How to Choose the Best LASIK Surgeon in Los Angeles

Search “LASIK Los Angeles” and you will find billboard-priced offers, celebrity-endorsed centers, hospital-affiliated surgeons, and private practices that have been correcting vision since before LASIK existed. They are not interchangeable. LASIK is a permanent reshaping of your cornea, and while the laser does the cutting, the surgeon decides whether you are a candidate, which treatment profile fits your eye, how the flap is made, and what happens if your result needs a touch-up. Those decisions are where outcomes are won or lost.

This guide walks through six things to check, in the order that matters, followed by a red-flag list and the questions worth bringing to a consultation. We run a LASIK practice in Los Angeles ourselves, so we have put our own answers at the end — and we encourage you to hold us to the same standard.

Why “best” is the wrong question — and what to ask instead

There is no official ranking of LASIK surgeons, and any list that claims to be one is usually an advertisement. “Best” also depends on your eyes: a patient with a mild prescription and thick corneas has many good options, while a patient with high myopia, thin corneas, dry eye, or a prior refractive procedure needs a surgeon who does more than LASIK — one who can steer them toward PRK, an implantable lens, or refractive lens exchange when that is the safer path.

So the better question is: which surgeon has the training, the track record, the technology, and the honesty to get my particular eyes the best possible result? Everything below is a way of answering that.

Step 1: Verify the credentials yourself

In California, LASIK is performed by ophthalmologists — medical doctors (MD or DO) who completed a residency in eye surgery. Optometrists (ODs) provide exams and post-operative care but do not perform the procedure. Start there, then confirm three things:

• Board certification. The American Board of Ophthalmology maintains a free online “Verify a Physician” tool. A board-certified ophthalmologist has passed rigorous written and oral examinations and keeps certification current through continuing education. Certification in ophthalmology is the standard; there is no separate board for LASIK.
• An active, unrestricted California license. The Medical Board of California’s license lookup shows license status, any disciplinary actions, and the year the license was issued. It takes two minutes and is the single most overlooked check.
• Refractive-specific training. Fellowship training in cornea and refractive surgery, faculty appointments at a residency program, or participation in FDA clinical trials for refractive technology all indicate a surgeon who has gone beyond the minimum. Membership in the American Academy of Ophthalmology or the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery is common and worth noting, but membership alone is not a credential.

Step 2: Ask about experience — with numbers

Experience in LASIK is measured in procedures, not years alone. A surgeon who has performed thousands of cases has seen unusual corneas, managed complications, and refined their judgment about who to treat and who to turn away. Ask directly:

• How many LASIK procedures have you personally performed? Be wary of a center that quotes a combined figure for the whole practice without telling you your own surgeon’s number.
• How many years have you been performing laser vision correction? Surgeons who practiced through earlier generations of the technology — radial keratotomy, first-generation excimer lasers, blade microkeratomes — tend to have an unusually deep understanding of why today’s platforms are designed the way they are.
• What is your enhancement rate, and what is your enhancement policy? Every practice has some patients who need a touch-up. What matters is that the surgeon tracks the number, tells you honestly, and covers it in your fee.
• Who will actually perform my surgery? At some high-volume Los Angeles centers the surgeon you meet at the consultation is not the surgeon in the laser suite. The surgeon who evaluates your eyes should be the one who treats them.

Step 3: Look closely at the technology — and the diagnostics

Technology is the part of the decision most practices advertise and the part patients understand least. Three questions cover most of it:

• Is the flap made with a femtosecond laser or a blade? All-laser (bladeless) LASIK uses a femtosecond laser to create the corneal flap with a precise, predictable thickness. A mechanical microkeratome blade is older technology that some discount centers still use to keep costs down.
• Is the treatment wavefront-guided, topography-guided, or standard? Custom treatments are built from a detailed map of your individual eye rather than from your glasses prescription alone. Ask which mapping system is used — modern platforms capture over a thousand measurement points per eye — and which excimer laser delivers the treatment.
• What does the pre-operative evaluation include? The diagnostic workup is as important as the laser. A thorough evaluation measures corneal thickness and shape (pachymetry and topography), pupil size, tear film and dry-eye status, and a dilated exam of the retina. If your “free consultation” is a fifteen-minute sales conversation without these measurements, it is not an evaluation.

Platform names change every few years, so rather than memorizing brands, ask the surgeon to explain why they chose their current system and what it does better than what they used before. A good surgeon will have a specific answer. You can read about the platforms we use on our LASIK technology page.

Step 4: Understand what the price does and does not include

LASIK in Los Angeles is advertised anywhere from about $299 per eye to $3,500 per eye. That spread is not random; it reflects genuinely different procedures and business models. The lowest advertised prices typically apply only to mild prescriptions, rely on older blade-based technology, use standard rather than custom treatment, and bill pre-operative testing, post-operative visits, and enhancements as separate line items. By the time a real patient with a real prescription is done, the “bargain” is often not one.

