My doctor told me that I'm a candidate to try out a new RF technology for dry eyes.

[Daniel2]

He told me that for a $200 fee he will try this treatment on me for 3 extensive treatments, one each month. This struck me as very strange since I thought in the medical field if a patient offers himself to be a 'guinea pig' they have to pay him, not the other way around. Am I being screwed or is my understanding of it wrong?

Anyways, about the actual treatment. It consists of radio-frequency technology that targets the surrounding of the eye, not the actual eye ball or eyelashes.
I don't know if I should agree to do it or not since no one knows the after-effects. The biggest fear I have is my eyes getting worse than they already are, and they are already pretty bad (I can't even get out of my house, watch TV, study or work half the time).

So should I do it? Anyone heard of this treatment before? I'd appreciate any suggestions

[Max52]

I've heard of RF being used to treat conjunctival chalasis. Not treating outside the eyeball. I'd want to know if he's had success with it. With how many patients, and what his goal is in your particular case. Also, are any other doctors using this treatment? Are there any studies?

[Daniel2]

It's been used to reduce wrinkles and the people who did the procedure said that their dry eyes improved. Mainly used by cosmetic surgeos I believe. I don't know if there's been medical studies related to dry eye for this treatment, I'm guessing that's what they wanted to do with me.

His goal is to document to see how effective that treatment is for dry eyes, he's also getting a couple of more patients for this experiment.

[thirstyeyes]

Daniel2, do you by any chance live in South Florida? Perhaps we have the same doctor! Mine asked me to pay $200 for his own research using Thermi which is a RF treatment used to reduce wrinkles around the eye as you stated. He was attempting to recruit eight patients with really bad dry eyes. I looked up whatever I could find and could not find a single person who stated that his/her dry eyes were improved (along with the wrinkles). But I did find two patient comments stating that their eyes were very dry after the treatment when they had no dry eye problem before. So I decided to pass because I cannot take a chance of my eyes getting worse.

[Daniel2]

Daniel2, do you by any chance live in South Florida? Perhaps we have the same doctor! Mine asked me to pay $200 for his own research using Thermi which is a RF treatment used to reduce wrinkles around the eye as you stated. He was attempting to recruit eight patients with really bad dry eyes. I looked up whatever I could find and could not find a single person who stated that his/her dry eyes were improved (along with the wrinkles). But I did find two patient comments stating that their eyes were very dry after the treatment when they had no dry eye problem before. So I decided to pass because I cannot take a chance of my eyes getting worse.

hi thirstyeyes sorry for the late reply but it's hard being on the computer. Yeah, I live in South Florida, the doctor that I'm seeing is Dr.Clifford Salinger, definately the best doctor that I'd seen so far..
Very interesting though that people told you that they actually got even worse with the treatment, I wasn't informed about this at all. I'm glad I decided to pass on it too, I also cannot afford my eyes getting worse than they are.