Dr. Christopher Shoemaker has assisted hundreds of people in the Mahoning Valley to eliminate their need for eyeglasses. Suburban Vision Care is the most active optometric practice in Northeast Ohio working with refractive surgery patients.

At Suburban Vision Care, we offer not only the experience and expertise to manage your care, but also offer the latest technology to make sure your eyes are healthy both before and after your procedure.

In most ophthalmologist’s offices, the surgeon does not perform any of the pre-operative or post-operative care. You are seen by their staff optometrist for everything except the actual surgery.

In addition, you will be offered only the technology currently in use at their office. Should another laser or technique be better suited for you eyes, as an independent practice not affiliated with any one surgeon or laser center, Suburban Vision Care doctors will guide you in selecting the best surgeon and laser for your individual eyes.

We have no financial interest in any particular surgeon or laser center. You may rest assured that if it is determined you are not a candidate for this procedure, we will not recommend surgery for you.  If you are a candidate, we will give you an honest and independent recommendation regarding the best surgeon for your particular eyes.

We like to treat our patients like family. Your outcome is important to us, and a reflection upon our reputation. We value both.

Our fees are the same regardless of surgeon or laser center. We recommend caution in choosing someone to comanage your care, where the fee varies with the surgeon you see, or where only one surgeon is used for all refractive cases.

LASIK is a surgical procedure. Hopefully, you wouldn’t considering a surgeon for open heart surgery based solely on price. Although the idea behind LASIK is the same regardless of surgeon, there are wide variations in technique, instrumentation, experience, and lasers used. Although cost is certainly an issue, you should thoroughly investigate what you are getting for your money.

Some of the lasers in use regionally (especially at discount laser centers) are 3-4 years old. Technology changes every few months in this field. Would you buy a new computer that used the technology in place 3 years ago?  Probably not. We can guide you in choosing appropriate technology at an affordable cost.

What do you consider to be an important factors in choosing a surgeon or LASIK center?

The surgeon’s experience is number one. Although there are many surgeons doing LASIK, it is best to choose someone who does exclusively LASIK.

Secondly, it is important the surgeon be using the latest technology. Although it is possible to have an enhancement to improve your vision if the first surgery does not yield an optimal result, why put yourself at risk for a second surgery? Traditional LASIK has an 8% chance of needing a second procedure to achieve an optimal result. Newer technology (CUSTOM LASIK) reduces this to less than 2%.

Finally, it is important that the surgery center track their outcomes, so that each successive surgery builds on the experience of prior patient’s results. The best surgeons use sophisticated statistical analysis of their outcomes to improve on future results. Discount laser centers often do not take time to track their results.

You must be over 18 years of age, have a stable spectacle prescription for over one year, have healthy eyes, and be of good health in general. Certain systemic conditions and medications may prohibit you from this procedure. You cannot have LASIK if you are pregnant or nursing. We will carefully review these issues on a case by case basis at the time of your exam.

Everyone’s vision is as unique as your fingerprint. Using sophisticated technology developed for the Hubble telescope, we can customize the surgery for your particular eyes. The primary advantages are superior night vision (eliminating glare and haloes for most people), and reducing the chances of needing further surgery to less than 2%. In the past, many surgeons considered the patient to be ’20 / happy" if the vision could be corrected to 20/30 or better with LASIK. With custom LASIK, over 90% achieve 20/20 or better acuity post-operatively without eyeglasses.

If your cornea is too thin to have LASIK, then CUSTOM PRK is a viable alternative.

You can have LASIK with dry eyes. Some patients require a special treatment called punctal occlusion (a painless procedure done in our office) prior to their LASIK procedure to achieve optimal results.

Everyone has dry eyes for a few months after LASIK. The reason is that your corneal nerves that sense dryness are severed during the procedure and it takes a few months for these to regenerate.

During the LASIK procedure, a flap is created from the front layers of the cornea, much like peeling an apple. Studies show that if the flap is hinged toward the nose (where most of the nerves enter the cornea) that there is significantly less problems with dry eyes both in the immediate post-operative phase as well as in the long run, than if the flap is hinged superiorly (toward your eyebrows). Most surgeons, however, continue to cut a superior hinge, and will tell you that it doesn’t matter. The best surgeons will cut the flap with a nasal hinge, using the latest microkeratome (surgical instrument which cuts the flap).

No problem. Although doing bifocal correction is not physically possible at this time, there are numerous other options for the presbyopic patient (over age 40). We will be glad to discuss these with you at your pre-operative visit.

Yes. You should think of your annual eye examinations in terms of eye health check-ups, rather than just the evaluation for the need for eyeglasses or contact lenses. Many eye diseases, which can lead to blindness, do not present with blurred vision or pain, until the more advanced stages. We have found brain tumors, retinal detachments, and glaucoma, to name a few conditions, in patients without symptoms, who have come into our office simply to have laser vision correction.

How can I find out more information?

Please feel free to call our office anytime you have questions. Dr. Shoemaker will be glad to talk to you personally to discuss refractive surgery. View an audio-visual presentation on LASIK, as well on many other eye care topics on our website.  We also offer links to informative sites, such as the FDA LASIK site, which offers an independent analysis of this procedure.