LINE OF SIGHT — Local services in New York

Let me start by saying Dr. Tsai is kind, knowledgable and caring. She has a wonderful staff. I sought her out last August for help draining a stubborn 6 month old chalazion. I paid $2,000 upfront for 4 IPL sessions. The first 2 sessions went smoothly. The chalazion seemed a bit smaller and eyelid inflammation was down overall. There was definitely still a hard rubbery bump but Dr. Tsai said I needed to continue the IPL and give it time. She offered to include some radio frequency (RF) for free along with IPL during my 3rd session to help move things along. At that 3rd session she used a different IPL machine and different eye shields (she used inner eyelid stainless steel shields during the first 2 sessions and outer sticker shields during the 3rd session). While she was doing IPL on my upper right inner eyelid something went very wrong. It felt like a hot needle shot right into my eyeball. I jumped/yelped and told her it was painful and she said there definitely shouldn't be any pain and continued. There were more moments of pain while she finished up and then she moved onto the RF. I was in shock but trusted I was ok. I wish I had told her to stop the moment I felt pain like that. I left the session in shock, very inflamed/red and went home to rest. I then had a terrifying 4 days. Looking at any source of light with either eye triggered extreme sharp pain. Even in a pitch black room, the smallest light on the power button of my air purifier across the room would trigger excruciating pain. I contacted Dr. Tsai first thing the next morning and she had me come into the office right away for a full front to back examination of both eyes (I was grateful for this but it was extremely painful since bright lights were involved with the tests). She said everything looked fine and couldn't explain why I was in so much pain and said she had never heard of that happening. She said a few times that maybe she accidentally scratched my eye during the post IPL/RF gland expression when she uses a tool to squeeze the glands to get things moving. But I kept telling her I knew the exact moment that I was injured and it was when she was using the IPL machine on the inner corner of my upper right eye. She said this was impossible but I know what I felt. I even had a flap of eyelid skin peel off in that exact location in the days that followed, like the skin had been burned. The pain went away after 4 days thank god and I still had 1 session left. I told her I did not want anymore IPL after what happened and she agreed that would be the way to move forward - so we just did RF on the chalazion area only. She threw in a 5th free session of RF as well a month after my 4th session (it was November at this point). Sadly my chalazion never went away after all 5 sessions and never got any smaller after that initial reduction in inflammation. I'm sure some people with chalazions that haven't been around as long have success with IPL. She had advised me several times against chalazion removal surgery and warned me about all the potential complications which really scared me - but in the end she agreed the only way forward was surgery. I got a referral from her for a wonderful oculoplastic surgeon and had the chalazion removal surgery in December. I am SO glad I had the surgery. It cost 1/4 of what the IPL sessions did. It has been such a relief and I'm so glad to finally be rid of this thing! Also - when I told the surgeon (who is a fan of IPL) what happened during that 3rd session he said, “That sounds like textbook Uveitis. The IPL energy hit your eye in a way it shouldn’t have.” It was relieving to finally have someone tell me that yes, I was injured from the IPL. I'm so grateful I don't have long term damage. I just want to advise people to be careful with IPL. I've read a lot of other scary stories - most of the time it seems to go smoothly - but sometimes mistakes are made and having something go wrong with your sight is absolutely terrifying. Just be careful, ask questions, and speak up if something...

Just sharing my personal experiences as someone who came to Line of Sight for dry eye consultation (medical) and paid handsomely for subsequent treatments.

All the optometrists are quite nice, and Dr. Tsai did a thorough job on my diagnostic tests. She is very knowledgeable about dry eye and recommended 4 sessions of IPL+RF. The way these sessions were run made me feel a little uneasy. During my second session, with my eyes sealed shut and without clearly communicating or asking my permission beforehand, Dr Tsai had a trainee try to do the treatment on me. Thankfully, when I expressed that it was causing me physical discomfort she was very understanding and took back over, but this seemed like a somewhat egregious oversight not to ask me beforehand. Additionally, as I was getting the treatment done with her, she was using that time to push/market skin products and treatments onto me (they also provide cosmetic injectables and treatments I guess). This made me a bit uncomfortable — it certainly seemed inappropriate, if not unprofessional as I was actively undergoing a somewhat stressful medical procedure. I’m aware of the complicated incentives with private practices, but in that moment I really felt like someone they wanted to make money off of.

I think that maintaining a throughline, a main provider, is important for personal and consistent care, is usually one of the selling points of small private clinics and helps you feel like your concerns are being heard and your progress over time is being followed (not just via shared notes). I felt that there was a disinterest in being my provider when I had two follow up appointments with two different providers. I ultimately ended up seeing 4 different providers including 3 different ODs while coming here over a few months for the same issue, which felt impersonal and made me a bit sad. Maybe this was on me for not clarifying in scheduling, but my assumption was that I would be seeing Dr. Tsai as my provider each time.

Dr. Peterson was very kind, and I also think that the Concierge service is excellent. They are very responsive over text, helpful with scheduling, and went above and beyond, working very hard on my behalf with Dr. Nouvari to try and get an Rx covered by my insurance even without my prompting. Overall, I’m a little unsure about continuing to visit Line of Sight for my dry eye concerns. However, I imagine that if your needs are simple (just need your prescription checked every year + a pair of glasses), this place is would be great. It’s a cute and trendy office space. I’m sharing this in hopes of helping someone make the right decision in terms of finding care for their...

My initial encounter was through ZocDoc when I scheduled an appointment and provided my insurance details. I met with Dr. Tsai, but things quickly unraveled when, mid-examination, the team realized that my insurance was not accepted. This mix-up left me feeling frustrated and as though I had wasted a significant portion of not only my day but also, the doctor's.

I decided to return the following year after switching my vision insurance. I appreciate the modern office setup. I did find a pair of glasses that I adored during this visit, thanks to the assistance of a stylish team member who expertly matched them to my complexion, skin color, and eyelash length. I also ordered a supply of contact lenses, which, unfortunately, didn't work for me. The office graciously agreed to refund the unopened boxes and gave me a store credit.

Several months later, I returned to the office to select a second pair of glasses. After getting home from the fitting, I noticed that the frame was mangled. Upon contacting the office, I had to make additional visits to address the issue. Upon further inspection, I also discovered that my original pair glasses also had uneven frames, with one side even exhibiting a crack – a clear indication of lab quality issues.

I understand that Line of Sight is still a relatively new business, and I'm hopeful that they will improve with time. However, it's clear that they could benefit greatly from better organization and...