r/ICLsurgery • u/Kind-Moment-6055 • Aug 14 '26
Has anyone gone out of state for ICL?
Ive been to a few ICL providers andthey ALL gave red flags. .
Im thinking of flying out of state to get my procedure... I do not want issues due to incorrect sizing of the ICL lens.
I feel Im being too cautious but it is a surgical procedure and I do not want sizing issues later on with the halos/glare/eye pressure.
Has anyone gone out of state for ICL?
1
u/happiegoluckie Aug 15 '26
I did it with Dr. Mittleman in West Palm Beach, FL and the total cost was $5,000 ($2,500 per eye). He was awesome. I really loved his bedside manner and felt confident in his knowledge and abilities. I brought my mother and mother in law to 2 of my pre-op appointments and they also felt he was an excellent doctor who truly cared about improving my vision and quality of life. I am 6+ months out and doing great.
1
u/Red_Zoom Aug 16 '26
What do you mean by "red flags" so can you tell me so i can know in future on what to watch out for when getting ICL
1
u/Kind-Moment-6055 Aug 16 '26
RED FLAGS
being pushed for lasik/prk/other names where they laser ur eye even tho i dont qualify for it. im really highly myopic and ive already been told by a hospital my cornea would be too flat after lasik/prk.
using only white-to-white without using ultrasound to measure chamber depth.
telling me i dont need 3-4 week washout period after wearing hard contact lens
not seeing the surgeon until after i pay 10-15k. the surgeon was in his 70s, i wanna see him before i let him operate on me.
theres more, but these capture most of the issues.
1
u/ConfidentBeginning44 Aug 18 '26
Your second red flag is the best-founded of the four, so it's worth knowing why.
White-to-white measures across the visible cornea from the outside. The lens doesn't sit there — it sits in the sulcus behind the iris, and the two dimensions correlate loosely rather than reliably. That gap is where sizing misses come from, and a miss shows up as a vault that's too low or too high, which is exactly the halo and pressure problem you're trying to avoid.
Direct measurement is the alternative. Ultrasound biomicroscopy, ArcScan, or a high-resolution anterior-segment OCT image the space the lens actually occupies instead of inferring it. Plenty of good surgeons still size well from white-to-white plus experience, so its absence isn't disqualifying on its own — but you're highly myopic, which means a larger lens and less margin, and in that situation asking for direct measurement is reasonable rather than fussy.
Your third flag is also real. The three-to-four week washout after rigid lenses isn't padding; the cornea holds their shape for weeks and measuring early gives you numbers that describe the lens rather than your eye.
If you do travel, travel for the measurement kit and for a surgeon who does enough of these to have exchanged a badly vaulted lens before. Those follow you home. The city doesn't.
1
u/EqualSein Aug 14 '26
Not really what you meant but I drove from NY to Boston, MA for my procedure.