Cross-linking procedure: Epi-on or Epi-off?
In March 2025 three different ophthalmologists diagnosed me with keratoconus (they made me visit multiple offices to make sure) with only 24 years. The last ophthalmologist, who is a specialist in keratoconus and does CXL, insisted on doing the procedure as soon as possible. My biggest problem was that I had no health insurance whatsoever and both eyes would cost between $10.000-$12.000 in my country.
One year later I finally have a job and health insurance that helps me a bit with the procedure. Today was my follow-up appointment and my doctor said that we need to do the CXL this year. This time though, he said there was a second option that was way cheaper for CXL: epi-on.
After reading a lot of posts I have some mixed feelings about the procedure, but I’m still inclining myself towards it because each eye would cost $750 instead of $4.000 for epi-off. No matter what option I choose, my surgery date is for September of this year (I have to make some arrangements with my job and save up for both procedures), but I would like to know what experience people have with these procedures. A lot of the posts I found were old and I would appreciate learning of more recent ones.
For context, I’m out of the United States and it’s normal for these procedures to cost so much in my country. Also, my ophthalmologist is confident that if my eyes react positively to the CXL we can do a laser surgery in the future to reduce my prescription.