Your Eyes Know

Losing sleep can affect your body in many different ways, especially your eyes. If you wake in the morning to an extreme burning sensation in your eyes, one you don't feel again throughout the day, it could be that your body needs more sleep.

The gland that produces tears needs rest, just like the rest of your body. It can even shut down on its own, which means your eyes will become dry if you're still awake.

Take care of your eyesight - make sure to get plenty of rest. To read more about this painful problem, click here.

The Cost of LASIK

Often one of the biggest reasons lens wearers hesitate to have their vision corrected is the cost. They aren’t sure how much it may cost them, if they will need to pay for multiple surgeries, if they will be able to really stop wearing lenses, and if continuing the on-going cost of lenses would just be easier.

We’d like to take a moment to educate you on a few of these points, but first, the most important decision you must make is to visit a reputable surgeon. In order to get the care and results you are expecting, you shouldn’t just trust your eyes to ANY LASIK surgeon. There are thorough surgeons and there are “other” surgeons. A thorough surgeon is an ophthalmologist that is reputable in the community, trusted by multiple patients and staff, will ensure you are an excellent candidate for LASIK (and offers other procedures if you are not), has performed at least 5,000 surgeries AND has a low enhancement rate (the rate at which a doctor needs to enhance the original results in order to get the patient to their visual expectations).  An excellent enhancement rate is less than 10%.

Multiple Surgeries

Often patients have the misconception that to have excellent eyesight, they will need multiple LASIK surgeries. This is not true.

Some surgeons perform multiple surgeries on one patient because they were not accurate the first time, they are new to performing eye surgery, or they didn’t take accurate measurements prior to performing surgery.

As we said before, an expert surgeon will have a less than 10% enhancement rate. There are very few cases where they may need to enhance the original results, but it is mostly due to patient error in after-care or an agreed-upon course of treatment prior to surgery. These enhancements should be covered in the original cost of surgery and should NOT be a whole new surgery charge.

Stop Paying For and Wearing Lenses

This is a concern for almost every patient. After all, why would anyone in their right mind agree to eye surgery if they have to continue wearing lenses?

If you are a good candidate for the procedure and you have chosen a reputable surgeon, then you should be able to have many, many years of lens-free vision. How many years depends on how old you are at the time of surgery. Our eyes age along with us and there will be age-related issues, like Presbyopia, that require glasses for reading. Presbyopia occurs in the lens of your eye and not in the cornea (where vision issues like nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism occur). LASIK or other vision correction procedures correct the cornea and the younger you are when you have the procedure, the longer you have to enjoy lens-free vision.


Lenses or LASIK – Which is Easier?

Ultimately, this decision is going to be up to you. LASIK and other vision correction procedures are a one-time cost. We offer payment plans that will help you break down the cost of the surgery to an affordable range, and we may even be able to offer you no-interest or 0% for up to 24 months. If you chose that option, after 24 months (or two years), you will be free of the cost of lenses, contacts, or vision correction payments!

If you have a flexible spending account, it's even easier than that! Give us a call and we'll explain the details.

Or you can continue to make payments for lenses, replacement lenses, contacts, replacement contacts, cleaning solution, travel cases, travel solutions, etc. for the next 10, 15, 20, 25+ years.

The choice is yours.

Payment Plans


We are here to answer any questions you may have about payment plans and how to fit LASIK into your budget. Please feel free to give us a call at 303-772-3300 – there is no need to set up an appointment. We’ll answer any questions you may have and you can come in whenever you are ready.

What to Do with a Flex Spending Account

Did you know you can achieve excellent vision and use your Flexible Spending Account (FSA) to pay for it?

It's true! Our laser vision correction procedures, such as LASIK, can be paid for by using an FSA. Stop using your FSA to pay for glasses, contacts, solutions, etc. Use it to pay for great vision this year and have the money next year to pay for your really important medical expenses.

Don't forget - most FSA's are "use it or lose it" which means if you don't use the money by the end of the year, it's gone!

To find out more, visit our website or give us a call today at 303-772-3300.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Your Eyesight

Omega-3 fatty acids are definitely a plus in your diet. They are known as a ‘good fat’ for your diet – one that protects the cell membrane and is reported to protect you from certain health issues. One of these health issues, as reported by NPR (National Public Radio), is age-related macular degeneration. 

Age-related macular degeneration generally occurs in older adults. This condition results in vision loss in the middle of your line of sight, due to retina damage. According to the article, “Women who ate fish, a prime source of omega-3s, at least once a week were less likely to get age-related macular degeneration compared with women who ate fish just once a month, a new study finds.”

