eye is a complex mechanism and so, whatever the condition affecting your eyes, it is likely we will have a vision correction treatment to help you. If laser is not the right answer, then let our experts recommend other options at your FREE eye surgery consultation. We can find a solution for around nine out of ten people.
Testimonials
"I had artificial lens implants. My prescription was very high at -10 and -11. My surgeon was Mr Mark Wevill at the Birmingham clinic and he and his team were excellent. I initially went for laser treatment but because of my high prescription and thin corneas I had no other option. Its the best money I have ever spent in my life, I can honestly say it was worth every penny."
Forum member 'KyosaMaggie1'
Overview
These proven vision correction techniques are suitable for people who have strong prescriptions or for many who have been refused laser eye surgery in the past, offering improvements in even the most complex cases. The easiest way to think of them is as a contact lens that works inside the eye rather than on its surface, making an unimaginable difference to the quality of life for you.
ALI
This stands for Artificial Lens Implant. This vision correction treatment involves the implant of a soft, synthetic lens into the eye. This will act in the same way as a standard contact lens, staying in place to help the eye to focus clearly and giving you a reduction in, or complete freedom from, the need for glasses or contact lenses.
"I wish I had it done years ago, it has given me a new lease of life. I would recommend this type of treatment to anyone. The service I received from all the staff has been excellent. My vision has improved from -15 to 0.75 with artificial lens implants."
Annett Yarnell, Birmingham
RLE
Standing for Refractive Lens Exchange, this vision correction treatment uses a kind of Intra-ocular lens to replace the eye's natural lens via an artificial equivalent. This will be customised to compensate for the eye's imperfection and will reduce or eradicate the need for glasses and contact lenses. As you can imagine, the effect is liberating for people who had given up hope of ever being able to see unaided again. This vision correction treatment is generally effective for the over-50's.
"I would just like to say that the effects of my refractive lens exchange treatment have been fantastic for me. I am 55 years of age and my life had been a blur up until now. My vision now is so clear, I found it difficult to believe. I want to thank Mani for being a brilliant surgeon and all staff, particularly Nicky and Lesley for their help and kindness."
Nigel Ball, Manchester
Testimonials
"When I met my surgeon, he was very professional in his approach and I knew immediately that I wanted to go ahead with IOL treatment."
Margaret Leatherday, Birmingham
Affordability
At your FREE eye surgery consultation, we help you choose the vision correction treatment that's most appropriate to you. We also explain our wide range of payment options designed to suit your budget and make eye treatment affordable. We guarantee there will be no hidden extras and you will never be surprised by extra charges. This eye treatment is from just £2,650 per eye. With a 5 years interest-bearing plan, you will pay around just £13.67 per week. What price clear eyesight? We think it's priceless. Priceless is now affordable.
IOL prices for Belfast are available on request.
Overview
As we reach our mid-forties, the eye's natural lens starts to harden. This lack of flexibility makes it increasingly difficult to adjust our focus, particularly for reading. Ultra-CK is a revolutionary procedure using radio waves to tighten the tiny fibres on the surface of the eye. Your reading glasses could become a thing of the past. To date, there have been over 200,000 Ultra-CK vision correction treatments.
Testimonials
"I used to find having to put my specs on and off to read and use the computer at work frustrating and annoying. When I heard about the new Ultra-CK treatment offered by Ultralase, which offered freedom from reading glasses, I arranged a consultation. I'm so glad I did! After the treatment, which was totally pain free, my reading vision is fantastic! I've binned the specs for good and my life has been changed for the better. Even reading the paper is so much more pleasurable. I'd recommend CK to anyone - believe me, it's worth it."
George Bashton, Newcastle
Affordability
At your FREE eye surgery consultation, we help you choose the vision correction treatment that's most appropriate to you. We also explain our wide range of payment options designed to suit your budget and make eye treatment affordable. We guarantee there will be no hidden extras and you will never be surprised by extra charges. This eye treatment is just £1,495 per eye. With a 5 years interest-bearing plan, you will pay around just £7.71 per week. What price clear eyesight? We think it's priceless. Priceless is now affordable.
