November 9, 2023 • 23 mins
As an experienced San Antonio LASIK eye surgeon, Dr. Carlos Manrique de Lara recommends Blade-Free Z-LASIK for his LASIK patients. Z-LASIK is a modern LASIK technology and Dr. Manrique is a trainer for this technology. LASIK eye surgery can treat nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. Dr. Manrique is a Board-Certified Ophthalmologist with over 20-years of experience and has performed over 67,000 laser vision correction procedures.Manrique Custom Vision is a state-of-the-art Z-LASIK facility dedicated to providing a high-quality lasik eye surgery experience that meets your comfort, safety and laser vision correction needs.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
This week on the Art of Improvement, I'll be speaking with Richard Doinof.
He's the operation manager at Manrique CustomVision Centers. Have you ever thought about
having lasick on your eyes? Iknow, scary, right, except when
you talk to every single person that'shad it. I'm going to talk to
Richard today about who is available toget it, why you should get it,
(00:23):
and I don't know, it justkind of makes sense if you are
interested. My conversation with Richard iscoming up next on the Art of Improvement.
Thank you so much for listening tothe Art of Improvement. I have
a guest here that I have heardof. I've heard him on the radio,
(00:44):
I've seen him on television. Ithink I've even seen you at parties.
Richard, Yeah, don't get scared. Richard Doinoff is operation manager for
Manrique Custom Vision Centers. Richard,it is so nice to finally meet you.
Ah you too, Thank you forhaving me absolutely you can. I
know that this is crazy and you'veprobably done it a million times, but
you have been with doctor Manrique forhow long I'm going on twenty years this
(01:10):
year. Nobody can say that abouta job anymore so one he's the greatest
person ever. And two, youmust be doing something that's really helping people,
because otherwise there would be a hardreason to stay. So first,
for anyone that has not heard aboutManrique, custom Vision Centers tell everybody what
is it. Doctor Manrique actually isa Lasik surgeon. He specialized in zee
(01:33):
lasik. What he likes to do, if you ever listen to him talk,
he likes to get everybody out ofglass and contacts. What a lot
of people don't realize, and Idon't even know if you do, to
be honest with you, contacts havedone more damaged eyes than actually lasik ever
has. Please you've got to talkabout that. But you keep on going
about doctor Manrique and what he does. So with Doctor Manrique started this over
(01:57):
twenty two years ago. Of course, he is using what's called the microkeratone
blade and that's the that's actually whatI had done back in the late nineties.
Lasik just means they create a corneaflap. So it's advanced all the
way from the microkeratone blade and upbeing blade free. Now. The thing
that really separates doctor Manrique, youknow, is as technology evolves, he
(02:17):
does too, so he'll actually goand he'll research the technology, he'll see
if he likes it. I'd sayover ninety percent of the companies want him
to use their technology, so hegets to experiment with it. And what
he decided was that the Zilasa youknow, coupled with what's called the Aligrado
five hundred is the best for thepatients because he feels it gives them their
(02:39):
best correctable vision. So if youback up them when we were first talking,
you're doing the blade, all theall the machines were manual. Doctor
Manrique is actually guiding the machine.Now they are one hundred percent custom for
each eyes. Wow. Yeah wow. So it truly gives you your best
correctible vision without glasson contacts. Andthe big thing with Doc is, you
(03:00):
know, we talk about how greathe is, and I personally believe he's
the best out there. Personally,I do, but I can also tell
you as a person when you hearus advertise he treats everybody like a family
member. You you can mark mywords on that that guy enjoys what he
does. He wants everybody to see. You could see it in his face
when you look at our Facebook page, and he wants you to have the
(03:22):
best experience you know that you canpossibly have anywhere. I'm going to ask
you this again, but just formy out of my own curiosity. People
in the beginning, when lasik wasfirst introduced, they were terrified. They're
like, oh, it's my eyes. And then, as I would say,
(03:42):
millions of people got the procedure done. It was not a question of
if you were going to get itdone, but when you were going to
get it done, because there wasso much success. So let's go back
to the question that you brought up. Contacts. You said that contacts,
people wearing contacts, has done moredamage to eyes than lasik. You've got
(04:05):
to talk to me a little bitabout that, because that's such a bold
statement. But at the same time, I've known people that have fallen asleep
scratched their eyeball and I don't evenlike talking about it because it's so painful,
like to me to even think abouthow sensitive your eyes are and how
life would be without your vision.So talk about contacts, well, you
(04:27):
know, it's I'm not going tosit there and say, hey, you
know a anti contact, but Ican tell you that you just look at
the research and I'll just throw alady that I met down at the TV
station the other day. She actuallywore contacts on New Year's even accidentally fell
asleep in them. The contact.Luckily for her, it did go into
her cornea, which damaged her cornea, but it just missed her vision.
(04:49):
What people don't know if you goasleep in act contact and it goes across
your vision and it happens to tearin there, that can't be repaired.
So I mean, so does itaffect your vision? What happens absolutely.
I mean, we had a DallasCowboy football player that went to bed one
night with this contact on. Wastwenty twenty with his contact on before we
(05:10):
went to bed, woke up contactand torres corny and it was best correctable
was twenty eighty the next day,and that can never be fixed. Ever.
