Other Special Procedures for Special Patients/Situations:
Dr. Chynn is the only surgeon, and Park Avenue Laser Vision is the only center in New York City performing only 100% No-Cut, No-Flap All-Laser LASEK and epi-LASEK laser vision correction.Therefore, they see at least one patient every single day, who cannot be helped with the older, cutting LASIK procedure, but can be fixed by the more modern Advanced Surface Ablation they are performing!

Here are some categories and examples of special patients/situations they can help with:

Patients with Amblyopia ("lazy eyes"):
Traditionally, the treatment for amblyopia, or "lazy eye" is to patch the good eye to "force it to work" and to straighten the bad eye with muscle surgery, if it is crossed.Unfortunately, these methods, which have been around for almost 100 years, do nothing to address the most common cause of amblyopia-which is anisometropia, or a difference in the prescription between the two eyes.

The reason that one eye gets "lazy" or crosses is often because that eye has a prescription in it that is significantly worse than the other eye.The image the brain receives from this eye is thus so much blurrier than that from the other eye, that the brain just "ignores" the bad image, and eventually ignores the bad eye-leading to "lazy eye."

By this explanation for anisometropic amblyopia you can see how we can help treat (or even prevent) lazy eye-by lasering off the prescription in the "bad" eye, making it have a prescription that is actually better than the "good eye"-so the brain can no longer ignore the "bad eye," because it is no longer really a bad eye!

Dr. Chynn has successfully performed LASEK and epi-LASEK (not LASIK) on dozens of patients with a lazy eye, and in every case the patient's uncorrected vision after surgery (meaning their vision without glasses or contacts) is actually better than it was corrected (with glasses or contacts) preoperatively!How much better?One to four lines on the eye chart-4 lines means going from 20/60 to 20/25, for example-or not legal to drive either day or night, to legal to drive both day and night!

So, the dozens of patients with lazy eyes were all adults, and had been told over the years (or decades, in many cases) that their "bad" eye could not be helped-but this was often decades ago, before the excimer laser was even invented by two of Dr. Chynn's MD colleagues while he was a medical student at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons.

These patients are among our happiest patients, as we didn't just eliminate their contacts and glasses (like for a regular patient), but we actually took an eye that they had "given up on" and made it a functional, working eye!

Most patients with amblyopia whom we fixed report vastly improved peripheral vision, and also say that their bad eye no longer wanders when they are tired and that they feel less of a strain on their good eye because they are using both eyes together for the first time in their lives!

Obviously, before performing surgery on any amblyopic eye, Dr. Chynn will send the patient for a second opinion by a pediatric ophthalmologist to make sure that the patient will not have diplopia or double vision afterwards, and carefully explains to and consents the patient that the bad eye will never see as well as the good eye, but will see much better-and it always does!

So, if you have a lazy eye and would like to see if it can be improved by LASEK or epi-LASEK, please call our center to schedule an appointment.  Please understand that your initial appointment is not a "free consultation" but an "office visit" that will be billed to your medical insurance, because you have a pre-existing medical condition-however, you will not have to pay for this yourself, as long as you have any type of valid medical (not vision) insurance besides Medicaid (you may have to pay a small co-pay and obtain a referral from your primary care provider if you have a HMO).

Even better, because you have a pre-existing medical condition, in most cases, your medical insurance will actually partially pay for your laser procedure-because it is not purely cosmetic, but is correcting a medical problem!

Prior LASIK complications:
Because of the Advanced Surface Ablations Dr. Chynn is performing exclusively, he can more easily-and more safely-enhance or fix problem caused by prior LASIK surgery.This is because instead of cutting into your eye and making a flap, Dr. Chynn will just use the cool beam of light from the excimer laser to gently reshape your corneal surface, fixing any irregularities caused by the previous sub-optimal procedure.

Every week, we are treating complications by other surgeons-and making unhappy patients into happy patients-which is one of the most rewarding things you can do as a surgeon.

For example, one of the most common LASIK complications after the older, cutting surgery is a "messed up flap"-which can be an incomplete flap, partial flap, "button hole" flap, full or free flap, or a flap that goes back down irregularly with flap striae, flap wrinkles, or other flap abnormalities.  All of these are flap-related problems-and all cause poor vision, double vision, and can contribute to night glare and halos.

If you have these problems, Dr. Chynn can see you for a "medical second opinion"-again, not a "free consult" as you have had prior LASIK surgery, but it will be free to you, as your medical insurance will cover this always.

When you come in, please bring a copy of your entire eye history from your previous doctor, as your visit will be much more complete if Dr. Chynn can review these records.

One of Dr. Chynn's MD Fellows (we don't use "techs" at Park Avenue Laser-only MDs) will perform a CustomVue WaveScan on your eyes, which will map exactly to the nearest hundredth of a diopter all the irregularities and imperfections and higher-order aberrations caused by your "messed up LASIK."

But even with this incredibly accurate WaveMap, we won't just laser your eyes and hope for the best.  We can cut a Prevue Lens, or a special piece of plastic provided by VISX AMO, which we insert onto a special arm underneath the laser-instead of your eyes-and then laser that piece of plastic exactly like it was your eye!

