I think there are different questions for your regular optometrist versus the doctor who will actually perform your lasik surgery. I believe it's your optometrist who would be the best person to determine if you'd be a good candidate for lasik surgery.
For your optometrist:
- What makes me a good/bad candidate for LASIK?
- What center would you refer me to and why?
- What problems have your other LASIK patients reported after the operation and what did you do about it? Did/were you able to apply learnings to another patient pre-LASIK?
- How much will my insurance cover?
For your LASIK surgeon:
- What's the procedure?
- How many of these have you done?
- Can I get a referral list or testimonials?
- What other centers have you performed LASIK at?
- What's the pre and post surgery experience/procedures?
- Can I get a valium pre-surgery?
- Can I get a video of the procedure?
- Is the follow up with you or my optometrist?
- Is there any sort of warranty? Terms?
My optometrist who I had been seeing for 6+ year suggested I was a good candidate because my vision had been largely stable for that duration. Also, given my age at the time (29), it would be some time before my 40s when she expected my vision to worsen. She'd always mentioned how dry my eyes were with my contact use so she suggested a temporary lacrimedic implant. These are self-dissolving plugs that she placed in 2 of the 4 tear ducts in each eye. This would keep my natural tears in my eyes longer. She commented how some of the negative post-LASIK symptoms (dry/tired eyes and blurry/double vision) can be attributed to dry eyes.
My surgeon was really good. Hit me with a valium before. Let me leave with a video. Explained everything as we went along. Even called me at home later to see how I was doing. My optometrist watched the dryness in my eyes closely. When she noticed increased dryness in my eyes after the temporary lacrimedics dissolved, she suggested permanent ones. Not a problem since.