What Happens at a Laser Eye Surgery Consultation?

Reception and Check-In

The consultation begins with a short check-in before you meet the clinical team and start the assessment process.

Diagnostic Testing

The next stage involves a series of scans and measurements. These tests help your consultant look beyond the numbers on your glasses prescription and gather information that may influence treatment recommendations.

Each test contributes information that helps your consultant assess your eyes more thoroughly before discussing whether treatment may be appropriate and which recommendations are likely to be most suitable for you.

Visual Assessment

You'll then meet with an optometrist for a detailed visual assessment. This helps confirm your prescription and adds important clinical information to the results collected during the diagnostic testing stage.

The assessment includes a refraction, which measures the amount of correction required to achieve your best possible vision. This information is compared with the findings from your scans and other measurements before any recommendations are made.

The results are reviewed alongside your diagnostic scans to support the wider assessment.

Consultant Discussion

Once the testing has been completed, you'll meet with the consultant you originally booked with. At OCL Vision, consultations are consultant-led, which means the surgeon responsible for your assessment reviews the findings directly and discusses the treatment options that may be appropriate for your eyes.

Some people attend expecting a straightforward answer about LASIK, only to discover that another treatment may be more appropriate. Others learn that laser eye surgery may not be the best option for their eyes at all.

The goal of the consultation is to identify the option that offers the best balance of safety and expected visual outcome for your eyes.

By the end of the appointment, your consultant will explain the findings from your assessment and discuss any recommendations arising from them. Some people choose to move forward with treatment planning straight away, while others prefer more time to consider their options.

What Tests Are Done Before Laser Eye Surgery?

The consultation includes a series of tests that help build a broader understanding of your eyes. Some focus on the shape of the cornea, and others assess the health of structures within your eye or the condition of your eye's surface. Taken together, these findings provide the clinical information needed to guide treatment recommendations.

Prescription Assessment

Your prescription assessment establishes the amount of short-sightedness, long-sightedness or astigmatism present. Parts of the process will feel familiar if you've had a recent eye test, with different lenses used to refine your vision and identify the clearest correction.

This information helps establish how much correction may be needed, although suitability depends on the wider findings from your assessment. People with similar prescriptions can sometimes receive very different recommendations once the rest of their assessment has been completed.

Corneal Mapping

The cornea is the clear front surface of the eye that laser eye surgery reshapes during treatment. Before treatment can be considered, your consultant needs accurate information about its shape and characteristics.

Corneal mapping creates a highly detailed picture of the cornea's shape and curvature using a non-contact scan. The test only takes a few moments, but the information it provides plays an important role in treatment planning and helps identify characteristics that wouldn't be visible during a standard eye examination.

Optos Wide Field Imaging

Before any vision correction procedure, your consultant will check the health of the retina — the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. OCL Vision use Optos wide-field retinal imaging, which captures a broad view of the retina in a single scan. It's quick and straightforward: you focus on a target while the image is taken, often without the need for dilating drops.

Although laser eye surgery corrects vision at the front of the eye, any treatment recommendation takes your wider eye health into account. Wide-field retinal imaging can reveal abnormalities such as tears, thinning or other changes at the back of your eye.

Wavefront Analysis

Wavefront analysis is a scan that measures how light travels through your eye. The assessment usually takes only a few moments and involves looking at a target while measurements are taken.

In addition to your glasses prescription, wavefront analysis can identify subtle visual imperfections that may affect the quality of your vision. The findings can contribute to treatment planning and help your consultant build a more complete picture of how your eyes perform.

Tear Film Assessment

The tear film is the thin layer of moisture that covers the surface of your eye. Assessing it helps your consultant understand how healthy and stable the surface of your eye is before treatment is considered.

The assessment usually takes only a few moments and may involve looking into specialist imaging equipment while measurements are taken. The test is non-invasive and doesn't require any contact with the eye.

The findings can help identify signs of dryness and give your consultant a better understanding of the condition of the eye's surface before treatment planning begins.

Eye Pressure Measurement

Eye pressure testing forms part of the wider health assessment carried out during the consultation. The test usually takes only a few moments and may involve a gentle puff of air or a small measuring device used to assess the pressure inside the eye.

While the measurement isn't used to decide between laser vision correction procedures, it provides important information about your eye health and may identify findings that require further assessment or monitoring.

Pupil Dilation and Retinal Examination

Towards the end of the assessment, eye drops may be used to widen your pupils if necessary. This allows your consultant to examine the retina and other structures at the back of the eye in greater detail than would otherwise be possible.

The effects of the drops are temporary, but your vision will usually become blurred for several hours afterwards. Bright light can also feel uncomfortable during this time, which is why many people find it helpful to bring sunglasses to their appointment.

Examining the retina helps your consultant assess the health of the eye beyond the cornea before discussing treatment recommendations.

How Does a Surgeon Decide Whether You're Suitable for Laser Eye Surgery?

Your consultant will review several areas in full before recommending treatment. These include your prescription, how stable it has been, the shape of your cornea, your scan results, and the wider health of your eyes. Taken together, these findings help your consultant decide which treatment options may be suitable for you.

