Laser Eye Surgery

Achieve 20|20 vision with UK’s leading laser eye surgeon and free yourself from the hassle of contact lenses or glasses. Book a consultation today & take the next step towards better vision.

400+ 5-Star Patient Reviews:

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Laser Eye Surgery

David Anderson of Anderson Eye Care has been performing laser vision correction for nearly 20 years since undertaking a full refractive surgery Fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 2001.

He underwent excimer laser vision correction himself so understands fully how life changing the procedure can be. He has written, presented and published widely in refractive surgery and led the cataract, corneal and refractive surgery fellowship programme at University Hospital Southampton for 13 years teaching and training surgeons from the UK and across the world.

More recently David Anderson and Aris Konstantopoulos have formed Laser Vision Eye Centre and were the first to bring ReLEx SMILE® and PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision correction to the South of England partnering with Nuffield Health Wessex in 2018 to establish the first state of the art laser vision correction facility in Hampshire offering these advanced treatments. 

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David Anderson & Aris Konstantopolous of Laser Vision Eye Centre

Our Laser Vision Correction Procedures

Different laser eye surgery procedures are suitable for different purposes. We tailor each procedure to your individual circumstances and requirements and are one of only a few clinics in the UK to offer a full range of treatments including SMILE® and PRESBYOND® as well as therapeutic treatments. 

Lasik
Lasik
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The most frequently performed procedure and the benchmark in laser vision correction. Painless and fast offering rapid recovery and visual freedom.

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ReLEx SMILE®
ReLEx SMILE®
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The fastest growing laser vision procedure globally, think of it as keyhole LASIK. We were the first to offer this in the South and one of a handful of centres in the UK to provide this service.

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PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision
PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision
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An excellent solution to the natural age-related requirement for reading glasses. Developed exclusively by Carl Zeiss and delivered through LASIK. We are one of only a few UK centres privileged to offer this procedure.

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Advanced Surface Ablation / LASEK
Advanced Surface Ablation / LASEK
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Triple-A and aspheric-optimized design of the Mel® 90 excimer laser ensures excellent visual outcomes when the cornea may be too thin to support SMILE or LASIK.

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Other Procedures
Other Procedures
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We also commonly perform other laser eye surgery procedures including YAG PC / YAG PI and SLT.

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A Brief History of Laser Eye Surgery

Excimer lasers have been used to correct vision for more than 30 years and along with cataract surgery, laser eye procedures are among the most frequently performed and safest elective surgical procedures in the world.

It is estimated that more than 40,000,000 laser procedures have been performed to date with over 2,000,000 ReLEx SMILE® procedures now performed making ReLEx SMILE® the fastest growing refractive laser procedure. Laser vision correction can result in complete freedom from corrective lenses until the onset of presbyopia, the natural requirement to wear reading glasses with age.

Newer laser procedures such as PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision have now been developed to specifically address the issue of presbyopia.

The 3 Generations of Laser Eye Surgery

How We Minimise the Risk in Laser Eye Surgery

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Laser eye surgery is one of the safest medical procedures and complications are rare. David Anderson has been performing laser vision correction for 20 years and has a wide experience and is accredited to treat across a range of laser platforms. These are some of the most important measures we think are important in maximising safety:

Expert Surgeon

David Anderson is a Fellowship trained corneal surgeon as well as a laser specialist. He is a Consultant in a University Teaching Hospital where he looks after patients with complex corneal disorders and routinely treats people with corneal infections related to injury or contact lenses. David is often the specialist to whom other laser providers will refer to if they require further expertise in managing rare complications.

Fully equipped private hospital open 24/7

Nuffield Health Wessex Hospital is a fully equipped private hospital able to offer medical care and advice 24/7. It encompasses a fully functional eye department and the hospital has its own pharmacy. All patients are admitted into private rooms, not shared bays, offering you the safest, most comfortable environment for your treatment.

State of the art technology

We were the first to introduce Carl Zeiss Meditec technology and lasers in the south of England and to perform PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision and ReLEx SMILE® here. We have a long experience treating laser vision patients at Nuffield Health first dating back to 2003 and are able to offer a full range of refractive procedures to enable you to choose the best and safest for your eyes.