Then, we'll have you hold up this preview lens (it looks like an eyeglass lens) and have you read the eye chart (if distance is your problem), or the reading card (if near vision is your problem), and even take it home with you (after we train you on how to look through it) so you can see exactly how you would see in your normal activities of daily living, after we perform your enhancement surgery!  What could be more precise-and safer-than that!

So if you are not perfectly happy with your vision after LASIK because of a LASIK complication-or even if you had a non-customized, "standard" LASIK years ago (like Dr. Chynn himself) and want to see how you would see after our "High-Definition Laser VisionTM"-give us a call, and ask for a second opinion for a PreVue Lens!

Fixing problems after prior incisional surgery such as RK, AK, PK, etc.:
Dr. Chynn has so much confidence in the greater safety of his no-cutting, all-laser procedure, that he has fixed problems in patients who other surgeons who perform the older, cutting LASIK procedure cannot touch!

For example, Alan Finger, the owner of IshtaYoga, came to Park Avenue Laser Vision in 2008, having had previous RK (radial keratotomy) and AK (arcuate keratotomy) surgery with a metal blade 28 years ago-before the laser even came out!
Alan was disappointed, because his vision had been good immediately after his surgery, but had gotten slowly worse every year for the past decade-so bad, that he had multiple separate glasses for distance (driving), intermediate (computers), and near (reading).Alan was told by several other "LASIK experts" that he could not be enhanced, but fortunately, he didn't give up, and came in to see us.

Dr. Chynn used Mitomycin C (MMC) intra-operatively, an antimetabolite (from cancer chemotherapy) to prevent scarring, and performed a CustomVue WaveFront LASEK enhancement on one of Alan's eyes.  The result was amazing-so much so, that Alan was begging and pleading with us to laser his other eye right away!But Dr. Chynn is a very conservative and ethical doctor, so he forced Alan to wait three months to make sure there was no scarring in the first eye, and gave him both oral steroids and topical steroids to prevent scarring, as well as Vitamin C.Finally, when Dr. Chynn was 100% convinced that there was no further risk of scarring in the first eye, he lasered the other eye for MonoVision-and now Alan can see well for driving, computer, and reading without glasses!

Alan is a great guy, a Yogi, and the type of person who wants to help others like himself-so if you have had prior complicated eye surgery, and want to contact him to see if you might be helped, you can email him from his website, IshtaYoga.(Dr. Chynn became friends with Alan over the year he was working with him, and took some classes with Alan and joined his studio as an annual member, and can also testify that Alan's studio is incredible-great atmosphere, great staff, and great results!)

Alan has taught many famous celebrities, including: Barbara Streisand, Robin Williams, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Bill Murray, and has many famous actresses "stop by" his studio in the "Heart of the Village" including Julienne Moore, Nicole Kidman, and Julia Roberts!  You should definitely stop by his center at a free "open house" session!

Alan has a great quote as a testimonial to our helping him achieve "Perfect Vision:" "My eyesight after Dr. Chynn fixed my eyes is so good, I had to return my Canon digital SLR, and replace it with the awesome Nikon D-700-as I need my camera to match my "High-Definition Laser VisionTM"!

Dr. Chynn has even lasered a MD who had a previous corneal transplant for Fuchs' dystrophy, and was left with significant surgically-induced astigmatism.Again, that patient-who was a doctor herself-had been told erroneously that she "couldn't be helped" or that it was "unsafe to enhance her eyes" (by a MD who only knew about the more risky, incisional, cutting LASIK procedure).

Nystagmus or "wandering/twitching eyes":
Dr. Chynn has also successfully lasered several patients with nystagmus, or "wandering eyes" or "twitching eyes." Our VISX S4 IR laser was recently upgraded to ActivTrak, where the laser maps your iris details, and samples or tracks your eyes at 60 Hz (60 times every second!), so your eye cannot move quickly enough to "mess up" as the laser will track your eye faster than it can move-so you can relax!:)

If you have nystagmus, you can come into our office for a Medical Second Opinion, and we will give you the contact information of Howard V., a lawyer Dr. Chynn lasered in 2007 who had really bad nystagmus and wound up seeing much better without glasses after our No-Cut, No-flap LASEK than he did with (unsightly) glasses before!

Extreme prescriptions: myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism:
We at Park Avenue Laser Vision are the ONLY center in NYC performing 100% No-Cut, No-Flap, All-Laser LASEK and epi-LASEK laser vision correction.(Every other center is performing this or the older, less-advanced "PRK" in "selected" "high-risk" patients-whereas we made the decision in 2005 to perform the SAFER procedure in ALL of our patients!)

Therefore, by not cutting a flap, we save over 100 microns of corneal tissue, which is actually enough to treat nearly -10.00 D! of myopia in a "standard" ablation, and -7.00 D in a "High-Definition Laser Vision CorrectionTM"!

For example, in 2008, Dr. Chynn treated Natacha Hildebrand, who was working for him as an Assistant Laser Vision Coordinator, and she was a -10.00! preop (or 3x "legally blind" or about 20/2,000!) and after her LASEK on 1 eye, and epi-LASEK on the other eye, she is now seeing a PERFECT 20/20-which is quite remarkable starting at a -10.00! (other laser centers could not treat her entire Rx, as she would have had a flap cut, leaving insufficient residual corneal stromal afterwards for safety/strength).