My greatest achievement:

My greatest achievement in my career and as a woman is being appointed Director of the Glaucoma service at Assil Eye Institute.  Being given this opportunity early in my career has been extremely humbling as well as showed that my colleagues highly regarded my clinical and surgical expertise.

The future of my field is:

There has been several paradigm shifts in Ophthalmology. We are optimizing cataract surgery results by offering patients even more enhanced intraocular lenses, which replace the cataracts and give patient the most glasses independence. Vision correction surgeries are also advancing in technology in order to deliver highly customized laser correction for each individual’s eye to achieve even better vision outcomes than glasses or contact lenses could achieve. There have been very beneficial shifts in the treatment of glaucoma patients by offering minimally invasive glaucoma surgeries (MIGS) as well as new upcoming glaucoma medications that will be deposited into the eye which will help glaucoma patients achieve control in their eye disease without the excessive use of life-long glaucoma drops that come with their plethora of side effects.

The biggest misconception about my field is:

Many believe that ophthalmologists only perform eye surgeries such as LASIK and cataract surgeries and only diagnose eye diseases. But there have been numerous times as a practicing ophthalmologist I have not only saved vision but also saved someone’s life. Recently, I saw a patient who was being followed for glaucoma however when they had an initial consult with me I quickly realized there was something not adding up with their eye exam. I had ordered head imaging that revealed a large brain tumor.

My most requested procedures are:

The most requested procedures by far are vision correction surgeries (LASIK/PRK/ICL surgeries) and cataract surgeries.

What surgical advancements are you most excited about?

In our practice we offer EagleVision™ LASIK that provides a unique approach to LASIK flap creation and highly customized corneal sculpting. When both are coupled together, this allows our patient to achieve superb visual outcomes. In the future of cataract surgery, there are a plethora of advancements that have recently come to the market, in particular, newer generation intraocular lenses that replace cataracts and have the ability to correct distance, intermediate/computer vision, and near vision. I also specialize in glaucoma management and treatment and I am excited for new advancements in glaucoma surgery and medications, which will help my patients safely achieve glaucoma control with least amount of glaucoma eye drops.

What are you best known for?

I am a fellowship-trained glaucoma specialist so a treat all degrees of glaucoma with either topical eye drops, lasers, or surgical procedures. With that being said, I specialize in surgical management of cataracts and have strong expertise in the management of complex cataracts as well as well-versed in performing laser-assisted cataract surgery, insertion of premium multifocal & extended-depth focus intraocular lenses, and refractive vision corrective surgery.

What is your most memorable patient reaction?

This is honestly a tough one to answer because I have so many memorable patient reactions so I will mention a recent one. I performed cataract surgery on 22 year-old patients who had an amazing vision outcome. Her story starts off tragically when at the age of 6 years old she sustained trauma to her eye after falling on scissors and since then she developed a dense complicated cataract. Her surgery was nowhere near “routine” but her postoperative results were instantly gratifying for the patient and me. Before the surgery, she was legally blind and immediately after the surgery she was 20/20! We both had tears of joy!

What sets my practice apart is:

Our ophthalmology practice offers high quality vision care and the latest advance technology in laser vision correction, cataract, and glaucoma surgeries. Assil Eye has been the first to perform many ocular surgeries and technologies as well as partake in many FDA trials throughout the years. These efforts display our never-ending efforts to remain a leader in the field of ophthalmology. We were recently named “Top Doctor 2019” in LA Magazine as well as “Santa Monica’s Most Loved” medical practice in 2019 which echoes that our practice continues to be well-respected in the ophthalmology community and by our patients. Our practice also has deep roots in the Los Angeles area. It was first established in 1949 in Santa Monica by the one of the most well respected ophthalmologists, Dr Robert Sinskey, who was considered a pioneer of modern cataract surgery, a great international educator and developer of surgical instruments. For the last 45 years, each day tens of thousands of surgeons throughout the world utilize the Sinskey Hook, one of the fundamental instruments of cataract surgery.

What I love most about my profession is:

Ophthalmology is a beautiful balance of intricate surgeries and medicine. I love that I am challenged constantly and see complex eye cases that have led to systemic diagnoses of other diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, strokes to name a few. The eyes serve not only as a “window to the soul,” but also can serve as a window to diagnose systemic diseases.

What new services are you excited to offer?

We are excited to now offer EagleVision™ LASIK. This is where we combine leading edge technology with advanced surgical techniques developed by Medical Director, Dr. Kerry Assil, to provide a unique approach to LASIK flap creation and highly customized corneal sculpting. This protocol enables us to safely correct nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, while also improving night and reading vision, achieving excellent visual outcomes.

We are one of the few ophthalmology practices in Los Angeles offering the new FDA approved trifocal intraocular lens called Panoptix which that been giving patient amazing vision results after cataract surgery. We have expanded our services to incorporate and offer dry eye treatments such as IPL and Blephex that have been shown to improve visual outcomes after ocular surgery if dry eyes are optimized prior.