Korean Job Discussion Forums

[margaret]

We are coming to Korea in a few weeks. Can anyone tell me how much eye glasses cost there? Also can anyone recommend a good eye doctor (surgeon)? My friend has cataracts and will need surgury but the U.S. insurance will not pay yet as they are not sufficiently advanced.
Thanks,
Margaret

[peppermint]

An eye surgeon- can't help you there, but eye glasses are cheap say between 50-100,000 depending on the frames and how bad your eyes are.

[schwa]

Simple eye prescriptions make for bargain glasses but more complex lenses (eg graduated bifocals) run between 2-300,000 a pair, pretty close to western prices.

I had cataract surgery here. Any opthalmologist should be able to speak basic english (likelier if theyre younger) but having a friend/translator along might be a good idea anyway. My eye doc referred me to a very competent surgeon.

Very common & safe operation. Not a pleasant procedure! but its over quickly.

Current thinking on cataracts suggests its not necessary to wait for them to "ripen" but a lot of eye doctors are still old-school on this point.

I had national medical insurance but the cost was only partly covered. This was some while ago & I might be misremembering but it seems to me I had to shell out about 3 or 400,000 won.

[tzechuk]

Where are you going to be? A friend's husband is an ophthalmologist here in Daejeon and he speaks very good English.

[Pangit]

I paid fourty thousand for my pair. Quick exam and had the lenses ground within an hour while my wife checked out contact lenses. Those were comparatively cheap, as well, but I don't remember the cost.

They were cheap frames, but I like how they look. Simple, frameless.

[Demonicat]

Contacts are cheap here- they use a brand that lasts 5 months a pair (not hard, though ) and for a simple rx (no astigmatism) it was 40.000. Toric lenses cost 60.000. This is just from my personal exp, but still not bad. $40 for 5 months!?! Awesome.

[Pangit]

Yeah, my wife got Acuvues and she said that they're a good deal. I don't know anything about contact lens prices, though, and I can't get her to verify at the moment.

[blah]

It��s usually the frames that are so outrageously priced when it comes to eyeglasses. I paid about $250 for mine in Vancouver. I get the super bendy memory-metal type that always finds their original shape (��cause I always manage to ruin every other kind). Then I came here and found pretty much the same ones for under half that price.

[margaret]

Thanks everyone for the quick answers. We'll be in Mungyeong, which is about as close Daejeon as anywhere else, so I'll pm you, tzechuck, for details.
schwa--did you have to miss work for your cataract surgury?
Margaret

[Newt14]

I've never paid more than 30,000 for a pair of glasses and i think I have six pairs, that way I never have to look for a pair, they have become an accessory for me. I give a new pair every couple of months now since this will be my last contract. The place I go to only charges for the frames not the lens, they usually have them ready within a few hours, never more than 24hours if they have to order in lens for me. My eyes aren't that bad, reading glasses mainly. we has also got glasses for my sister in law ans my husband, and we never pay more than the price on the frames.

It cost me 15,000 when i broke my new len in half.

I never do an eye test here, as I think a five minute test it's good enough, I have my prescribtion from home that I use.

[schwa]