The other thing is contact. Youknow, you get that piece of
material on your eye, and especiallyif you're wearing like torque contacts or the
glass permeables, they tell you they'rereshaping your eye. Well that's great,
(05:30):
they're reshaping your eyes. So guesswhat happens. They reshaped your eye and
it can get to the point whereit's intolerable. And then guess what happens.
Yeah, it's ruining your vision.And yes, I've heard about people
hurting their eyes because you know,I go to a specialist myself because I
have eye problems. I and thethought of wearing contacts for me, because
(05:54):
my vision is so important. Istudied and saw how dangerous it could be.
And just like you said, you'renot telling people to not wear contacts
because people, it's just like breathing. You put in your context and that's
the end of that. But whenyou think about how much has been done
to progress and fine tune lasick,it does seem like something that more people
(06:20):
should think about. And when Isay more people, I before we started
recording, I was like, Richard, who hasn't heard about doctor manriy Ki?
Why are we talking about this?But then I started to think there
are people that maybe have considered lasickand never got it. Do you hear
reasons why people don't get it done? Absolutely? The two It's never changed
(06:44):
in our industry. It's the fear, like you said, and then also
the costs. The thing I alwaystell people is, you know again,
I don't like using myself that Iwill you know, I had mine done
in ninety seven. I haven't hadto do anything with my eyes. I
had to have that tweak when Igot older because I had nothing to do
with the lasik I had done justthat I got older, which we won't
(07:06):
talk about. Oh hush, don'teven look at me when you say that.
My whole thing is I decided backthen to make the investment in myself.
Basically, you know, you're everytime you buy glass and contacts,
if you're doing them right, you'reblowing one hundred or two hundred bucks a
month. I mean that's if you'rechanging your contacts out every day like you
(07:26):
should. And then that is justbasically taking that money, throwing it in
your fireplace and you're burning it.You do the zeelasick with doctor Manrique.
It's an investment in your eyesight,and that way we can permanently fix your
your vision and take you back toyour best correctible vision with don glasson contacts,
and then you don't have to worryabout it again. Are there people
(07:46):
I don't even want to bring thisup, but I have to because somebody
that's listening right now and they've beenthinking about getting lasick. Are there people
that shouldn't or cannot get lasick done. You. Yeah, well yes,
because I can't. I'm not touchingmy eyes because I already have problems.
I mean, but you, Imean, I'm not. I mean we're
laughing. Please. The thing is, say you didn't know that you had
(08:09):
the issue that you had, justyou detached retina. Yeah, say you
believe it or not. People walkinto our office and don't realize that they
have holes in the retina, theymight have a little bleeding back there,
all this other stuff. When wehave them come into the office for their
complimentary screening that they decide to proceedwith us and then go over and do
the medical part, you know,the medical dilated exam. If we see
(08:31):
something behind the eye that would preventthem, do you know to have the
surgery, we don't do it.We totally disqualify them, and then there's
no charge for that. At thatpoint, it's amazing. We can't fix
it. That's amazing. It's goodbecause and it's so embarrassing for me because
when I I have a detached retina, but when it happened, I had
(08:52):
no idea what the signs were fora detached retina, and so I waited
too long, and that's why,like I have eye problems, and I
kept on. I had my doctorcome in and say, we've got to
do a show about this, becausepeople that don't know that the same thing
could happen to them, Like whywould I know? What is a detached
(09:13):
retina? What are the signs?What do I have to do? And
so just going in for an examat Manrique Custom Vision Centers could change your
life, honestly. And one thinghere we are ten minutes in and I
haven't even asked you. How dopeople contact your office? How do they
make appointments? How do they contactyou? Is there a waiting period?
(09:35):
How does that happen? They canjust call our office number, you know,
two one zero, three five fourtwenty twenty. They'll ask you some
very very mild set of questions justso we're betther prepared when we meet you.
And then you come in. Wehave a very unique system. You
come in, schedule your complimentary screening. They do some tests on the surface
of the eye to make sure itlooks like it's safe, and then you
(09:58):
meet with one of the consultants thereand we go over that. We actually
go over the results with you.And the reason I think this is important
is we're not doctors, and weexplain to you where you understand it,
because doctors love you're just sitting there. Like when doctor Manrique talks, I
always call him skim milk, andpeople go, why do you call him
skim milk? I said, he'stop one percent genius, this guy.
(10:18):
You know what I mean. So, yeah, I've met him in other
forms. I get it. Yeah, it's phenomenal. But he when he
starts to explain something, I mean, he unless you know me, he
loses you a bit. We'll tellyou what's going on. If everything looks
good at that point, we cancover you know how you pay for it,
you know the essentials, and getusually get you set up for the
surgery within a week or two.It's actually that simple. Wow, And
(10:41):
how long did I know? You'veprobably told the story one hundred times,
But I would really like to knowfor anyone that is interested in lay sig.
Okay, you make your appointment,you're given the green light, and
so the day of your appointment,what happens. Uh, it's it's again,
it's very unique. It's super cool. You'll go you'll go into one
of the lanes, they'll prep youfor surgery. We spend a lot of
(11:03):
money on this preparation, so Imean, I'm just sharing that. I
mean we make sure you know,I wouldn't want to know. Oh no,
it's very I mean we are veryWe're very specific to what we do.
