1. Review of Advanced Vision Care
Advanced Vision Care (AVC) is an independent surgeon-led clinic founded in 2003 by Mr Pillai on Harley Street, London. With no affiliation with any manufacturers, you should be able to count on treatment that’s best suited to your needs.
AVC’s Medical Director and lead surgeon, Mr Pillai, has nearly three decades of ophthalmic experience and is one of the few surgeons to have fellowships for both refractive laser surgery and cornea treatment. Patients even enjoy the benefit of speaking to Mr Pillai during the initial consultation, and can look forward to a stress-free aftercare plan, including any retreatment if necessary.
What makes AVC different? This clinic prides itself on being able to treat any eye prescription using a wide mix of treatments, meaning it may just be able to help you, even if other clinics have turned your down. Its patients also give this clinic the thumbs up, leaving hundreds of positive reviews on our site over the years.
- AVC tailors treatments to its customers’ specific visual needs.
- You can receive eye care from a small team of eye experts, each with 25 years of experience.
- Laser and non-laser treatments sit under one roof, for customer convenience.
Is there anything else I should know? As you’d expect, cutting-edge eye surgery on Harley Street comes at a price, and this time it’s higher on average than you’ll find at some of the other top-rated eye clinics dotted around the UK. And unless you happen to live in central London, there may not be a clinic near you.
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2. Treatments
Advanced Vision Care specialises in laser as well as non-laser vision correction treatments, including all the usual suspects: LASIK, LASEK, implantable contact lenses (ICL surgery), lens replacement surgery, cataract surgery and keratoconus treatment.
- Advanced Wavefront LASIK / LASEK – Highly accurate laser surgery for those with thin eye surfaces or active lifestyles.
- Phototherapeutic Keratectomy (PTK) – Therapy for treating long-term eye conditions.
- Implantable Contact Lens (EVO Visian ICL) – Suitable for patients with complex eye prescriptions, thin corneas or dry eyes.
- Lens Replacement (Refractive Lens Exchange) – Eye surgery for those over 40 with a reading prescription.
- Cataract Surgery – Removes cloudy lenses, and replaces them with artificial clear ones.
- Corneal Implants – Reshape irregular eye shapes to make contact lenses more comfortable.
As is standard with eye surgery clinics, all AVC treatments come with a 12 month aftercare package, which includes: regular check-ups, 24-hour eye expert support line, and post-op medication for the first month.
In the unlikely event that you require eye surgery enhancement, any laser fine tuning or YAG laser capsule thickening removal (following cataract treatment) is available at no extra cost.
3. Technology
Advanced Vision Care was the first clinic in the UK to house the complete Alcon Refractive Suite, which it claims is the safest non-laser technology in the country. It creates a personalised treatment plan that starts with a Verion Image Guided system in your first consultation, and continues throughout the surgery with devices that ensure superior visualisation.
The laser eye surgery treatment is also advanced. The femtosecond Intralase 5F Laser works blade-free by using pulses of harmless light to create a corneal flap, and the Bausch Teneo 317 Excimer Laser takes just 3 to 5 seconds to correct your vision.
What’s more, the highly accurate Advanced Wavefront technology is included in all laser treatments as standard, and an Eye Tracking System tracks eye movements, so you don’t need to worry about blinking during the procedure.
4. Advanced Vision Care Prices
AVC has some of the most reasonable payment options out there. It’s not the cheapest – high street clinics such as Optical Express and Ultralase take the crown for cost – but the free consultation, fixed prices, and flexible interest free finances all help their treatments work around you.
Is it worth paying more? Of course, that’s for you to decide. But to give you an idea of the prices, laser eye surgery at AVC costs £2,100 (per eye), compared to well-reviewed alternatives such as Optical Express and AccuVision which come in at around half that on average.
| Eye Surgery Procedure | Price (per eye) | Finance Options (per month) |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Wavefront LASIK | £2,100 | £66.67 (24 months, 0% APR) |
| Phototherapeutic Keratectomy (PTK) | £2,100 | £66.67 (24 months, 0% APR) |
| ICL Surgery (Simple Lens) | £3,450 – £3,750 | £122.22 – £138.89 (18 months, 0% APR) |
| ICL Surgery (Specialist Lens) | £4,150 | £161.11 (18 months, 0% APR) |
| Monofocal lens surgery | £3,150 – £3,450 | £105.56 – 122.22 (18 months, 0% APR) |
| Multifocal lens surgery | £3,750 – £4,050 | £138.89 – £155.56 (18 months, 0% APR) |
| Keratoconus Treatment | £2,150 – £2,450 | £91.67 – £108.33 (18 months, 0% APR) |
Are there finance options?
Yes, AVC has partnered with Hitachi Finance to offer flexible payment plans, meaning you can pay the full cost of eye surgery in bite-size monthly installments.
For example, you could pay for laser eye surgery in chunks of £66.67 a month for two years interest free, or £33.59 for 60 months at 9.9% APR. That’s generous – most clinics require 11% APR, and only the first year at 0% interest.