Personal service

Your care will be directed by David Anderson from your initial consultation to your final follow up visit and David will personally perform your laser vision correction procedure. We will provide you with clear, written instructions and explain them to you. As with all surgical procedures it is important that you follow the prescribed course of treatment.

Laser Eye Surgery FAQs

We are always on hand to answer any questions you may have about your proposed surgery or to provide you with further information. We have addressed some of the most frequently asked questions we receive below but of course, there are many others that you may have so please do contact us and ask!

Laser vision correction is an affordable option and over the course of optical years often less expensive than wearing contact lenses and spectacles. Our prices are £1,925 per eye for LASIK and ASA / LASEK, £2,350 per eye for ReLEx SMILE® and £2,495 per eye for PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision. Specialist and therapeutic treatments will carry additional charges. 

Up to 10 months interest free credit is available and longer payment plans are also available to bring the cost down to as little as £50 per month and can be arranged through Nuffield Health. 

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Laser Vision Correction is not painful. A pressure feeling is typically experienced during the surgery but not pain. After LASIK or SMILE, a slight gritty sensation and sensitivity to light may be noticed only for the first 24-48 hours after the surgery. After LASEK, the gritty sensation and sensitivity to light are more pronounced and typically last 3-5 days; however, with the use of appropriate drops and oral pain relief, the gritty sensation and light sensitivity can be controlled well.

Typically you will be in the laser suite for around 25 minutes. Creating of the flap in LASIK takes less than 10 seconds, creating of the lenticule in ReLEx SMILE® takes around 25 seconds with the entire procedure for both between 5 to 10 minutes per eye.

Complications after laser eye surgery are rare but cannot be ruled out, as with all medical procedures there is always the risk of possibile of side effects. We will discuss the risks and benefits of treatment with you and provide you with the Royal College of Ophthalmology guidelines so that you can reach a fully informed choice.

Many studies have examined the safety of laser vision correction, two large studies (patient reported outcome studies with LASIK (PROWL) I and II with over 500 patients, commissioned in the United States, reported on the symptoms and satisfactions of patients with LASIK. One key strength of the studies was that on-line questionnaires were conducted in private before and after surgery so that the treating surgeon was not present and therefore could not bias or influence the answer. Concluding from these studies:

  • Driving level vision without the need for glasses or contact lenses may be achieved in 99.1 – 100% of eyes
  • 6/6 or 20/20 vision may be achieved in 91.7 – 98.3% of eyes
  • If 6/6 vision is not achieved, a top up treatment or enhancement may be performed
  • The proportion of people with dry eye symptoms decreased following LASIK with fewer than 3% developing new symptoms of severe dry eye
  • The risk of having poorer vision than before the procedure was 2:1000
  • The risk of a corneal infection was approximately 1:10,000
In essence, no. As laser eye surgery is performed at the level of the cornea which is the outer coat of the eye and not inside the eye, the treatment is one of the safest eye procedures there are. It is possible to develop an infection following treatment but this risk is widely considered to be far lower than the risk of developing a corneal infection from wearing contact lenses over time and estimated to be around 1:10,000 cases.
It is technically possible to treat up to -14D of myopia (short-sight), +8D of hyperopia (long sight) and up to 6D of astigmatism using the Zeiss platform but laser vision correction is most frequently performed on people with mild to moderate corrections. Higher corrections will take a number of factors into account and may be combined with collagen cross-linkage to enhance stability. We will always seek to achieve the best visual outcome for you which may mean recommending a different type of treatment to laser vision correction if more appropriate.

Your vision will not be compromised, and your eyes will not be damaged if you blink, cough, sneeze or generally move during Laser Vision Correction. The excimer laser tracks the movement of your eyes and stops treating when your eyes are not aligned perfectly. The femtosecond laser ‘holds’ your eye with gentle vacuum; it is thus very difficult for you to blink or move the eyes during laser treatment. Rarely, 1 in several hundred cases, if movement does occur, we may need to modify the planned treatment or complete the surgery on another day; this will not compromise the health of your eyes or your final visual result.