While all of this information is interesting to look at, the article also points out that the study is not complete.

There are always studies being done on vitamins and minerals. It’s important to know what is fact and what is fiction. Doing your homework is essential in preventative medicines, but the most important thing is having a complete eye examination. You eyesight is like a fingerprint – it is unique to you, and what may work for 5 or 10 other people may not necessarily be the best thing for you. If you think you may have an eye disease or your family has history of eye diseases, you should schedule regular eye exams for the best way to keep on top of it.
If you would like to read the article, you can find it here.

LASIK and Dry Eyes

Perhaps the most common side effect to LASIK is dry eyes after the procedure. Most of our patients experience a little dry eye after the procedure. This temporary issue can be relieved with eye drops and it will correct itself within a couple of weeks.

According to FDA trials, 20% of LASIK patients still experience dry eye even six months after LASIK. While this side effect may be annoying, it can be treated with punctual plugs or medications.

At Eye Care Center of Northern Colorado, most all of our patients are free of this irritation after one year. This is why the post-LASIK follow-up appointments are absolutely necessary. We take your vision very seriously and we want to make sure you can see clearly for years to come.

LASIK works by correcting the cornea of your eye. LASIK can have you seeing clearly for many, many years, depending upon what age you receive treatment. If you are not a good candidate for LASIK, there are other procedures that can be performed to correct your vision. Learn more about laser vision correction with Buckley Chang Eye Institute.

Fears and Misconceptions of Vision Correction – Losing Your Vision

Glasses and contacts have their benefits – mainly helping people with refractive errors see clearly. Since the late 90’s, lasers have been used to correct these refractive errors in very safe and effective ways. Procedures such as LASIK and PRK have been providing patients with clear vision for over 15 years now. However, many people continue to put up with the inconveniences of glasses and contacts because they have fears or misconceptions about laser vision correction, like LASIK.

One of the most common fears of laser vision correction is losing vision as a result of the procedure. This fear comes from not understanding how your eye works and how specifically laser vision correction works. How LASIK Works
There are three main parts to the human eye: the cornea, the lens, and the retina. In normal vision, the cornea refracts (bends) light so it can be directed correctly through the lens and onto the retina. The retina works as a transmitter to transfer the message to your brain, where it processes the message to tell you what you are looking at. Refractive errors – nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism – are caused by the cornea being slightly misshapen. LASIK utilizes cool lasers to reshape the curve of the cornea so you can have normal, clear, vision.

Prior to surgery, our surgeons will map out your specific eyes and plan out exactly how to correct your vision. They will then program this plan into the laser, ensuring that the correct amount of your cornea is altered.

There are risks associated with laser vision correction, mainly dry eye. It is essential to ensure that you are an excellent candidate prior to receiving treatment, to give you the best results possible.

Officially there is no reported case of a patient losing their eyesight from LASIK. 
To find out more about LASIK, including risk information, see our website. To schedule a Free LASIK Consultation, give us a call today at 303-772-3300.

Contact Lenses and Eye Safety

Approximately 1 out of 20 people will have contact lens related problems.

Are you one of them?

Through recent research it has been found that contact lenses can affect several different areas of the eye. These effects could be simple irritation to more sight threatening complications. You may have experienced some of these problems or just had a concern about them.

The weather, oxygen and their effect on your eyes.

The weather and the wearing of contacts both have an effect. The eye cleans itself from harmful bacteria and other foreign substances through the process of creating what is known as the tear film. Not only does it protect the eye but it also carries the moisture and oxygen to help and protect the eye. The reduced amount of oxygen on the surface of the eye in turn reduces the blood flow to the cornea, which can create complications. While soft contact lenses have less of an effect on this than hard lenses it still does have an effect. And there are other problems that contacts can cause with your eyes.

Now throw in dry weather, the wind and the fluctuating temperatures you can see what your eyes are dealing with on a daily basis. In many instances, the risk to the health of your eyes is greater from wearing contact lenses than from today’s LASIK or laser vision correction eye procedures.

And there are the aspects of “chronic wear and tear” from continual contact lens wear to the eye from simply having this foreign substance or particle in the eye. This can predispose an eye to infections and if you might have even experienced these difficulties yourself.

What are your alternatives?

LASIK or laser vision correction procedures are alternatives to contact lens wear. While not having them to affect your eyes in a potentially dangerous way is of great benefit you will also receive the benefit of having very improved eyesight if not 20-20.