Doctor Manrique come in and chat withyou for a second. If you
have any questions, ask him.Most people are nervous. We know that,
so of course, as soon ashe walks out, we give you
a value. The volume is notfor any kind of pain whatsoever. It's
(11:24):
just to help you actually be relaxedand actually sleep. After the procedure,
you go back into the surgery suite. You're in there for anywhere from eight
to ten minutes, depending on howmuch talking DoD has to do with you.
He wants to make sure everybody's comfortable. The laser time. Laser time
is under thirty seconds, so now, oh my god. Yeah, so
the whole time you're in there ismoney. Yeah, the prep time of
(11:46):
him talking to you, and thenas soon as you get off the laser.
I remember it like yesterday. Youliterally see all the way across the
room and it's it's that quick.Go quick. That's pretty amazing if you
have just now I started listening.This is Richard Dornoff. He is operations
manager with Menrique custom Vision Centers.And if you could give out the website
(12:07):
and the phone number again for anybodythat's interested, It's two one zero three
five four twenty twenty and then awebsite at essay dot MANRIQUEI dot com.
What if you've been with doctor Manriquefor twenty years, what did you do
before that? Were you an eyedoctor? No, been a previous life.
(12:28):
I actually I've only had a coupleof jobs in my life. I
served in a military for thirteen nights. Thank you, thank you for your
service. Then I was I dida little fretension of school business, which
didn't agree with me too well.But h I met doctor Manrique and quite
frankly, if I tell everybody this, if you can find a better person
to work for personally, you know, yeah, yeah, I get it.
(12:50):
I'm super I'm super blessed because,like you said, there's not many
people that go this long, butjust to watch him and how he does,
how he does his job, howhe treats people. He's not your
typical doctor. He's uh he treatsyou like your human for lack of better
words. I love the way thatpatients talk about him, how he treats
everybody you know, and he wantshe knows how everybody's nervous and everything.
(13:15):
And he actually, even as smartas he is, most of those guys
don't have a lot of empathy.He has a lot of empathy, so
he knows exactly how to tune intowhat you need. That's pretty amazing.
And it's so funny because I guessI hope that I'm like everybody. But
there are people that go to adoctor and that's the doctor that they've been
(13:37):
to and they've gone a thousand years, and whether you like him or don't
like him, I consider it apersonal relationship. And so when you say
he listens, he understands, thatmakes all the difference in the world.
And you're right there there are Sure, he's the brainiac doctor. But when
you get a doctor like that,yes, check mark on that. But
(13:58):
when you have somebody that listens toyou, that's that's uh. That is
icing on the cake, and that'sgood to hear about. Are there different
types of laser surgery or is it'sjust like one size fits all. I
like that you said that. Seewhat that's That's a question that we usually
get daily. There's a lot ofdifferent laser systems out there. Of course,
(14:20):
the you know, lasik just meanscreating a flap, the cornya flap,
which of course seals right after thesurgery. So doctor Manrique considers the
Zeemer to be the most effective becauseit actually seals the quickest, again in
his opinion, the laser that actuallymakes you see correctly. It's under ten
seconds. And I don't care whatyour prescription is. It's amazing and it's
(14:41):
custom for each eye. So thesystems himself. What I like to say
is doctor man Rique, and Ican't don't quote me on this, please,
if anybody's listening, he's has probablythe most experience on this system,
at least in Texas. But hthe guys that pick other technology, the
other doctors I know a lot ofthese doctors, doctor Stark, you know,
(15:05):
doctor Scandard Parker's great surgeons. Imean, they're not taking anything away
from and if they want to pickwhatever technology they want, well they probably
have a reason. Where doctor Manriquehas twenty two years experience and he's picked
this technology and I think that hehas a reason. Now, how okay,
(15:26):
doctor Manrique, this is his life. This is all he does.
You know, he cares about people'seyes. But when there are new things,
I like what you said earlier,Yes there are always new and advances
when it comes to lasick. Buthe fine tunes and says, this is
what's working for my patients. Andso how how many new things can come
(15:50):
out about lasik? You know whatcan change? If it only takes ten
seconds, it seems that that's done. That's that's perfection. You know that
great? Yeah, the laser systemthat doctor man Rique has, we I
always tell people I had a ladycomment to the our day with your technology
is ten years old. I like, really you think it is? Well.
(16:11):
One thing that he does it's waydifferent that a lot of doctors do,
is with our service agreements. Wehave a service basically monthly, not
quarterly, not yearly. And there'scertain certain components on it that he just
has replaced whether they need it ornot, like the laserhead stuff like that.
So that keeps everything up to date. And everything's ran off the internet
as you know, blah blah blah, and then computers nothing back there I
(16:34):
mean everything is maintenance, kept upthe date and everything like that. So
you actually made a good statement.They have a couple of different technologies that
I won't discuss on the air.Course. I'm not sold on I just
because I know the way that theydo it and are not really not really
a Lasik procedure. But the otherthing that I really like about doctor Manrique
when you went to back and said, well, you know, are you
(16:56):
a candidate. Well, if you'renot, of course we're not going to
do anything. But a lot ofpeople that come in that are our age.
You know, we're a little younger, but shut hey, you know
what I mean. But they'll walkin and ear and denial that they have
cataracts, don't have cataracts. Maybethey're in their forties and they can't do
Lasik. Well, we also dolens extractions, So what is that?
