Do doctors have laser eye surgery themselves?

I hear this question frequently. The answer is: actually they do.

Data is not always readily available on how many and how well they do. So reading the November Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery I was pleased to see page 1466 an article by Jeffrey Ma, Angelique Pillar and Ronald Krueger. Two hundred and thirty five doctors who had laser eye surgery were invited to participate in the study. Fifty percent did. Of those 98.3 % reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their vision and 96.6% reported they would choose to have the procedure again.

Of those who answered the survey 93% reported no adverse effects of vision correction on their working life. Six reported some mild visual effect on their work, but all indicated they would repeat the procedure again in retrospect. Of those who perform procedures over half said their ability to perform procedures or surgeries was easier after vision correction.

The authors noted the number of doctors who choose to have laser vision correction at their centre is significantly increasing.

What about doctors who perform laser vision correction who wear glasses themselves? Knowing what they know, this group is four time more likely than the general population to have laser vision correction (Kezinan GM et al Prevalence of LVC in ophthalmologists who perform refractive surgery JCRS 2015;41:1826-1832)

So the answer is yes, doctors and doctors who perform laser vision correction themselves do choose laser vision correction for themselves with good results.