LASIK Procedure Salt Lake City - Dr. Phil Hoopes, Jr.

Find out what to expect on the day of your LASIK surgery, as well as details bout the LASIK procedure at our Salt Lake City office.

DR. PHIL HOOPES, JR.: On your surgical day, expect to be with us about two hours. The actual surgery time is measured in minutes, but we keep you here for such a period on purpose. During the first half hour that you’re here, we’re going to have you come in, go over the informed consent, which is a document that tells you all the pros and cons of doing the surgery, as well as risks. We want to make sure you get one more chance to really know that this is something that you want to do. Once you’ve signed the documentation, we’re going to give you a Valium. Some people refuse a Valium, but I’d say the majority of people want to take the Valium to kind of be comfortable, while they’re with us. It can take about a half hour for a Valium to take effect. So we’ll just have you sit comfortably, and let you be calm, before doing anything to the eye. Once in the surgical area, one of our optometrists will double-check the measurements that were done on your work-up day. We want to make sure there’s no changes. We want to make sure that everything is finalized, and that I’ve had a chance, as the surgeon, to double-check, and even triple-check, the treatment that I want to do for your eyes. Once the pre-surgical work-up has been done, we go right into surgery. The surgery is done in two different steps. The first step creates a flap. Traditionally, I use the IntraLase. And it takes about two minutes, each eye, to make that surgical incision. Once the IntraLase is finished, there’s actually a small layer of bubbles in your eye, about one-tenth of a millimeter below the surface. And, until those bubbles go away, we don’t do the second step of the surgery. So we take people out to a little rest area, where they can kick their feet up in a recliner and relax. It takes about ten minutes for those bubbles to go away, on average. And then we’ll move into the second step of your surgery, where we apply the excimer laser. The excimer laser is different for each person who comes to see us. Some people will be recommended one laser, over the other. Once we do the excimer laser, it only takes about two minutes an eye to do that step. So, really, the time you’re sitting down, with your eye being operated on, is under about three or four minutes, each eye. Once the surgery is complete, we take you to the final area, which is an exam room, just to make sure that the eye looks healthy, and stable, and ready to go home and rest.