Witlin Richard MD

Avoid this practice at all costs. Went to Dr. Witlin at the advice of my optometrist. Said he was just a bit better at tweaking a correction for cataract surgery. After waiting about two hours it was finally my turn. Office is run like an assembly line. Had a variety of tests done. Doctor asked me if I ever had mono vision. I said yes but years ago when I wore hard contact lenses. He said he would give me a slight mono correction. I asked what if I don’t like it and he said he could correct with lasik surgery. After my first eye was operated on I immediately complained I could see nothing at a distance. I was told my brain had to get use to the correction and to give it time and wait until my second eye was operated on. After the second eye was operated on which was corrected to only see distance. However, over a year later my distance vision is so bad I must wear glasses if I want to see sharply. My night vision is as bad as it was prior to surgery. I was told about 4 months later that scar tissue had built up and needed a «yag» procedure. I had that done in both eyes. By this time I had now spent $ 7131 out of pocket. During the yag on eye no 2 I told the doctor I was still having a hard time with the correction and he said «well, that is a conversation we need to have with Dr. Shelly and lasik is not covered by insurance. I was aghast to think that after spending so much money already he would have the audacity to charge me more to correct what he should have done right the first time. I had gone to another surgeon to get a second opinion. He said he would not have corrected my eyes two full steps from each other. He would also have given me different contacts to try out to see where I felt most comfortable prior to doing any surgery and most definitely prior to operating on the second eye. I then went to my optometrist to see what could be done. She gave me a couple of different contacts to sharpen up my distance to try. Both allowed me to see sharper at a distance while still being able to read. She did try to advocate on my behalf. The bottom line was after Dr. Witlin stating all along he could tweak my eyes if not happy with the correction he said he did not feel comfortable touching my eyes as he could make me farsighted and I would not be able to see near. I believe his change of willingness was because he knew I did not want to pay any more money. I then went to see another surgeon yesterday. Both the doctor I saw for the second opinion and the doctor I saw yesterday do not charge if you need a yag procedure or lasik. Worse of all, with the correction I was given, my left eye doing all the close up work an my right eye doing distance, even though the distance is not acceptable to me, there was no reason to implant the premium Crystalens at a cost of $ 2700 per lens, which is totally an out of pocket expense. I probably could have achieved the same result with the free single vision lenses that are covered by insurance. Additionally, the last doctor told me the lens in my right eye is not even working as it was designed to do. It is not focusing near and far. It is not focusing for near at all. He also said before he would have done a mono vision correction he gives the patient several contacts to try to see where they are most comfortable. Dr. Witlin did not take his time with me and do his due diligence to ensure I was getting the best correction possible and to tell me all along that he could make a change if I was not happy, then come back and say he did not feel comfortable is so terrible. I was told yesterday that if I chose to have a lasik procedure it could leave me with extreme dry eye and it costs $ 5300 for both eyes. This would take the cost to over $ 12,431! Crazy huh?