(17:18):
What is that? It's basically wherethey take out the lens that's behind the
eye. Lasik's all on a surface, so it's very very non invasive,
totally bladant, pain free, nothinghurts. The lenses are behind the eye
and he actually takes out the naturallens that's attached to the retina replaces it
with the new one. But it'sa multifocal lens that causes you to see
up close, mid range, anddistance out of both your eyes and also
(17:41):
takes a cataract out at the sametime. That is amazing. My dad
had that surgery a long time ago, and it when when people can see
without their glasses, or when likemy dad, my old dad can see
perfectly, it made me a littlejealous because I'm like, my dad's ninety
(18:03):
something and he doesn't need glasses.And it just always makes me so happy
that there are constant updates on things. And I don't want you to talk
bad about anybody else. That's notwhy I'm going to ask you this question.
But when you do see sales orbuy one, get one, I'm
just making that up. That's actuallyactually happens. It just spawns grouponds for
(18:32):
your vision. It scares me.It scares me, but is and you
don't have to talk about money.But when when cost is one of the
fears on people coming in. Isthis something that is covered by insurance?
Is it something that can have apayment plan? I don't know. Is
it available for everybody? Is whatI'm trying to ask. You can tell
(18:55):
we didn't rehearse this at least.So, yeah, it is an elective
surgery. So of course it iscash pay, and the way that we
do businesses, it's based off yourprescription and if it's safer you Because everybody's
unique, everybody's different. I cantell you that I'm usually more affordable than
anybody in town. And that's becausedoctor Manrique, in my not in my
opinion, he does do more procedures. He's got more. You know,
(19:18):
we're approaching seventy thousand laser vision correctionsas we speak. But the thing is
like I wake up. I don'tknow what you do, but I wake
up every morning I look at thestock I shouldn't just look at the stock
market and interest rates interest rates areapproaching seven point five eight percent. Yeah,
I know, I do the samething. Well, thirty six months
interest free still with your good credit. Wow, So you put it on
(19:41):
you know, before you call us, put it on paper, you know,
do the math, and I guaranteeyou in two three years of your
your maintenance on glasses, contacts,contact solution, tear drops, blah blah
blah, you'll set you'll save money. That's amazing, that's amazing. Well,
when I firstarted needing readers, Iwent and I was like, readers
(20:03):
for four hundred dollars. My doctorsaid, buy four hundred pair, every
single one of them. And he'sabsolutely right. But if you really needed
to wear glasses this, I totallyget what you're saying, because glasses ain't
cheap. It's a and I imaginecontext. Just like you said, if
(20:26):
you wear them correctly, it's costly. It's like, okay, rent electric
contacts. It's got to be theevery it's got to be part of your
budget. So this would you gotto look at the smart part about it.
You know what, Richard, weare coming to a close. We
have about four more minutes and Ijust want to ask you. For anybody
(20:48):
that's interested and just has a fewquestions, can they give your office a
call? Absolutely the best thing todo is to come in for your complimentary
screening, because that's what we're trainedfor. You know, you'll call us
upset your appointment, come in,you know, do your research, talk
to us. We'll tell you what'sgoing on. But you know the main
thing you want to keep in mindis I always tell people this just just
(21:10):
the experience of doctor Manrique Board certifiedOptimologists, twenty two plus years experience.
You know, he started LASIK backin ninety seven, ninety eight ish.
He was one of the first inthe valley, and then he grew so
big that we had to expand upinto San Antonio. Come in and ask
your questions. You know, getready to have one of the best experience
you ever had as far as regainingyour natural vision. And as you said,
(21:36):
and I know you're like, whyare you asking me the same question.
I just think that it's amazing theentire time that it takes to get
it done, and your vision andkind of your life changes when you don't
have to wear glasses anymore. Right, could have done probably three or four
patients in the amount of time Iknow we've actually talked. Yeah, it's
amazing. Again, look at ourFacebook page. I mean that's that's Those
(21:59):
are real pictures of patients that dosurgery every week. And I guarantee you
that at least eighty percent of thosepatients the next day at their one day
postop. I talked to everybody andthey said I should have listened to you
and done a lot sooner. Theyall, I mean, I can't really
tell you a person that doesn't saythat. I don't want to end it
on a note, but I alwayslove it when people's vision is changed for
(22:22):
the better. Believe me, itmakes me so happy. Can really old
people or really young people like littlekids, can they get Lasik surgery eighteen
years or older? As long asyou have healthy eyesight over eighteen, we
can do laser, like I said, But if you, you know,
in your sixties, when you comein, we talk to you and because
(22:45):
it's more app to have cataracts,and we'll talk to you about the lenses.
But if you have healthy eyes,I had a sixty five year old
the other day that didn't even havetrace of cataracts, which blew my nice
nice and so you were able tolaser them. And so it's a giant
group of people out there. Andyou know you who you are because you're
wearing your glasses. Right now,You've got to call Richard doin Off,
(23:07):
operations manager at Manrique Custom Vision Centers, and Richard, once again, can
you give the website a phone number? Maybe? Sure, it's three five
four twenty twenty erycode two one zerocourse and then it's essay dot MANRIQUEI dot
com. I can't thank you enoughfor explaining to everybody out there who may
be interested, and uh, maybea little bit of the fear went away
(23:30):
in this last twenty five minutes,I hope. So we look forward to
meeting you on our office and I'mglad to finally meet you in person.
