Has anyone used Dr. Lawrence Zweibel in Smithtown, Dr. Eric Donnenfeld in Garden City or Dr. James Kelly in Manhattan?

I had an evaluation by TLC in Garden City (Donnenfeld), but chose to go with Dr. Eric Mandel in NYC. His pre-screening was very thorough and ALL DONE BY HIM. Although Dr. Donnenfeld has a great reputation, he did none of the initial consultation. I just felt more comfortable with Dr. Mandel's personal touch. I had the surgery on 4/9 and I'm thrilled! I'm seeing 20/15 in both eyes. Dr. Mandel is the first in the NYC area to use the Visx Waveprint technology. You should definitely check him out.

I, too, had my lasik surgery performed by Dr. Eric Mandel. I was extremely farsighted with astigmatism. Dr. Mandel was the 3rd doctor I saw, and I decided to go with him, as well, due to the comfort level and confidence I had in him. (I even requested his c.v.-resume), which was an additional confirmation to go with him. It's been 2 mos. since the procedure and I'm amazed how my vision is compared to prior-surgery. Although not 'perfect', it's a HUGE improvement. I'm functioning very well without glasses and contacts.
Christine

Thanks Jeff. Do you think Waveprint made a difference? What was your prescription before the surgery?
I'm planning to go with Dr. Zweibel on 4/17 and he has not yet adopted Waveprint.

Ralph,
Sorry for the delay in responding. I guess you've had your procedure by now. Hope you're doing well. The results I got were very good. It's hard to say what would have happened without Waveprint. I just felt more comfortable with Dr. Mandel's use of this additional diagnostic tool.

I have LASIK scheduled with Dr. Mandel in NYC on Jan. 17th 2005. So naturally now is when cold feet starts happening, and I was wondering if I could get some people's opinions on a few things to help me out:

1 - Anybody else use Dr. Mandel? Good or bad stories both welcome.

2 - He's charging me $5500 - that seemed very high to me, opinions?

3 - He has me using eye drops 4xdaily and RefreshPM lubricant nightly for two weeks BEFORE the operation - does this mean that I have dry eye and should be worried about it getting worse after the operation?

My clock's ticking (one week left!) so any last minute advice would be greatly appreciated!

Matt

I have heard great things about Dr. Mandel, and I have met him and he is very knowledgeable.
Artificial tears prior to surgery is just helpful to prepare your eye for surgery, and does not mean that you do or do not have dry eyes. You should of course ask that question on your next visit.

William Trattler, MD
Miami, FL

My apologies - I thought you were asking about Ken Moedel. I do not know Dr. Mandel.

Bill Trattler, MD
Miami, FL

Dear Mathiew, and all, I heard about your comments, and Mathiew it seems you have done the LASIK surgery Jan 17th, how did it turn out to be? You were asking about the dry eye and whether you should go for it. I am concerned not about the surgery itself but about the post implications. Might I have issues with age? or directly after? I know the Dr does not promise 100% satisfaction but he promises a high rate of success and leaves the rest to God. That is not enough for me since I'm concerend about my eyes. We sign a paper that says we agree for the operation, and who knows if things fail what our rights are. He did say it is great for me since I have -5 myopia, and I'm about to have the surgery March 17. Please advise about his reputation, and what should I be thinking?

It has now been almost three months since I had LASIK performed by Dr. Mandel. The surgery went smoothly and I felt comfortable. After the surgery I had significantly more inflammation than anyone had expected, but it cleared up within a day. My vision is now excellent - on par if not better than all of my friends and family. On the other hand, the dry eye has been a factor for me, although it has been gradually decreasing over the past few months. I am still using artificial tears every 30-60 minutes, using RefreshPM at night, and taking flaxseed oil supplements twice a day. The cost of this stuff adds up, and I'm hoping this will continue to clear up - I don't want to jump the gun yet, since it definitely has been improving over the past few months, so I want to be fair and give it the full 6 month healing period before whining about dry eye!
I am still very pleased overall and would do it again. The day of the operation I met someone else who had almost identical vision problems as I did and had the surgery the day before and he was fine, no dry eye or anything.
Again, I'm happy with my choice to do the surgery and happy with Dr. Mandel. I'll report back in again in a few more months with an update on the dry eye...

Matthew:
How is the dry eye thing going?
I am scheduled to get surgery on Monday.
Petrified!