Dunes LASIK Center

Can I Afford LASIK?

LASIK Costs

LASIK is an elective procedure like cosmetic surgery and is usually not covered by medical insurance. That means you’ll have to pay most if not all of the fee out of your own pocket.

By industry survey during the first quarter of 2010, average LASIK costs were about $2000 – $2200 per eye. This average price includes chains that make amazingly low price offers.

The good news is that we offer attractive monthly payment options that can make 20/20 vision or better as affordable as a few dollars a day – and without the ongoing costs of lenses.

Here are some facts you need to know about LASIK Affordability:

• LASIK for $299, $499 or $699 – Fact or Fiction? Mostly fiction. Ads offering LASIK for $299, $499 or $699 can be found all over the media and at first glance they seem very tempting. In fact less than 2% of patients even qualify medically for this type of procedure:

“Indeed, only 3 percent of LASIK procedures cost less than $1,000 per eye, and the average price is about $2,000.” Statement by Paul B. Ginsburg, PhD. before U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health, 3/1/2006

Factually, most of these ads are misleading and play on concerns about money. These ads are called ‘bait and switch’ marketing and are designed to snare the price-conscious buyer by quoting incredibly low prices.

• Bait & Switch Marketing: This not very honest technique works like this: ’Bait’ the unwary consumer by offering startlingly low prices but then ‘switch’ to escalate the end cost by adding ‘necessary enhancements or additions’ that independent surgeons like Dr. Womack include in their basic fee.

One of the largest publicly-traded LASIK corporations that practices this marketing gambit – LASIK Plus – reported their average price per procedure (one eye) at $1,619. What happened to $299 per eye?

• Not all ‘LASIK’ is the same: PRK is a form of laser vision correction where the excimer laser is used without creating a corneal flap. While this makes the procedure less expensive, and the long-term outcomes are identical to real LASIK, the healing process can take up to 5 times longer.

The moral of the story is: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

While the large LASIK chains make the most noise on the marketing front, their misleading marketing techniques and production-line approach procedures account for most of the very few dissatisfied LASIK patients you might read about on the web.

The fact is that you don’t have to ‘discount’ your vision or your peace of mind to achieve 20/20 or better with LASIK from Dunes LASIK Center.