We offer a wide range of refractive surgery procedures in addition to laser vision correction and will examine all potential solutions with you to find the treatment most suitable for your needs e.g. for very high corrections implantable collamer lens surgery may be more suitable or if cataract is present, cataract surgery may be a better choice. We are usually able to treat the large majority of people and have a wide experience treating people with high corrections and complex eyes but occasionally we will advise you against treatment if it is medically advisable to do so.

We offer a free screening visit including a corneal topography examination to determine whether your cornea is normal and is thick enough to support treatment. You will then need to undergo a comprehensive medical eye examination and review of your general health. The nature and degree of your refractive error and many other factors play a role and we will discuss these with you at consultation and provide you with written information so that you can reach a fully informed decision.

At each visit, a team of practitioners, such as a nurse and an optometrist, and the surgeon who performed your laser treatment will review you. In exceptional circumstances, such as illness, another surgeon of Laser Vision Eye Centre will review you.

You will typically be reviewed at 1 day, 1-2 weeks, 3 months and 12 months after your Laser Vision Correction.

Most people choose to have both eyes corrected at the same sitting so that they can benefit from the benefits of the treatment as soon as possible.

Laser vision correction causes a permanent change to the shape of the cornea but the rest of the eye, like the rest of you will continue to age so if e.g. you were to undergo LASIK or ReLEx SMILE® to correct myopia at the age of 21 years, although your distance vision would remain corrected, in your mid-forties you would start to become presbyopic and require reading spectacles at the same age you would have naturally if you had not undergone treatment.

A small group of people will experience progression of their myopia later into life and so we ask that you have a stable spectacle correction for 2 years prior to treatment. Another small group of people will show regression of the correction but not back to the starting correction, the treatment will not ‘wear off’ and this will be taken into account during treatment planning.

Laser eye surgery does not increase your risk of developing other eye conditions such as glaucoma, cataract or macular degeneration. As the laser changes the shape of the cornea, this does need to be taken into account if later in life you undergo cataract surgery so it is important to keep a record of your details prior to laser treatment although modern scanning techniques we employ in cataract surgery do not rely on prior data to make accurate calculations of intra-ocular lens power.

The Visumax laser used for ReLEx SMILE® and LASIK will hold your eye gently by applying suction to the surface. Although you cannot see or feel the laser, you will be able to see a flashing green fixation light so you have a visual target to look at and it will feel as if you are blinking naturally. The Mel® 90 excimer laser has an active eye tracker which measures the position of the eye at more than 1000 times per second whilst you are looking at the fixation light to ensure accurate placement of each laser pulse. David Anderson will be guiding you through each step and ensuring that you are reassured and comfortable throughout your procedure.

We advise you against driving until your first post-treatment review so we can measure your vision and advise you accurately.
Work often involves the use of screens which will reduce your blink rate and can dry your eyes and make them feel less comfortable. This won’t affect the outcome of your treatment but we do recommend that you take a day or two away from screens after ReLEx SMILE® or LASIK and use plenty of artificial tears or lubricant drops when you do return which we will provide you with. For ASA / LASEK treatments your vision will fluctuate more and we usually suggest taking a week off work although you can return sooner if you feel able.

With PRESBYOND® Laser Blended Vision, one eye is corrected for distance and some mid-range vision and the other eye is corrected to focus at the mid and near range. If only one eye is used you won’t be able to see at all ranges but with both eyes together you will achieve a focussed vision at all ranges.

We’d like you to avoid eye make-up for 7 days following laser eye surgery, any other face make-up can be worn after 48 hours.

Therapeutic and specialist laser treatments for the corneal disease

David Anderson is a Corneal Specialist and able to provide expert and customised treatments for a variety of conditions affecting the cornea including corneal transplant procedures. Many corneal conditions however, can be treated by laser which is less invasive than surgery and can also be used to improve the quality of vision after injury, infection or other surgeries.

 Included in these treatments are phototherapeutic keratectomy, laser eye surgery following other surgical procedures and topography-driven laser eye surgery.