Oh you too, my friends.Great job on the radio, by the
way, Okay, thanks so much.
This week on the Art of Improvement, I'll be speaking with Richard Doinof.
He's the operation manager at Manrique CustomVision Centers. Have you ever thought about
having lasick on your eyes? Iknow, scary, right, except when
you talk to every single person that'shad it. I'm going to talk to
Richard today about who is available toget it, why you should get it,
(00:23):
and I don't know, it justkind of makes sense if you are
interested. My conversation with Richard iscoming up next on the Art of Improvement.
Thank you so much for listening tothe Art of Improvement. I have
a guest here that I have heardof. I've heard him on the radio,
(00:44):
I've seen him on television. Ithink I've even seen you at parties.
Richard, Yeah, don't get scared. Richard Doinoff is operation manager for
Manrique Custom Vision Centers. Richard,it is so nice to finally meet you.
Ah you too, Thank you forhaving me absolutely you can. I
know that this is crazy and you'veprobably done it a million times, but
you have been with doctor Manrique forhow long I'm going on twenty years this
(01:10):
year. Nobody can say that abouta job anymore so one he's the greatest
person ever. And two, youmust be doing something that's really helping people,
because otherwise there would be a hardreason to stay. So first,
for anyone that has not heard aboutManrique, custom Vision Centers tell everybody what
is it. Doctor Manrique actually isa Lasik surgeon. He specialized in zee
(01:33):
lasik. What he likes to do, if you ever listen to him talk,
he likes to get everybody out ofglass and contacts. What a lot
of people don't realize, and Idon't even know if you do, to
be honest with you, contacts havedone more damaged eyes than actually lasik ever
has. Please you've got to talkabout that. But you keep on going
about doctor Manrique and what he does. So with Doctor Manrique started this over
(01:57):
twenty two years ago. Of course, he is using what's called the microkeratone
blade and that's the that's actually whatI had done back in the late nineties.
Lasik just means they create a corneaflap. So it's advanced all the
way from the microkeratone blade and upbeing blade free. Now. The thing
that really separates doctor Manrique, youknow, is as technology evolves, he
(02:17):
does too, so he'll actually goand he'll research the technology, he'll see
if he likes it. I'd sayover ninety percent of the companies want him
to use their technology, so hegets to experiment with it. And what
he decided was that the Zilasa youknow, coupled with what's called the Aligrado
five hundred is the best for thepatients because he feels it gives them their
(02:39):
best correctable vision. So if youback up them when we were first talking,
you're doing the blade, all theall the machines were manual. Doctor
Manrique is actually guiding the machine.Now they are one hundred percent custom for
each eyes. Wow. Yeah wow. So it truly gives you your best
correctible vision without glasson contacts. Andthe big thing with Doc is, you
(03:00):
know, we talk about how greathe is, and I personally believe he's
the best out there. Personally,I do, but I can also tell
you as a person when you hearus advertise he treats everybody like a family
member. You you can mark mywords on that that guy enjoys what he
does. He wants everybody to see. You could see it in his face
when you look at our Facebook page, and he wants you to have the
(03:22):
best experience you know that you canpossibly have anywhere. I'm going to ask
you this again, but just formy out of my own curiosity. People
in the beginning, when lasik wasfirst introduced, they were terrified. They're
like, oh, it's my eyes. And then, as I would say,
(03:42):
millions of people got the procedure done. It was not a question of
if you were going to get itdone, but when you were going to
get it done, because there wasso much success. So let's go back
to the question that you brought up. Contacts. You said that contacts,
people wearing contacts, has done moredamage to eyes than lasik. You've got
(04:05):
to talk to me a little bitabout that, because that's such a bold
statement. But at the same time, I've known people that have fallen asleep
scratched their eyeball and I don't evenlike talking about it because it's so painful,
like to me to even think abouthow sensitive your eyes are and how
life would be without your vision.So talk about contacts, well, you
(04:27):
know, it's I'm not going tosit there and say, hey, you
know a anti contact, but Ican tell you that you just look at
the research and I'll just throw alady that I met down at the TV
station the other day. She actuallywore contacts on New Year's even accidentally fell
asleep in them. The contact.Luckily for her, it did go into
her cornea, which damaged her cornea, but it just missed her vision.
(04:49):
What people don't know if you goasleep in act contact and it goes across
your vision and it happens to tearin there, that can't be repaired.
So I mean, so does itaffect your vision? What happens absolutely.
I mean, we had a DallasCowboy football player that went to bed one
night with this contact on. Wastwenty twenty with his contact on before we
(05:10):
went to bed, woke up contactand torres corny and it was best correctable
was twenty eighty the next day,and that can never be fixed. Ever.
The other thing is contact. Youknow, you get that piece of
material on your eye, and especiallyif you're wearing like torque contacts or the
glass permeables, they tell you they'rereshaping your eye. Well that's great,
(05:30):
they're reshaping your eyes. So guesswhat happens. They reshaped your eye and
it can get to the point whereit's intolerable. And then guess what happens.