Safety and Risks
Laser eye surgery is amongst the simplest of surgical treatments available anywhere. It is now the most popular form of elective procedure in the world with more than twenty million treatments carried out so far, over half a million in Britain alone. In fact, you may know someone who has been enjoying the benefits for some time from this life-changing transformation. In 1991, Ultralase were the first to perform laser eye surgery in the UK, and have advanced every year ever since. The most recent example of how Ultralase continues to advance is our move towards totally blade-free vision correction treatment. All Ultralase LASIK laser eye surgery treatments now benefit from Intralase®, which uses a very fine laser instead of a blade. This has been clinically proven throughout the world to be safer and more accurate, and to succeed in better treatment outcomes than blade-assisted treatment. Ultralase is the ONLY national UK provider who can guarantee not to use blades during vision correction treatment. Today, we can help around nine out of every ten people who contact us. See if you may be suitable for vision correction.
Safety for you
It is also one of the safest of vision correction treatments. And, at Ultralase, we work harder to ensure that your outcome, your safety and your care are our top priorities. We are so confident of our skills in these areas, that we are the only laser eye surgery provider in Europe to offer a unique Lifetime Care Guarantee as a promise to help you get the most out of your treatment with us.
Ask any laser eye surgeon and they will tell you that all surgical procedures carry a risk of a complication occurring, and laser eye surgery is no different. What area of life is totally risk-free? In fact, there is evidence to suggest that you stand a higher risk of suffering an infection from your contact lens solution than from laser eye surgery with Ultralase.
Ask yourself another question, who would know best the seriousness of the risk? Who would know the inside track? Well, just ask any of our staff. They should know how minimal the risk is. Ask them and you will find out that our staff, which includes our laser eye surgeons, are forty times more likely to have had vision correction than the UK population at large. Forty times more. Now, if risk were a major factor, don't you think these people would know? And, what do you think they would do about it, if it were a problem?
There are very few areas of life where you would find more thorough checking procedures, more stringent safety protocols or more rigorous ongoing quality assurance than those in place at Ultralase. So, whilst the risk of encountering a complication with your treatment may not exactly be zero, everything possible is geared to keeping any risk as small as possible, a focus set by professionals here whose sole job it is to work on reducing that small risk still further.
As part of Ultracare™, here are some examples of how Ultralase work to make safety second nature to the way in which we do things:
- The tests at your eye surgery consultation are designed to provide our specialists with a great deal of diagnostic data so you get the best advice on the safest, most effective and most appropriate vision correction treatment for your unique eyes.
- The Ultralase team make these decisions from almost twenty years of experience, and from contributing to the most up-to-date published data from around the world so you know you have all that expertise helping your eyes see better, unaided.
- Your vision correction treatment is achieved using the most modern and sophisticated Bausch & Lomb 217z100 laser equipment, surpassing the rigorous standards set by authorities worldwide, even those of the internationally-respected United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA), so you can rest assured at its quality.
- The results of all vision correction treatments are recorded in the Ultracare™ process after treatment day. This information forms part of a quality control process analysing over one million individual data items every year. These results are used to produce individual customised records for each Ultralase surgeon four times a year so we can at least maintain the accuracy and effectiveness of treatment, all with the aim of continually improving for your benefit.
- Each of our laser eye surgeons is accredited against rigorous recruitment requirements so that your eyes can be seen to by the very best.
- Each Ultralase vision correction clinic is subject to regular inspections, both by internal company specialists and also by external agencies such as the Healthcare Commission. Clinic management use the feedback from these to ensure that laser eye surgery procedures comply with established best practice and that the quality of service and care in the clinic meets the highest standards.
- Results of our laser eye surgeons are verified by an external, independent watchdog to ensure that what we are saying is accurate
- The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) sets out some very strict guidelines for laser eye surgery providers. Ultralase is consistent with the procedural guidelines, and exceeds the efficacy provisions in respect of accuracy of procedure and quality of vision.
