Richard Burns, M.D.
Dr. Burns has dedicated his career to helping patients throughout Southern California achieve their vision correction goals. Dr. Burns offers a variety of sophisticated procedures, including LASIK, LASEK, PRK and LTK. He performs the Latter Procedure, Laser Thermokeratoplasty, for certain farsighted and/or astigmatic patients who desire to reduce their dependence on glasses. Dr. Burns is proud to be among the few surgeons in Southern California specializing in LTK, and he frequently performs this treatment for patients who travel from Temecula, Hemet, Sun City and Murrieta.
Please explore this page to learn more about LTK and how this procedure can help you achieve sharper, crisper vision.
During your pre-operative consultation, Dr. Burns will perform a set of evaluations, including a thorough review of your health history and an assessment of your corneal thickness, refractive error and pupil dilation. He will also ask you to stop wear contact lenses at least three weeks before your LTK procedure. On the day of your LTK surgery, Dr. Burns will administer local anesthesia and put special retainers on your eyelids to prevent your eyes from closing. Then he will use a special laser to apply heat energy to the surface of your eyes. Within seconds, your LTK procedure will be complete.
After LTK, Dr. Burns will give you special antibiotic eye drops to prevent infection. In addition, you might receive anti-inflammatory drops to use for one week after the surgery. Since LTK does not involve cutting or removing eye tissue, most of our San Diego LTK patients experience very little, if any, discomfort following this procedure. Vision improvement after LTK is gradual.
During the first week following LTK, most patients experience nearsightedness; however, this is temporary. The majority of our patients achieve their best-uncorrected vision within three months following their treatment.
While LTK offers a very convenient, fast vision correction, this procedure is not appropriate for all patients seeking refractive laser eye surgery. Currently, it is only available for patients over the age of 40 who have a certain degree of farsightedness and/or astigmatism. In addition, the results of LTK are not permanent as most patients lose about half of the corrective benefits within two years after their LTK procedure.
Due to these reasons, the majority of patients who desire to reduce their dependence on glasses undergo LASIK, LASEK or PRK treatment. Furthermore, patients who suffer from cataracts often seek out Dr. Burns due to his reputation as a talented Cataract Surgery specialist.
As part of the surgical treatment of Cataracts, Dr. Burns provides his patients with sophisticated implantable lenses (Refractive IOLs).