David Shapiro M D

I am now 7 months out of having PRK LASIK with Dr. David Shapiro and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I am very conservative about having anything done to my body and was skeptical about having an elective procedure done to something so vital as my vision. But Dr. Shapiro gave me the confidence to do it and its been great. I did a lot of research going into it and spent a year interviewing and getting consultations with several ophthalmologists. I chose Dr. Shapiro because he was the only one who seemed truly concerned with my condition, values, and long term results. And I had friends who had been to other eye surgeons, and when their cases got complicated, they were referred by their doctors to Dr. Shapiro — I think that speaks volumes in itself. Those friends had excellent outcomes of what could have been a disaster, and they loved Dr. Shapiro’s care and expertise.
I found that he spent significantly more time in the office educating me on my condition and on the procedure than any other doc (almost triple!), and during the year would email me answers to questions as I learned more and more about LASIK. I didn’t have a need to start wearing glasses until I was nearly thirty. Dr. Shapiro was concerned that while my cornea were thick enough, they may not be stable and that doing a standard LASIK procedure could weaken the structure just enough to cause problems years down the road. The other docs just seemed to want to do it the quick & easy way, while making a few bucks. Dr. Shapiro made the tougher recommendation of PRK (photorefractive keratotomy) which is less invasive but takes longer to recover from. Same dollars out of my pocket — its just that I would sacrifice not having perfect vision for a few weeks for the comfort of knowing my cornea wouldn’t have to be sliced into a flap.
The procedure itself was not bad at all — truly took only about 10 minutes once on the table. I could see when I left, but definitely wanted to wear dark shades and have someone drive me (that’s required). I laid low a few days, had some scratchiness, but it really wasn’t too bad. I was able to read and work on a computer in the next day or two, but only for short periods at a time. I probably pushed too hard, as I was working a new job, and found myself going for an hour or two or more without a break for eye drops and that is not good — I think that may have slowed things down a little initially. I was driving in a few days, and night time didn’t bother me at all. Lenses came out in a week and I was already ²⁰⁄₂₀ in one eye and ²⁰⁄₂₅ in the other. I did find that after the lenses came out my vision appeared to worsen a bit, which is a little unusual. It might be that the epithelial layer that needs to grow back got a little disturbed on the removal and just needed to continue growing in. I found that my vision continued to improve over the next 6 – 8 weeks and at my 2 month check up I was ²⁰⁄₁₅ in one eye and ²⁰⁄₂₀ in the other! And being in Santa Barbara Dr. Shapiro made follow up appointments easy — he has an office in Montecito that he would come to in the early evenings which meant I didn’t have to miss any more work :)
It’s been great being able to wear sunglasses again (I hated those bulky clip-​ons and was too cheap/didn’t want the hassle of switching back and forth with prescription glasses). I no longer worry about getting my glasses bent up or just knocked around on my head, as I like to be fairly active, and that just wasn’t working for me. Now I’m free!!! I do occasionally still wake up with dry eyes, but that can usually be prevented with a little eye gel at night or use of eye drops in the morning — I rarely do either now. With the no interest 2 year payment plan I can easily say this was one of my better investments. Thank you Dr. Shapiro for being there for me.
If you are considering LASIK or PRK I would highly recommend you see Dr. Shapiro first. That’s all he does. I know that’s his tag line, but it’s true. He is the première LASIK /​PRK ophthalmologist in our region. When my mother started having eye troubles of a different nature I asked him about it and he made a great referral to another doctor. He wants to help people make their best choices. That makes him my best choice.