Phototherapeutic keratectomy

Phototherapeutic keratectomy (PTK) is a surface laser procedure which can be used to precisely reshape or smooth the cornea in pathological conditions such as corneal dystrophies which are inherited metabolic conditions that affect the cornea or to treat scars caused by infections or injuries. 

PTK is also an effective treatment for a condition called recurrent corneal erosion (RCE) syndrome where mild trauma to the cornea causes incomplete healing of the corneal surface or epithelium leading to patients experiencing pain or discomfort on waking and opening their eyes or being woken by pain during sleep. 

David Anderson evaluated the effectiveness of this treatment in a Cochrane review of all published high quality evidence regarding treatment for RCE and published this in a book chapter entitled ‘Corneal Abrasion and Recurrent Erosion’ in Evidence based Ophthalmology.

Topography driven or Topo-guided laser

This specialist treatment is used to reshape the cornea to a rounder or more natural shape if it has become distorted by prior surgery or conditions such as Keratoconus or injury. Detailed measurements are made of the cornea using the CRS Master shown below which are then analysed. 

David Anderson will then design a custom treatment for your individual cornea and this is then applied using advanced surface ablation. These treatments may be performed in conjunction with corneal collagen cross-linkage and/or in conjunction with refractive procedures to correct spectacle error or as stand-alone treatments. 

David Anderson has taught and presented the results of the outcomes of his topography guided treatments at a variety of national and international meetings including the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery.

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5-Star Laser Eye Surgery Reviews

Jenny
Gift of Sight
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Having had laser correction carried out by Mr Anderson, I can honestly say it was the best choice I could of made. Mr Anderson explained the procedure clearly and answered all my questions. I was feeling anxious in the last week prior to my surgery, but once I had seen Mr Anderson the day before my surgery, he put me at ease. A modern day miracle, thank you for giving me my sight back and changing my life!!
Vicky
No more glasses! Thanks Mr Anderson.
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I had LASIK (laser eye surgery) performed in October 2014 by Mr Anderson. Throughout the whole journey, pre operative and post operative, he has been kind caring and professional. Nothing is too much trouble, even any niggling concerns I have had, he has been right on hand to be able to advise me further.
David
The best decision I ever made
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After years of mucking about with glasses and contacts, I got LASEK from Anderson Eye Care. First, I can see perfectly. As a competitive rugby player, I expose my eyes to a fair bit of abuse (tackles, mud, etc.) and I have not had a single trouble with my eyes since the surgery. The experience itself was professional and comfortable, and Dr. Anderson gave me clear and helpful advice. Having done it, it is amazing to me that anybody would still choose to wear contacts or glasses.
Steve
Fantastic attention to detail
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I was a patient of David's having laser eye surgery and am now a colleague of his. I can highly recommend David. He is a skilful surgeon and is naturally a details person. He gives truly bespoke solutions for refractive surgery.
Dr Bram
Brilliant surgeon, fantastic care
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I had LASEK eye surgery to correct significant amblyopia. Mr Anderson was thorough and reassuring. I always felt in good hands and the aftercare I received was excellent. I would strongly recommend this surgeon and his team for the excellent quality of service and the brilliant care and results that I received.
Ms H
Thank you Mr. Anderson.
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It is a daunting experience and most peculiar sensation having eye surgery. However if all surgeons and teams are as good and caring as Anderson Eye Care we can be assured of a pain free and quite amazing result. My eye sight was particularly poor and I now see better than ever in my life. My local optician said it was the best result he had ever seen. I felt reassured and safe through the whole experience.
Hilary
Great experience of Lasik
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Great experience from initial consultation through to actual procedure. Nothing was too much trouble and all questions / queries / concerns were answered in a very clear and simple way. David and his support staff of nurses and opticians were excellent. I would have zero hesitation in recommending David to friends / colleagues.
Michael
Laser eye surgery - excellent service, would highly recommend
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I underwent LASEK laser eye surgery from David Anderson nearly 5 months ago. The service really was superb from start to finish. David is clearly highly skilled at what he does and I felt completely at ease throughout the process. I experienced minimal discomfort both during and after the procedure and I am extremely pleased with the results. I would definitely recommend David to anyone that is considering undergoing laser eye surgery.
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