Our Enhancement Policy

1. What we promise

   1. If, after laser vision correction at Focus Vision, you are left with or develop a residual prescription that affects your vision and can be safely corrected with a further laser treatment, we will perform that enhancement at no charge, including its follow-up appointments, for two years from the date of your original surgery.
   2. The policy covers LASIK and Ray Tracing LASIK, TransPRK and CLEAR lenticule extraction performed at Focus Vision. It covers both under-correction (a small amount of prescription left after the first treatment) and regression (prescription that returns as the eye heals).
   3. You qualify automatically. There is no registration, no additional payment and no waiting period other than the time your eyes need to stabilise.

2. What an enhancement is

   1. An enhancement, sometimes called a touch-up or retreatment, is a second and usually smaller laser treatment that corrects a small amount of remaining or returning short-sightedness, long-sightedness or astigmatism.
   2. Your surgeon chooses the technique. It may be the same as your original procedure, or a surface treatment (TransPRK), which is often the safer choice for an enhancement after LASIK or CLEAR. The choice is made on safety grounds and explained to you before you decide.
   3. An enhancement is a decision, not an automatic step. Many small residual prescriptions cause no symptoms and are best left alone. The policy covers the cases where a further treatment is worthwhile.

3. When an enhancement can be done

   1. Your prescription must be stable. Vision fluctuates in the first weeks and months as the cornea heals, so enhancements are not normally performed before three months, and after larger corrections your surgeon may prefer to wait longer, up to a year.
   2. It must be safe. Your surgeon confirms that the cornea is thick enough and healthy, that the eye is otherwise well, and that a further treatment is expected to help.
   3. It must be worthwhile. The remaining prescription must be affecting your vision in a way that matters to you. That is a clinical judgement your surgeon makes with you.
   4. You need to attend your scheduled follow-up appointments, which are included in your fee for the first year, and any review your surgeon asks for. Those visits are how a residual prescription is detected and measured.

4. What the policy does not cover

   1. Changes that are not caused by the original treatment: the normal age-related loss of reading focus (presbyopia) from the mid-40s; cataract or other changes in the natural lens; eye disease or injury; changes in prescription during pregnancy or breastfeeding; and the effects of general illness or medication on the eye.
   2. A change to a different kind of procedure, such as lens replacement or an implantable contact lens, chosen for reasons other than fine-tuning the original correction. Those are quoted separately.
   3. Treatment performed elsewhere, or eyes originally treated at another clinic.
   4. Prescribed medications and eye drops, which are charged separately, as with the original procedure.

5. After two years

   1. Laser vision correction permanently reshapes the cornea. The two-year window is set by when enhancements are actually needed: in a large published series, 85% of retreatments were performed within the first year of surgery, at an average of about seven months, and the one-year retreatment rate was 10.5% on the laser platforms of that era (Hersh et al., 2003). Modern platforms have lower enhancement rates overall; one large academic centre reported 1.45% of eyes enhanced within six months in 2023 (Mass Eye and Ear).
   2. In our experience, the need for an enhancement more than two years after surgery is exceedingly rare. Where vision changes years later, the cause is usually the eye itself changing with age rather than the correction wearing off, and the right answer may be a different procedure.
   3. If you notice a change at any time, we will assess it, tell you plainly what is happening, and set out your options.

6. Lens-based procedures

   1. Implantable contact lens (ICL) and refractive lens exchange (RLE) patients occasionally need a small laser treatment to fine-tune the result.
   2. The same two-year policy applies: where your surgeon judges a laser enhancement to be safe and worthwhile, it is performed at no charge, including its follow-up appointments, for two years from the date of your original lens procedure. Clauses 2 to 4 apply in the same way.

7. Plain-language notes

   1. No procedure can be guaranteed to deliver a specific result. An enhancement improves the accuracy of the correction for most people who need one, but individual results vary, and your surgeon will only recommend it when the expected benefit outweighs the risk.
   2. This policy is offered by Focus Vision and may be updated from time to time. The version published on this website on the date of your surgery is the one that applies to you.
   3. To arrange a review, call (07) 3239 5005 or email hello@focusvision.com.au.

Why two years is the right window

The reshaping itself does not wear off. What produces an enhancement is either a small under-correction that becomes apparent once the eye settles, or early regression as the cornea heals, and both show up early. Hersh and colleagues followed 2,485 eyes and found that 85% of retreatments were done within the first year, at an average interval of 7.3 months. Reported retreatment rates across the literature range from 3.8% to 29.4% depending on era, platform and prescription, and modern femtosecond and topography-guided platforms sit at the low end.

Changes that appear years later are usually the eye ageing, with presbyopia from the mid-40s and lens changes later, rather than the correction failing. That is why the exclusions above are written the way they are, and why the honest advice after two years is an assessment rather than an automatic laser touch-up.

What you pay, and what it includes, is set out on our costs page.