Learn from my bad experience. I had Lasik performed at TLC Laser Center in January of 2005. TLC is the place that advertises they did Tiger Woods Lasik surgery and they did. However, TLC in St. Louis, Missouri probably didn't give me the same level of service that Mr. Woods got. All of my pre-op work was performed by optometrists employed by TLC. Dr. Stephen Wexler never examined my eyes prior to surgery. TLC had no medical history on my eyes prior to 3 months prior to surgery.
In July of 2005 when I was scheduled for enhancement Dr. Wexler looked at my dilated eyes for the first time and announced to me that I had cataracts on both eyes. This situation would likely have been caught had he actually looked at my eyes prior to surgery.
$3800.00 and 8 months later I am now wearing a contact lens in my left eye and facing the expense of upcoming cataract surgery.
Have your surgery done by an Opthamologist, M.D. who will actually look at your eyes before he cuts the flap and fires the laser.
Ask all the questions. I thought I had done my homework but much to my dismay I feel I spent $3800.00 for nothing.

I have heard bad experiences from TLC from others too. when/if I get lasik, they wont be on my list. Maybe your cateracts just begin around the time you got lasik(by coincidence too) ive heard of it happening to others. One never knows when cateracts will form. I know Tiger Woods got lasik there. He of course was treated with utmost care because of the big endorsement.

I hate to see optometrists take an unnecessarily bad rap, especially since I am one. And so I typed the search terms "LASIK and cataracts" into the PubMed search engine, and came up with this title:

"Lenticular myopia from oil-drop cataract: a cautionary note in laser in situ keratomileusis." by Soong HK, Dastjerdi MH. published in the Journal of Cataract Refract Surg (United States), Nov 2004.

They presented 5 patients with oil drop cataracts in whom the underlying lenticular cause of myopic regression after laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) had been missed by their ophthalmologists. As a result, the patients were scheduled for or had had LASIK enhancement before presentation.

Oil drop cataracts are often difficult to detect, with the first sign being an unstable refraction or sudden increase in myopia. If your prescription had not been stable prior to surgery, I would imagine that you would not have had LASIK performed in the first place.

Optometric co-management of refractive surgery is quite common in my area of the country, and is by no means exclusive to the TLC chain. High volume surgery would not be possible without the use of ancillary staff, including optometrists.

Greg

Well Greg, TLC and it's optometrists had no idea whether my prescription was stable or not since they had only a 3 month history of my vision. They took my money without any other history. Optometrist are fine for contacts and glasses. In my opinion they should not be looking for or diagnosing the presence or absence of cataracts. The Opthamologist should have looked at my eyes. If that offends you then perhaps you should consider similar areas of medicine. Would you let a cardiac surgeon do bypass surgery if he had not personally looked at your angiogram????? I suspect not.
There are optometrist for glasses and contacts and opthamologists for surgery and other diseases of the eye. In my case the opthamologists should have at the very least looked at my eyes while dilated prior to taking me into a room and performing surgery, don't you think??????

Well Greg, TLC and it's optometrists had no idea whether my prescription was stable or not since they had only a 3 month history of my vision. They took my money without any other history. Optometrist are fine for contacts and glasses. In my opinion they should not be looking for or diagnosing the presence or absence of cataracts. The Opthamologist should have looked at my eyes. If that offends you then perhaps you should consider similar areas of medicine. Would you let a cardiac surgeon do bypass surgery if he had not personally looked at your angiogram????? I suspect not.
There are optometrist for glasses and contacts and opthamologists for surgery and other diseases of the eye. In my case the opthamologists should have at the very least looked at my eyes while dilated prior to taking me into a room and performing surgery, don't you think??????

Well Greg, TLC and it's optometrists had no idea whether my prescription was stable or not since they had only a 3 month history of my vision. They took my money without any other history. Optometrist are fine for contacts and glasses. In my opinion they should not be looking for or diagnosing the presence or absence of cataracts. The Opthamologist should have looked at my eyes. If that offends you then perhaps you should consider similar areas of medicine. Would you let a cardiac surgeon do bypass surgery if he had not personally looked at your angiogram????? I suspect not.
There are optometrist for glasses and contacts and opthamologists for surgery and other diseases of the eye. In my case the opthamologists should have at the very least looked at my eyes while dilated prior to taking me into a room and performing surgery, don't you think??????

Well Greg your opinion seems to not relate to my post. The facts are that TLC had only a three month history on my vision. The ONLY person to look at my eyes prior to surgery was an optometrist. The opthamologist never looked at my eyes prior to lifting the flap and firing the laser.
Co-management implies that the opthamoligist would also be involved in looking for cataracts and other conditions. He did not so I suppose if you want to blame the optometrist at TLC that is your choice. However, I don't think my situation was co-managed by any definition of the word.
If you are offended that is a personal problem.
You have your opinion but your opinion is in Texas and seems to be motivated by some unfounded reasoning. My cataracts reside in my eyes and that is very well documented.

FEBRUARY 15, 2004
TLC V.P. of Marketing Describes Co-management Payments to Optometrists As "Marketing Costs"

Comanagement costs overlap with marketing costs,” says Anna Austin, vice president of marketing for TLC Vision. “If you’re comanaging some of your refractive patients, obviously you may pay more to the comanager than if you just followed up the patient yourself. But, that referral might have actually replaced a marketing cost you would have incurred if you had to generate that patient. So, though there’s a cost in maintaining a relationship with that optometrist, such as helping him hold seminars in his office, it may be substantially less than doing any kind of advertising.

Source: www.revophth.com/index.asp?page=1_469.htm