AN: Tell me about what’s so rewarding about what you do.
EP: You know I did a doctor who’s an OB-GYN and when she got up and sat at the end of the table and looked around and got a big smile on her face, she said you know we have very similar specialties, and I go, “Really how so?”, and she says, “It’s a happy thing.” That’s what fun about it, it is a happy thing and people are so happy and just right away it’s a life changing experience and that’s just so rewarding.
AN: And the way that you deliver it is different from a lot of doctors because you did come from the top notch in your field.
EP: Right, I’m in the top 5% of Lasik surgeons nationwide and I’ve worked for and been medical director at a large corporate Lasik facility. I decided I really wanted to open LASIKPro, I’ve been in the Frederick market since 1999, but I really wanted to open it to provide a more personal one-on-one type of care with the latest technology. It’s really been a lot of fun.
AN: Well in my experience coming in I met you right away. I worked with your staff a little bit. They kind of you know ran the machines and stuff like that to figure out where I needed to be and what we could do, and then you were there and you talked to me about what my actual experience was going to be.
EP: It’s not just that, I think it’s really important for the surgeon to, number one, get to know the patient, everybody’s different no two eyes are the same no two patients are the same. Everybody has different fears and aspirations and goals, things they want to get out of this. I think it’s just really important to get to know the individual.
AN: One of my favorite things you said was “You can’t mess this up!”
EP: Well that’s really true; you know one of the big things that keep people from getting Lasik is fear. What I always tell people is the fact is that it really doesn’t hurt, it only takes about 5 minutes an eye and I talk to you the whole way through, no surprises and there’s really nothing you can do to mess it up. These lasers have trackers and the tracker can track your eye a thousand times faster than your eye can move. Everybody when they’re done, they sit up, they get a big smile on their face, and they say, “Wow this is really cool,” and then they look around and say, “I don’t know what I was worried about, that was nothing.” I always say, “How come nobody ever believes me!”
AN: I knew everything that was going on, you were calm in your voice the whole time and I knew that everything was going great.
EP: You know I think if you know what’s happening and what’s going on then it’s a lot less scary.
AN: And one of the other things that I guess people probably would be concerned about is financing this whole thing.
EP: Financing is available; we can really make it at a very affordable cost. In the long run though when we’re done virtually everybody says to me, you know I figured it out and actually this is a whole lot cheaper than glasses and contacts and almost on top of that you get the side benefit of not having the hassle of glasses and contacts. So they figure that out afterwards, that actually it is cheaper in the long run.
EP: You know the other thing people worry about is problems afterwards, and the fact of the matter is that having Lasik done is quite a bit safer than contact lenses. Complications from contact lenses are infections and scratched corneas, and you have a lot higher risk of having problems with your eyes with contacts than you do with Lasik. We started LASIKPro because I wanted to provide the most up-to-date technology in a more personal setting than we could provide in a corporate setting. We have all the latest technology in a single location so it’s not necessary to go to other locations to have other testing done, it’s all done on site and it’s all done with the latest technology available. Having done over 45,000 eyes, I have a very good feel for what is the best technology and what gives the best results with the fewest complications. With LASIKPro I have the freedom to get the equipment and the technology and the diagnosis equipment and have it all on site to provide that service in a real personal one-on-one [setting].
