Corrective eye surgery comes to area

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Malinda Osborne  

BY MALINDA OSBORNE

gazette REPORTER

mosborne@svnmail.com

DIXON - Dr. Marc Booth vividly remembers how he felt after his Lasik surgery. There was a slight burning sensation in his eyes after the short procedure. He went home and napped, only to watch a basketball game a few hours later.

The next day, he was back at work, his 20/20 vision restored.

That's saying a lot, considering that before the surgery, Booth couldn't see the numbers on his bedside alarm clock at night.

"You take it for granted pretty quickly," he said about his improved vision.

Now Booth is performing the surgery himself at the Sterling Rock Falls Clinic, 1321 N. Galena Ave.

Although this type of laser surgery has been around for about a decade - more than 10 million procedures have been performed worldwide - locals have had had to travel to Rockford or the Quad Cities to have it done.

Wednesday, the first six will be done in the Sauk Valley - the fourth anniversary of Booth's own procedure.

Laser vision surgery, more commonly known as Lasik, involves cutting a flap in the cornea and using laser beams to reshape it. PRK, or photorefractive keratectomy, is the second-most popular procedure. Both are designed to correct myopia, or nearsightedness, an inability to see distant objects; farsightedness, also known as hyper opia, which is difficulty seeing close objects; and astigmatism, a visual distortion that causes blurred vision.

"Essentially, it's for people who are tired of wearing glasses or contacts," he said.

Booth is fellowship trained in Lasik and the other forms of refractive surgery, meaning that, in addition to completing medical school, a residency and an internship in opthamology, he spent a year working exclusively with eye surgical procedures that correct vision. He then worked three years in private practice before moving to Dixon in July.

At the Sterling Rock Falls Clinic, he works with newer WaveScan technology.

Conventional Lasik makes corrections based on a patient's prescription, giving the patient a 70 percent chance of obtaining 20/20 vision. WaveScan produces a detailed map of the eye, bumping the chance to 90 percent.

Conventional Lasik makes corrections based on a patient's prescription, giving the patient a 70 percent chance of obtaining 20/20 vision. WaveScan produces a detailed map of the eye, bumping the chance to 90 percent.

Reach Malinda Osborne at 284-2222 or (800) 798-4085.