Featuring state-of-the-art excimer and femtosecond laser technology
Since you’ll live with the results of your laser eye surgery for many years to come, you’ll want to get a great visual outcome, and that highly depends on the quality of the laser technology the surgeon employs for your correction, as modern laser platforms offer safety and performance advantages compared to older designs.
While not all practices in the Bay Area can afford to keep-up with the rapid pace of technical change in the laser vision correction market, Dr. Hyver believes that his patients deserve premium performance, so he’s invested in a state-of-the-art laser infrastructure, featuring the Alcon EX500 excimer laser, the ZEISS Visumax femtosecond laser, and the Ziemer Z-Series femtosecond laser.
The Alcon EX500 Excimer Laser Platform
The Alcon EX500 Excimer Laser Platform
The centerpiece of our laser infrastructure is the Alcon EX500 excimer laser, which Dr. Hyver employs in the “All Laser” LASIK, Contoura LASIK, and Customized PRK procedures to correct the patient’s nearsightedness and astigmatism.
The EX500 is Alcon’s flagship solution and the fastest excimer laser in the U.S. market, pulsing at 500 HZ, or 500 times a second. The EX500’s fast pulse rate dramatically reduces treatment time, limiting corneal dehydration and its potential negative effects on treatment accuracy, while the EX500’s fast eye tracker — which checks the position of your eye more than 1,000 times per second — reduces the chance of a decentered treatment and the associated risk of complications.
The ZEISS Visumax Femtosecond Laser Platform
The ZEISS Visumax Femtosecond Laser Platform
Dr. Hyver employs the German-engineered ZEISS Visumax femtosecond laser for the SMILE vision correction procedure. The Visumax is, in fact, the only FDA-approved laser for the correction of nearsightedness and astigmatism using the novel technique of corneal lenticule incision and extraction, where a pre-calculated lenticule (a tiny disc-shaped piece of corneal tissue) is created inside the intact cornea and then removed via a small incision, thereby correcting the patient’s nearsightedness and astigmatism.
The Ziemer Z-Series Femtosecond Laser Platform
The Ziemer Z-Series Femtosecond Laser Platform
Dr. Hyver employs the Swiss-engineered Ziemer Z-Series femtosecond laser to create the corneal flap, which is the first-step in the “All Laser” LASIK and Contoura LASIK procedures. After the flap is created and lifted, Dr. Hyver then employs the Alcon EX500 excimer laser to reshape the exposed cornea to correct the patient’s vision error, after which he restores the flap whereupon it heals, preserving the new vision.
Compared to other femtosecond lasers, Dr. Hyver believes the Ziemer platform is a safer and more accurate solution to creating the LASIK corneal flap. For example, the Ziemer’s fast pulse rate and smaller pulse size produce overlapping spots, contributing to a cleaner corneal flap boundary, while the Ziemer’s lower pulse energy helps reduce corneal stress and the associated risks of complications.
How well will I see and what are the risks?
With today’s state-of-the-art laser infrastructure, combined with Dr. Hyver’s experience and deep surgical database, it’s rare that our patient’s don’t see 20/20 or better. However, despite its technical maturity, laser vision correction, like all elective surgeries, is not without risks or alternatives, which you can learn more about here.