Laser eye surgery is more within your grasp than you think
If you’ve been a long time glasses wearer, nothing beats the convenience of contact lenses — excluding the part where you’ve got to go to the bathroom and fiddle to put them in.
Like taking an Uber or staying in an Airbnb, contact lenses offer the ultimate in rentable eyesight. Buy a few pairs, pop them in for the day, then throw them away when you’re done. But like Uber and Airbnb, the drawbacks for this level of convenience are many. Risking your life by running red lights, waking up with a stranger’s hair on your face, suffering drivers with terrible taste in music. These are all enough to make you avoid using such on-demand services every day, and that’s even before getting to the biggest disadvantage of all: the cost.
Imagine living in the same suburb for most of your life but spending every night in a different apartment. Unless you’re in the CIA, it makes no sense whatsoever to pay on a day-to-day basis for a place you know you’re going to need to eat, sleep, and live. In the same way, dishing out money every day for pay as you go eyesight, something you’ll need every minute of your waking life defies all logic and reason.
To put this into perspective, let’s consider how much contact lenses cost on average over the course of fifteen years. Using a typical pair of daily disposable lenses for 365 days brings the average cost to £325, or around 90p a day — providing you don’t have a condition like astigmatism. In fifteen years, providing there’s no inflation, that brings the total cost to around £5000.
It’s pretty clear which of the two is the most sensible investment. But what makes Laser Eye Surgery the runaway winner is that it’s a one-time payment. Once you’ve paid off the treatment price, your eyesight is yours, forever — as it should be.
Now if you’re anything like me, you’ll be thinking that’s all well and good but paying 90p now and again is a lot easier on the bank balance than shelling out several thousand pounds in one go. And granted, it’s true. But like getting a new car, buying a house, or any significant long-term investment, you don’t have to pay it all at once.
High-quality doesn’t have to mean unaffordable
Other than fear, one of the most common factors that prevent people from having high-quality Laser Eye Surgery is cost. With prices reaching upwards of £3,000 per eye, treatments from independent and private clinics certainly aren’t cheap — especially when compared to the budget prices of high street providers.
It’s no wonder then that people often settle for the enticing deals offered by chains. And here’s where it gets tricky.
In order to undercut hospitals and private clinics with such low prices, chain providers often skimp on the service provided (from the pre-operative screening process and the standard of technology to patient care and quality aftercare service).
It’s no surprise then that having a treatment at a high street provider may result in a poor experience and less than ideal results. You only have to read the Laser Eye Surgery industry report from investigative consumer company Which? to see that.
But if we focus on private and independent clinics, often run by surgeons who are expertly skilled and dedicated to better vision for all, then it’s a whole different story. Their primary purpose is achieving the best possible vision correction for you, not hitting targets. And therefore, it’s not uncommon to find they offer payment plans that split the treatment price into more affordable monthly instalments — often with no interest whatsoever.
The idea that Laser Eye Surgery is too expensive is just another myth — like it being painful or scary. Spread out over the course of a year, two or three, the costs are manageable, and even, in the long run, become more economical than contacts or glasses. As one of your most important senses, your eyesight is invaluable; make sure you give it the high-quality care and treatment it deserves.