Yeah, it's ruining your vision.And yes, I've heard about people
hurting their eyes because you know,I go to a specialist myself because I
have eye problems. I and thethought of wearing contacts for me, because
(05:54):
my vision is so important. Istudied and saw how dangerous it could be.
And just like you said, you'renot telling people to not wear contacts
because people, it's just like breathing. You put in your context and that's
the end of that. But whenyou think about how much has been done
to progress and fine tune lasick,it does seem like something that more people
(06:20):
should think about. And when Isay more people, I before we started
recording, I was like, Richard, who hasn't heard about doctor manriy Ki?
Why are we talking about this?But then I started to think there
are people that maybe have considered lasickand never got it. Do you hear
reasons why people don't get it done? Absolutely? The two It's never changed
(06:44):
in our industry. It's the fear, like you said, and then also
the costs. The thing I alwaystell people is, you know again,
I don't like using myself that Iwill you know, I had mine done
in ninety seven. I haven't hadto do anything with my eyes. I
had to have that tweak when Igot older because I had nothing to do
with the lasik I had done justthat I got older, which we won't
(07:06):
talk about. Oh hush, don'teven look at me when you say that.
My whole thing is I decided backthen to make the investment in myself.
Basically, you know, you're everytime you buy glass and contacts,
if you're doing them right, you'reblowing one hundred or two hundred bucks a
month. I mean that's if you'rechanging your contacts out every day like you
(07:26):
should. And then that is justbasically taking that money, throwing it in
your fireplace and you're burning it.You do the zeelasick with doctor Manrique.
It's an investment in your eyesight,and that way we can permanently fix your
your vision and take you back toyour best correctible vision with don glasson contacts,
and then you don't have to worryabout it again. Are there people
(07:46):
I don't even want to bring thisup, but I have to because somebody
that's listening right now and they've beenthinking about getting lasick. Are there people
that shouldn't or cannot get lasick done. You. Yeah, well yes,
because I can't. I'm not touchingmy eyes because I already have problems.
I mean, but you, Imean, I'm not. I mean we're
laughing. Please. The thing is, say you didn't know that you had
(08:09):
the issue that you had, justyou detached retina. Yeah, say you
believe it or not. People walkinto our office and don't realize that they
have holes in the retina, theymight have a little bleeding back there,
all this other stuff. When wehave them come into the office for their
complimentary screening that they decide to proceedwith us and then go over and do
the medical part, you know,the medical dilated exam. If we see
(08:31):
something behind the eye that would preventthem, do you know to have the
surgery, we don't do it.We totally disqualify them, and then there's
no charge for that. At thatpoint, it's amazing. We can't fix
it. That's amazing. It's goodbecause and it's so embarrassing for me because
when I I have a detached retina, but when it happened, I had
(08:52):
no idea what the signs were fora detached retina, and so I waited
too long, and that's why,like I have eye problems, and I
kept on. I had my doctorcome in and say, we've got to
do a show about this, becausepeople that don't know that the same thing
could happen to them, Like whywould I know? What is a detached
(09:13):
retina? What are the signs?What do I have to do? And
so just going in for an examat Manrique Custom Vision Centers could change your
life, honestly. And one thinghere we are ten minutes in and I
haven't even asked you. How dopeople contact your office? How do they
make appointments? How do they contactyou? Is there a waiting period?
(09:35):
How does that happen? They canjust call our office number, you know,
two one zero, three five fourtwenty twenty. They'll ask you some
very very mild set of questions justso we're betther prepared when we meet you.
And then you come in. Wehave a very unique system. You
come in, schedule your complimentary screening. They do some tests on the surface
of the eye to make sure itlooks like it's safe, and then you
(09:58):
meet with one of the consultants thereand we go over that. We actually
go over the results with you.And the reason I think this is important
is we're not doctors, and weexplain to you where you understand it,
because doctors love you're just sitting there. Like when doctor Manrique talks, I
always call him skim milk, andpeople go, why do you call him
skim milk? I said, he'stop one percent genius, this guy.
(10:18):
You know what I mean. So, yeah, I've met him in other
forms. I get it. Yeah, it's phenomenal. But he when he
starts to explain something, I mean, he unless you know me, he
loses you a bit. We'll tellyou what's going on. If everything looks
good at that point, we cancover you know how you pay for it,
you know the essentials, and getusually get you set up for the
surgery within a week or two.It's actually that simple. Wow, And
(10:41):
how long did I know? You'veprobably told the story one hundred times,
But I would really like to knowfor anyone that is interested in lay sig.
Okay, you make your appointment,you're given the green light, and
so the day of your appointment,what happens. Uh, it's it's again,
it's very unique. It's super cool. You'll go you'll go into one
of the lanes, they'll prep youfor surgery. We spend a lot of
(11:03):
money on this preparation, so Imean, I'm just sharing that. I
mean we make sure you know,I wouldn't want to know. Oh no,
it's very I mean we are veryWe're very specific to what we do.
Doctor Manrique come in and chat withyou for a second. If you
have any questions, ask him.Most people are nervous. We know that,
so of course, as soon ashe walks out, we give you
a value. The volume is notfor any kind of pain whatsoever. It's
(11:24):
just to help you actually be relaxedand actually sleep. After the procedure,
you go back into the surgery suite. You're in there for anywhere from eight
to ten minutes, depending on howmuch talking DoD has to do with you.