Depending on the results of the assessment, LASIK, SmartSight™, LASEK or a lens-based procedure may be discussed.

Your visual requirements and preferences form part of the conversation too. Someone who spends long periods working on screens may have different priorities from somebody whose main concern is reducing their dependence on glasses for sport or everyday activities.

The aim of the consultation is to match the recommendation to both the clinical findings and the way you use your vision. If you'd like to learn more about the factors that influence laser eye surgery suitability, read our guide to laser eye surgery eligibility.

What Treatment Options Might Be Discussed?

Many people attend their consultation expecting a conversation about laser eye surgery, and haven’t considered the variety of suitable treatment paths. The goal of the assessment is to identify the vision correction option that’s most appropriate for your eyes and visual needs.

Depending on the findings from your consultation, your consultant may discuss one or more treatment options.

LASIK

LASIK is one of the most well-known forms of laser eye surgery and is often associated with rapid visual recovery. For suitable candidates, it can provide a highly effective alternative to glasses or contact lenses.

SmartSight™

SmartSight™ is a minimally invasive laser vision correction procedure that reshapes the cornea through a small opening rather than creating a flap. Because the upper layers of the cornea are largely left untouched, it may be discussed when it’s a key consideration to preserve more of your corneal structure.

LASEK

LASEK is a surface-based laser treatment that may be considered when the characteristics of the cornea make a flap-based procedure less appropriate. Whilst recovery typically takes longer than LASIK, it remains an effective option for many patients.

PresbyMAX

For people experiencing age-related changes in their near vision, PresbyMAX may be discussed as a way of reducing dependence on reading glasses while maintaining useful distance vision.

Implantable Contact Lenses (ICL)

Some patients are better suited to implantable contact lenses rather than laser eye surgery. Unlike laser treatment, ICL corrects vision by placing a lens inside the eye, in front of the eye's natural lens.

Lens Replacement Surgery

Lens replacement surgery may be discussed when age-related changes within the natural lens are already affecting vision. The procedure replaces the natural lens with an artificial lens, allowing both the cloudy or ageing lens and the refractive error to be addressed at the same time.

In many cases, only one or two of these options will be discussed in detail. The purpose of the consultation is to identify which treatments are most relevant to your individual circumstances rather than present every available procedure.

What Happens After a Laser Eye Surgery Consultation?

By the end of your consultation, you'll usually have a recommendation based on the findings from your assessment. Your consultant will explain the results and help you understand the options available to you.

What happens next will depend on the outcome of your consultation. You'll leave with a clear understanding of the recommendation and any steps that may be needed before treatment can proceed.

Deciding on what path to take is a major decision, and there’s no obligation to make a decision on the day of your consultation. The appointment is designed to provide the information and guidance you need to make an informed choice about your options, and allow you to ask any questions that you might have. 

If treatment is recommended and you decide to proceed, your clinical team will explain the next stage of the process and what you can expect before treatment takes place.

How to Prepare for Your Laser Eye Surgery Consultation

There isn't usually a great deal you need to do before attending your consultation, but a small amount of preparation can help ensure your assessment is as accurate as possible and make the appointment itself more straightforward.

Follow Any Contact Lens Instructions

Contact lenses can temporarily alter the shape of the cornea, which may affect some of the measurements taken during your consultation. The length of time you'll need to stop wearing them before your appointment depends on the type of contact lenses you use, so your clinical team will provide specific instructions in advance.

Allow Enough Time for Your Appointment

A laser eye surgery consultation is more detailed than a routine eye test. At OCL Vision, the appointment typically lasts around 90 minutes, so it's worth allowing enough time in your schedule and avoiding unnecessary commitments immediately afterwards.

Arrange Transport Home

Because your pupils will be dilated during the consultation, you shouldn't plan to drive yourself home afterwards. If possible, you may find it more convenient to arrange for someone to accompany you or collect you after your appointment.

Bring Sunglasses

Many people find that sunglasses make the journey home more comfortable after pupil dilation because their eyes are often more sensitive to bright light for a few hours afterwards.

Think About Your Visual Priorities

Alongside the measurements and scans, your consultation provides an opportunity to discuss what you're hoping to achieve from treatment.

Before attending, it can be helpful to think about how you use your vision day to day. Activities such as driving, sports, screen use or reading may influence the recommendations discussed during your appointment.

Prepare Any Questions You'd Like to Ask

If there are particular aspects of treatment you'd like to discuss, it can be helpful to make a note of them beforehand. That way, you're less likely to forget them during the consultation. There are no silly questions, and your consultant will want to make sure you have the information you need to decide whether treatment is right for you.

Next Steps

A laser eye surgery consultation is designed to provide the information needed to make an informed decision about vision correction. By the end of the appointment, you'll have a clearer understanding of the findings from your assessment, the recommendations that may be appropriate for your eyes and the options available moving forward.

Whether you decide to proceed immediately or take more time to consider your choices, the consultation gives you an opportunity to discuss your questions with an experienced consultant and gain clarity about what may be possible for your vision.