Does medical insurance cover the surgery costs at AVC?
Yes, AVC is an accredited provider of ophthalmic surgery for many of the UK’s leading insurance companies, including:
- Allianz
- AVIVA
- AXA PPP
- BUPA and BUPA International
- Cigna
- Simply Health
As always, you’ll need to confirm how you would like to pay before booking your surgery, both with your chosen clinic and your medical insurer.
Read more: Laser eye surgery costs explained
5. AVC Review: The Verdict
Advanced Vision Care consistently receives a five-star rating from hundreds of patients, which is why this clinic makes it to our list of the best laser eye surgery clinics in the UK.
With in-depth consultations providing an honest assessment of whether eye surgery is right for you, Advanced Vision Care also takes the prize for being one of the top places for laser eye surgery in London.
☝ Is Advanced Vision Care for you? To see if there is a better reviewed laser eye surgery clinic near you, just hit here to use our simple quote tool, and get a tailored quote from a clinic you can trust.
Surgeons
Advanced Vision Care Reviews
al kirk
great clinic
Emma Roach
Very informative on consultation, surgery and aftercare. The staff are very thorough and give excellent service.
Overall, very impressed and I highly recommend Advanced Vision Care.
Mary Bernard
Excellent service
Emi Suzuki
After being told I now have 20/20 vision, I still can’t see the faces of people walking towards me, a couple of metres away! Having to tell people I must sit in front of class as I can’t see the board is very depressing.. 🙁 It is frustrating not being able to see, and not being allowed to wear glasses.. It’s getting dangerous cycling when I’m unable to see much..
This is not a review for the clinic as such, but my general Lasik experience. I do have a re-treatment next week so fingers crossed that will fix it….
Mr and Mrs Rahemtulla
My wife and I are both 47 and live in Dubai. We are both short sighted and my wife is highly myopic compared to me. We found reading was becoming difficult and we would eventually have to opt for separate reading glasses or varifocal glasses. After months of research on various websites on the options available to us coupled with the independent reviews of clinics, surgeons and from patients we shortlisted two highly specialised clinics for an initial consultation in London. The initial consultation at Advanced Vision Care (AVC) with Mr. Pillai and his entire team was just remarkable. They were very professional, highly detailed and thorough with all their tests giving us great confidence in their ability to deliver which is why we opted to have our Multifocal Clear Lens Exchange procedure with AVC. The second consultation even though it was a well-known hospital in the UK for eye related procedures, we unfortunately did not find the consultation very detailed or thorough enough for us, hence we did not opt for them.
AVC was very forthcoming with regards to dates and times for all the pre-operative check-ups and also we felt that even though this is a private clinic their fundamental care and moto is based on what is best for each individual’s eyes.
We were advised that Dr. Goran Helgason would conduct the actual surgeries. Upon reading his CV it was quite evident that he is highly skilful and experienced to conduct Clear Lens Exchange surgeries. Dr. Goran Helgason and his team were excellent on the days of our surgery. The actual procedure took around 15 minutes, each eye on separate following days and it was painless with no discomfort during or after treatment. Dr. Helgason was very gentle.
After a couple of days we both had clear distant vision and good reading vision which was amazing for both of us and AVC definitely surpassed our expectations. We would also like to comment the post-operative care from AVC is excellent and they have stuck by their promise. We would thoroughly recommend anyone suitable to go ahead with this procedure and change their life as we have.
We would like to say a big thank you to Mr. Pillai, Dr. Goran, Pawel, Po, Sheena and the entire AVC team in ensuring our CLE procedure was a success.
Alan Mosely
Alan Mosely – ICL TORIC
Not much to say, t was very happy with all aspects at the initial consultation, the surgery and aftercare. Everything was really well organised and facilitated by Pawel.
Only improvement I can think of is to provide some of the post op documents before the day of surgery. Specifically I would have liked to know about the waiting times for hobbies/sports before the surgery as it would have given me more time to prepare.
Rachel Hickman
The amount of initial checks on my eyes before treatment made me feel reassured that the treatment would be successful. The staff answered every question I could think of and made me feel very at ease.
The treatment itself was very quick and easy. Now I’m going for post treatment check-ups, my eyes are completely fine now, but I’m glad that AVC has a very good after care programme which gives me complete peace of mind. I’m very much enjoying not wearing glasses, thank you!
Guillaume Mercier
The service was good. I trusted the staff. I Liked the service of Po and a petite Asian-looking female optometrist. I went with AVC because I could meet the surgeon before. The operation was very fast, efficient and professional. The staff’s conduct helped diminish my nervousness.
Stefano Chiappa
Very good service
Highly recommended
Kiki Davis
All the treatment I’ve received has been excellent. I still can’t believe I can see, it’s been the best and most. Life changing thing I’ve done and I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner.
Kim Chambers
Wish I had done this 10 years ago!