He wants to make sure everybody's comfortable. The laser time. Laser time
is under thirty seconds, so now, oh my god. Yeah, so
the whole time you're in there ismoney. Yeah, the prep time of
(11:46):
him talking to you, and thenas soon as you get off the laser.
I remember it like yesterday. Youliterally see all the way across the
room and it's it's that quick.Go quick. That's pretty amazing if you
have just now I started listening.This is Richard Dornoff. He is operations
manager with Menrique custom Vision Centers.And if you could give out the website
(12:07):
and the phone number again for anybodythat's interested, It's two one zero three
five four twenty twenty and then awebsite at essay dot MANRIQUEI dot com.
What if you've been with doctor Manriquefor twenty years, what did you do
before that? Were you an eyedoctor? No, been a previous life.
(12:28):
I actually I've only had a coupleof jobs in my life. I
served in a military for thirteen nights. Thank you, thank you for your
service. Then I was I dida little fretension of school business, which
didn't agree with me too well.But h I met doctor Manrique and quite
frankly, if I tell everybody this, if you can find a better person
to work for personally, you know, yeah, yeah, I get it.
(12:50):
I'm super I'm super blessed because,like you said, there's not many
people that go this long, butjust to watch him and how he does,
how he does his job, howhe treats people. He's not your
typical doctor. He's uh he treatsyou like your human for lack of better
words. I love the way thatpatients talk about him, how he treats
everybody you know, and he wantshe knows how everybody's nervous and everything.
(13:15):
And he actually, even as smartas he is, most of those guys
don't have a lot of empathy.He has a lot of empathy, so
he knows exactly how to tune intowhat you need. That's pretty amazing.
And it's so funny because I guessI hope that I'm like everybody. But
there are people that go to adoctor and that's the doctor that they've been
(13:37):
to and they've gone a thousand years, and whether you like him or don't
like him, I consider it apersonal relationship. And so when you say
he listens, he understands, thatmakes all the difference in the world.
And you're right there there are Sure, he's the brainiac doctor. But when
you get a doctor like that,yes, check mark on that. But
(13:58):
when you have somebody that listens toyou, that's that's uh. That is
icing on the cake, and that'sgood to hear about. Are there different
types of laser surgery or is it'sjust like one size fits all. I
like that you said that. Seewhat that's That's a question that we usually
get daily. There's a lot ofdifferent laser systems out there. Of course,
(14:20):
the you know, lasik just meanscreating a flap, the cornya flap,
which of course seals right after thesurgery. So doctor Manrique considers the
Zeemer to be the most effective becauseit actually seals the quickest, again in
his opinion, the laser that actuallymakes you see correctly. It's under ten
seconds. And I don't care whatyour prescription is. It's amazing and it's
(14:41):
custom for each eye. So thesystems himself. What I like to say
is doctor man Rique, and Ican't don't quote me on this, please,
if anybody's listening, he's has probablythe most experience on this system,
at least in Texas. But hthe guys that pick other technology, the
other doctors I know a lot ofthese doctors, doctor Stark, you know,
(15:05):
doctor Scandard Parker's great surgeons. Imean, they're not taking anything away
from and if they want to pickwhatever technology they want, well they probably
have a reason. Where doctor Manriquehas twenty two years experience and he's picked
this technology and I think that hehas a reason. Now, how okay,
(15:26):
doctor Manrique, this is his life. This is all he does.
You know, he cares about people'seyes. But when there are new things,
I like what you said earlier,Yes there are always new and advances
when it comes to lasick. Buthe fine tunes and says, this is
what's working for my patients. Andso how how many new things can come
(15:50):
out about lasik? You know whatcan change? If it only takes ten
seconds, it seems that that's done. That's that's perfection. You know that
great? Yeah, the laser systemthat doctor man Rique has, we I
always tell people I had a ladycomment to the our day with your technology
is ten years old. I like, really you think it is? Well.
(16:11):
One thing that he does it's waydifferent that a lot of doctors do,
is with our service agreements. Wehave a service basically monthly, not
quarterly, not yearly. And there'scertain certain components on it that he just
has replaced whether they need it ornot, like the laserhead stuff like that.
So that keeps everything up to date. And everything's ran off the internet
as you know, blah blah blah, and then computers nothing back there I
(16:34):
mean everything is maintenance, kept upthe date and everything like that. So
you actually made a good statement.They have a couple of different technologies that
I won't discuss on the air.Course. I'm not sold on I just
because I know the way that theydo it and are not really not really
a Lasik procedure. But the otherthing that I really like about doctor Manrique
when you went to back and said, well, you know, are you
(16:56):
a candidate. Well, if you'renot, of course we're not going to
do anything. But a lot ofpeople that come in that are our age.
You know, we're a little younger, but shut hey, you know
what I mean. But they'll walkin and ear and denial that they have
cataracts, don't have cataracts. Maybethey're in their forties and they can't do
Lasik. Well, we also dolens extractions, So what is that?
