Why Choose Wake Forest University Eye Center?
Choose carefully
When choosing where to have your LASIK surgery, it's extremely important that you give yourself the best chance of having successful, complication-free surgery. The following are several elements that should be sought to lessen your risk of an undesirable result.
1. Skill and Experience of the Surgeon.
Experience matters when in comes to LASIK. Many studies have shown that most complications occur in the first 1000 cases a surgeon performs. Dr. Walter has been performing LASIK since 1995 and has being doing LASIK longer than any other surgeon in North Carolina . He was a Co-investigator of the first FDA guided LASIK study in the United States . Why take unnecessary risk with a less experienced surgeon?
2. Experience of the Surgical Team
Most patients aren’t aware that technicians and nurses are involved in several key aspects of the procedure. Inexperienced staff are prone to mistakes that may affect your outcome. Our laser technicians have been programming lasers and monitoring their performance for the last ten years. Our nurses have been assisting with LASIK surgery for 9 years here at Wake Forest Eye Center .
3. Personal Care and Attention
We believe that it is vital to have complete care from your surgeon starting with the initial evaluation and at all subsequent visits after the procedure. Many high volume LASIK centers will have a technician or optometrist evaluate you for surgery and refer you to a non-surgeon for all follow-up care. This means you will only meet your surgeon on the day of surgery and never see him or her again. Be very cautious of this scenario. Ask if you can meet the surgeon at your initial evaluation. Ask if the surgeon will be seeing you afterwards. If you get a disinclined response, go elsewhere. Non-surgical providers are not fully capable of diagnosing subtle problems and may delay your return to the surgeon. Dr. Walter sees all of his patients for the initial evaluation and establishes an “old fashioned” doctor-patient relationship. He does all of his own follow-up care and is always available via e-mail for questions.
4. The Best Technology/LASER
The Wake Forest University Eye Center uses the Allegretto Wavelight laser, simply the best excimer laser in the United States . It is fast, safe, and predictable. It is the fastest laser in the U.S. and tracks and treats at 200 times a second! This means you are under the laser for only 10 to 30 seconds. It also is the only laser which the FDA has granted permission to be marketed as improving night vision. That means minimal or no glare and haloes around lights at night, and often better than your contact lenses or glasses. The Wavelight laser has a national reputation among physicians as having the lowest retreatment rate of less than 3%. See our special section on this advanced technology (link). We also have a video we would like you to view discussing the advantages of this new technology (link)
5. Word of Mouth/Patient Testimony
Laser vision correction with LASIK is becoming more widely accepted every year. Over, with over one million cases peformed each year. Wake Forest University Eye Center has been ranked as a “top-ten” academic center by its own peers in ophthalmology. Dr. Walter has been on faculty since 1996, and his reputation among patient and his peers is second to none. The majority of our LASIK patients were referred by 2 or 3 of their friends or family who had their surgery with Dr. Walter. Dr. Walter has a national reputation as a leader in LASIK surgery. See Dr. Walter’s Bio.
Wake Forest University Eye Center is the only place in our region that can provide you with all 5 of these important factors, to insure you of the best possible outcome.