First few days post-treatment
Despite our best efforts, and stemming from our promise of care to you, we must still advise you that any treatment carried out on the body will stimulate the natural healing process, and the common temporary effects that arise from this. These include slight dryness, sensitivity to bright lights, haze around lights and a gritty feeling not unlike that experienced with an old contact lens. These are minor and quick to pass for most patients. Ultralase supply lubricating eye drops in your aftercare pack and advise patients to use these, plus to wear tinted spectacles on the day of surgery to help relieve any discomfort caused by these effects. At your FREE eye surgery consultation, your specialist will give you a customised summary of what the initial post-operative period is likely to be for you.
In the first days following LASIK laser eye surgery, vision improves to near-normal levels but is still prone to some fluctuation due to the healing process. The eyes are separate organs and they will heal independently of each other. The healing process means that there is a little more water than usual in the cornea, and that is what causes a little mistiness and haze around lights in the short term, particularly at night. Sometimes things might appear to be in soft focus and there may be the odd "bad eye day" where your vision in one or both eyes is not as good as you remember from the day before. As healing moves on, the body absorbs this excess water and the symptoms disappear. LASEK laser eye surgery patients may experience a dip in their vision and a little discomfort on the 3rd or 4th day. This is a normal part of the healing process and resolves quickly. Any initial healing symptoms soon pass as the healing process moves on, and serve to show that it's important not to judge the outcome as final too soon.
In the early days, it is important not to rub your eyes, as there is a possibility that this may move the flap out of alignment. If this does occur, the outlook is good so there is no need to panic. Just contact Ultralase immediately. We support you with a 24-hour emergency phone number that you can call in the rare event that this or any other complication may occur. You may need to return to the treatment room for your surgeon to re-align the flap, and it will mean starting the drop regime from the beginning again, but the situation can easily be rectified.
Just as individuals don't all have the same height, shoe size or hair colour, rates of healing vary as well. In some cases, the body over or under-heals so that an enhancement of the treatment is required to achieve your objective. Such is the confidence in the quality of the treatment in Ultralase vision correction clinics, the Ultralase Lifetime Care Guarantee means that as long as a further treatment is safe and in your interest, it will be offered to you at no extra charge. Ultralase's independently verified statistics show that only around 3 to 4% of patients require an enhancement of their treatment and so you can rest assured that this will all be done at our expense to get your eyes to the best they can be.
Rare complications
A post-operative infection is an extremely rare event, requiring immediate action, but it also has a very good chance of success. Infections requiring more treatment are much rarer, around 1 in 10,000. For comparison, the incidence of similar infections in contact lens wearers is 1 in 3,000. Since prompt action is required in order to effectively and safely manage an infection, Ultralase has a 24-hour on-call service for patients to report any suspicious symptoms.
In the past, any discussion of complications surrounding LASIK laser eye surgery has centred on the creation of the LASIK flap. Rarely, the creation of the flap is less than perfect, requiring that the surgeon postpone the treatment and the patient return to spectacle or contact lens wear for around 3 months until the eye heals fully enough for the creation of another flap. In the vast majority of cases, your vision is not affected at all by this. However, the arrival of the IntraLase® all-laser method for LASIK has revolutionised safety in laser eye surgery such that flap complications, although rare before, are around 7 times rarer with IntraLase® at 1 in 4,000. Even with these rare cases, the majority still obtain an excellent result at outcome.
All Ultralase vision correction treatments are achieved by a highly qualified, skilled and experienced surgical team, using equipment of increasing sophistication. The most comprehensive outcomes analysis process in the industry ensures that our laser eye surgeons are given all the information they need to continue to strive for perfect outcomes. We believe we offer some of the best safety and care standards in the UK. Others agree. Dr Ashok Kumar MP, speaking in the House of Commons on Feb 4th 2004, observed that:
"While researching the subject, I have become aware that there are those who exemplify the best practice. Ultralase, one of the larger independent healthcare providers in the laser eye surgery sector, operates to standards which appear to be more severe than those required at the statutory level at present."
It may be a sad fact of life that it's not possible to avoid all risk completely, but we hope we have reassured you that Ultralase, through our focus on our unique Ultracare™ approach, works hard and methodically to reduce risk to as close to zero as possible.
We hope we can meet soon. Your journey to see if you are suitable for laser eye surgery, or any of our other vision correction treatments, begins with you simply booking a FREE eye surgery consultation, we will take care of the rest - and you. Contact us now.