(17:18):
What is that? It's basically wherethey take out the lens that's behind the
eye. Lasik's all on a surface, so it's very very non invasive,
totally bladant, pain free, nothinghurts. The lenses are behind the eye
and he actually takes out the naturallens that's attached to the retina replaces it
with the new one. But it'sa multifocal lens that causes you to see
up close, mid range, anddistance out of both your eyes and also
(17:41):
takes a cataract out at the sametime. That is amazing. My dad
had that surgery a long time ago, and it when when people can see
without their glasses, or when likemy dad, my old dad can see
perfectly, it made me a littlejealous because I'm like, my dad's ninety
(18:03):
something and he doesn't need glasses.And it just always makes me so happy
that there are constant updates on things. And I don't want you to talk
bad about anybody else. That's notwhy I'm going to ask you this question.
But when you do see sales orbuy one, get one, I'm
just making that up. That's actuallyactually happens. It just spawns grouponds for
(18:32):
your vision. It scares me.It scares me, but is and you
don't have to talk about money.But when when cost is one of the
fears on people coming in. Isthis something that is covered by insurance?
Is it something that can have apayment plan? I don't know. Is
it available for everybody? Is whatI'm trying to ask. You can tell
(18:55):
we didn't rehearse this at least.So, yeah, it is an elective
surgery. So of course it iscash pay, and the way that we
do businesses, it's based off yourprescription and if it's safer you Because everybody's
unique, everybody's different. I cantell you that I'm usually more affordable than
anybody in town. And that's becausedoctor Manrique, in my not in my
opinion, he does do more procedures. He's got more. You know,
(19:18):
we're approaching seventy thousand laser vision correctionsas we speak. But the thing is
like I wake up. I don'tknow what you do, but I wake
up every morning I look at thestock I shouldn't just look at the stock
market and interest rates interest rates areapproaching seven point five eight percent. Yeah,
I know, I do the samething. Well, thirty six months
interest free still with your good credit. Wow, So you put it on
(19:41):
you know, before you call us, put it on paper, you know,
do the math, and I guaranteeyou in two three years of your
your maintenance on glasses, contacts,contact solution, tear drops, blah blah
blah, you'll set you'll save money. That's amazing, that's amazing. Well,
when I firstarted needing readers, Iwent and I was like, readers
(20:03):
for four hundred dollars. My doctorsaid, buy four hundred pair, every
single one of them. And he'sabsolutely right. But if you really needed
to wear glasses this, I totallyget what you're saying, because glasses ain't
cheap. It's a and I imaginecontext. Just like you said, if
(20:26):
you wear them correctly, it's costly. It's like, okay, rent electric
contacts. It's got to be theevery it's got to be part of your
budget. So this would you gotto look at the smart part about it.
You know what, Richard, weare coming to a close. We
have about four more minutes and Ijust want to ask you. For anybody
(20:48):
that's interested and just has a fewquestions, can they give your office a
call? Absolutely the best thing todo is to come in for your complimentary
screening, because that's what we're trainedfor. You know, you'll call us
upset your appointment, come in,you know, do your research, talk
to us. We'll tell you what'sgoing on. But you know the main
thing you want to keep in mindis I always tell people this just just
(21:10):
the experience of doctor Manrique Board certifiedOptimologists, twenty two plus years experience.
You know, he started LASIK backin ninety seven, ninety eight ish.
He was one of the first inthe valley, and then he grew so
big that we had to expand upinto San Antonio. Come in and ask
your questions. You know, getready to have one of the best experience
you ever had as far as regainingyour natural vision. And as you said,
(21:36):
and I know you're like, whyare you asking me the same question.
I just think that it's amazing theentire time that it takes to get
it done, and your vision andkind of your life changes when you don't
have to wear glasses anymore. Right, could have done probably three or four
patients in the amount of time Iknow we've actually talked. Yeah, it's
amazing. Again, look at ourFacebook page. I mean that's that's Those
(21:59):
are real pictures of patients that dosurgery every week. And I guarantee you
that at least eighty percent of thosepatients the next day at their one day
postop. I talked to everybody andthey said I should have listened to you
and done a lot sooner. Theyall, I mean, I can't really
tell you a person that doesn't saythat. I don't want to end it
on a note, but I alwayslove it when people's vision is changed for
(22:22):
the better. Believe me, itmakes me so happy. Can really old
people or really young people like littlekids, can they get Lasik surgery eighteen
years or older? As long asyou have healthy eyesight over eighteen, we
can do laser, like I said, But if you, you know,
in your sixties, when you comein, we talk to you and because
(22:45):
it's more app to have cataracts,and we'll talk to you about the lenses.
But if you have healthy eyes,I had a sixty five year old
the other day that didn't even havetrace of cataracts, which blew my nice
nice and so you were able tolaser them. And so it's a giant
group of people out there. Andyou know you who you are because you're
wearing your glasses. Right now,You've got to call Richard doin Off,
(23:07):
operations manager at Manrique Custom Vision Centers, and Richard, once again, can
you give the website a phone number? Maybe? Sure, it's three five
four twenty twenty erycode two one zerocourse and then it's essay dot MANRIQUEI dot
com. I can't thank you enoughfor explaining to everybody out there who may
be interested, and uh, maybea little bit of the fear went away
(23:30):
in this last twenty five minutes,I hope. So we look forward to
meeting you on our office and I'mglad to finally meet you in person.
Oh you too, my friends.Great job on the radio, by the
way, Okay, thanks so much.
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