Nashville, TN | Dolly Parton LASIK with Dr. Ming Wang | Wang Vision Institute

Dolly Parton: People will always come and ask me, you know, what's my secret to success? How do I stay happy? How do I stay sane? I say, "Hell, I ain't saying, whoever said that"

Speaker 2: Then Dolly recognized a certain ballroom dancing eye surgeon in the crowd.

Dolly Parton: Hello, Dr. Wang. How are you? I just had an appointment with him yesterday. I got the LASIK surgery. That's what turned my hair pink.

Speaker 2: Dolly's going to appear on Monday season opener of Dancing With the Stars, where she's going to sing a song and that reminds her of course of Ming Wang.

Dolly Parton: He's always tried to get me to dance. He looks at my little legs, it has a muscle in the back and says, "Are you a dancer?" I said, "What are you doing looking at my legs?'.

Speaker 2: Okay. Back to the Hall of Fame.

Meryll: Well, it's been 20 years since eye surgeons first started performing LASIK, a procedure that corrects nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. In those two decades, the technology that's been used for LASIK hasn't changed much until now. Dr Ming Wang is the first and only surgeon in Tennessee offering a new LASIK technology. Dr. Wang, it's nice to have you with us today.

Dr. Ming Wang: Good to see you again, Meryll.

Meryll: You too. Well let's talk about LASIK. How is that different from the traditional LASIK technology?

Dr. Ming Wang: You know, Meryll, what's drives the modern technology in 21st century is the concept called digitalization. Digitalization lies behind all technology receivers, computers with automations, and everything. So in order to improve the precision and accuracy of medical surgery procedures, such as LASIK surgery, we are now moving from analog, the older technology, to digital. That is during LASIK surgery the surgeon will have a high definition microsurgical system mounted on the side, capture the image of the eye, real time during surgery, and digitally amplify 100 times bigger.

Meryll: Wow.

Dr. Ming Wang: So instead of analog work underneath the microscope was, with eyeballs very small, the image of that was digitally enhanced 100 times larger. And then you can computer digitally control the laser beam position. You can import digitally the preoperative corneal map. So basically it's a digital technology applied to LASIK surgery.

Meryll: So what's the benefit for patients?

Dr. Ming Wang: Mainly is precision and safety. Because you know when you come to eye surgery, the main concern people have is that "I want to have vision surgery, but I want to have it down safely. Precisely. I want to have the best quality vision." And quality vision comes from being precise, be more accurate, with the digital technology rather than the analog older technology. So it's better vision, and more precise, and safer.

Meryll: A lot of folks, when they're considering LASIK surgery, worry about whether or not it's going to hurt. Is it painful?

Dr. Ming Wang: The procedure largely painless and basically we numb the eye very well. We use a, what we call all laser technology, so no blade is used. And then add on to this system, LASIK, we now improve the accuracy and precision that procedure. So essentially is a painless procedure, reparation, recovery, and 99% of our patients return to work the very next day. We've done about 55,000 procedures, including on over 4,000 doctors, and all these doctors return to work pretty much next day.

Meryll: Let's talk about that recovery time. Can you see, almost instantly afterwards?

Dr. Ming Wang: Next day. The day of procedure people go home and resting. Keep eyes closed and listen to music. The next day you have about 90% vision right away. You can pretty much return to do most of the things you do on the very next day after LASIK.

Meryll: Wow. How long does it last?

Dr. Ming Wang: The LASIK has been around for about 22 years worldwide. And so far we found that 99% of those patients who have laser procedure are stable, so expect to last majority of our adulthood. And then later on when you get older, you have a cataract or something, that's of course something else. And regarding , which is very exciting, we were the first, and currently the only center in Tennessee offering this digital laser technology, LASIK.

Meryll: Is it more expensive to have a LASIK procedure than a traditional LASIK?

Dr. Ming Wang: A little bit more expensive because it has the entire technology mounted on top of traditional laser technology. But it's for your vision, for your sight for the rest of your life. It's really worth every penny.

Meryll: All right. Thank you so much for telling us about it, Dr. Wang, we appreciate it.

Dr. Ming Wang: Your welcome. It's good to be here again.

Meryll: All right. Well find out more online at wangvisioninstitute.com. And we will link that to our website at newschannelfive.com.