The question to ask is not “how much?” but “what is included?” A reputable quote covers the comprehensive evaluation, the procedure itself with the technology that fits your eyes, every post-operative visit for a defined period, and a clear enhancement policy. Financing through medical credit lines and the use of FSA or HSA funds are normal; a demand for full payment before you have had a complete exam is not. We break the whole subject down on our LASIK cost in Los Angeles page.

Step 5: Evaluate the consultation itself

The consultation tells you almost everything about how the practice operates. Pay attention to:

• Who you meet. You should have meaningful time with the surgeon — not only a coordinator — before you decide.
• Whether alternatives come up. A surgeon who offers only LASIK can only recommend LASIK. A practice that also performs PRK, EVO ICL, and refractive lens exchange can match the procedure to your eyes rather than the other way around.
• Whether they ever say no. Ask what percentage of consultations they turn away or redirect. A practice that qualifies everyone is not screening carefully. Thin corneas, unstable prescriptions, significant dry eye, keratoconus, and certain medical conditions are legitimate reasons to decline LASIK.
• How they handle your questions. Bring the list at the end of this article. Notice whether the answers are specific or vague, and whether you feel informed or pressured when you leave.

Step 6: Read reviews the smart way

Online reviews are useful when you read them for pattern rather than score. Look across Google, Yelp, and Healthgrades rather than any single platform, and weigh:

• Volume and recency. Hundreds of reviews accumulated over years say more than a perfect score from a few dozen.
• Specificity. Reviews that name the surgeon, describe the consultation, and mention the follow-up care are more informative than one-line five-star ratings.
• How problems were handled. No practice has zero unhappy patients. Reviews that describe a concern and how the office responded tell you what will happen if you have one.
• Reviews from other clinicians. Optometrists refer their own patients to the surgeons they trust. Ask your optometrist who they would send a family member to.

Red flags to walk away from

• A price quoted before anyone has measured your eyes.
• Pressure to schedule surgery the same day as the consultation, or a “discount” that expires that week.
• You cannot find out who your surgeon will be, or the surgeon is not board-certified in ophthalmology.
• The practice cannot tell you its enhancement rate or what an enhancement will cost.
• Blade (microkeratome) flap creation or standard, non-custom treatment presented as equivalent to all-laser custom LASIK.
• No discussion of alternatives, and no patients ever declined.
• Post-operative care handed to a rotating staff you have never met, with no clear way to reach the surgeon if something is wrong.

Twelve questions to ask at your LASIK consultation

1. Are you board-certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology?
2. How many LASIK procedures have you personally performed, and over how many years?
3. Will you be the surgeon performing my procedure?
4. Which laser creates the flap, and which laser performs the treatment?
5. Is my treatment wavefront-guided or topography-guided, and what did my corneal map show?
6. Am I a good candidate, and what specifically makes me one?
7. Would PRK, EVO ICL, or refractive lens exchange be a better fit for my eyes?
8. What is your enhancement rate, and what is your enhancement policy?
9. What exactly is included in the quoted price, and for how long?
10. What results should I realistically expect, and what are the most common side effects you see?
11. Who do I call the night of surgery if something feels wrong?
12. Have you performed LASIK on colleagues, staff, or family members?

How Berg-Feinfield measures up

We would rather you judge us by the checklist than by our own description, so here are our answers to the questions above.

• Credentials. Our surgeons are board-certified ophthalmologists. Dr. Alan M. Berg completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of Southern California, where he remains on the faculty teaching residents, and was one of only 50 U.S. surgeons selected for the clinical trials of the Implantable Collamer Lens. Dr. Bonnie Sklar is fellowship-trained in cornea, external disease, and refractive surgery at Duke University Eye Center.
• Experience. Dr. Berg has performed more than 50,000 LASIK procedures — including on his partner, Dr. Robert Feinfield — and was honored as a VISX Star Surgeon, a distinction reserved for the top 5% of LASIK surgeons in the United States. The practice has served Los Angeles since 1980, through every generation of refractive technology from radial keratotomy to today’s all-laser platforms.
• Technology. Every LASIK procedure is 100% bladeless, with a femtosecond laser for the flap, iDesign 2 Advanced WaveScan mapping for a custom treatment plan, and the Alcon WaveLight Pro excimer laser for the correction.
• Price. One all-inclusive quote per eye that covers your comprehensive evaluation, the procedure, every post-operative visit, and our enhancement policy — confirmed only after a free, complete examination. CareCredit and Alphaeon financing and FSA/HSA funds are accepted.
• Alternatives and honesty. We perform PRK, EVO ICL, and refractive lens exchange in addition to LASIK, and we tell patients plainly when LASIK is not their best option.
• Convenience. Five offices — Beverly Hills, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Arcadia, and Valencia — all reachable at 866-2-SEE FAR.

If you would like to run the checklist on us in person, schedule a free LASIK consultation, or start with the complete guide to LASIK in Los Angeles.