Board-certified ophthalmologist and fellowship-trained cornea and refractive surgeon, Lawrence C. Chao, MD, is Medical Director of Chao Vision Institute.

Before establishing Chao Vision Institute, Dr. Chao started his cataract and refractive career as Director of Refractive Surgery at the Beckman Laser Institute and as an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California, Irvine. His university-level experience includes building a cataract and refractive practice at the UC Irvine Department of Ophthalmology; participating in clinical trials; proctoring community eye surgeons on various laser platforms; and teaching other cataract and refractive specialists who were undergoing advanced ophthalmic training.

Today, he is one of the few cataract and refractive surgeons in the country who is able to manage both routine and complex refractive cases including new technology lens implant in LASIK patients. Dr. Chao has performed thousands of cataract, cornea and refractive procedures, including micro-incision phacoemulsification; presbyopia and astigmatism (toric) correcting intraocular lens (Crystalens, AcrySof ReSTOR, ReZoom and Toric) implant; laser vision correction (LASIK, PRK, LASEK); and phakic lens implant (Visian ICL, Verisyse).

More About Dr. Chao

Dr. Chao was born and raised in Ohio and obtained an undergraduate degree from Washington University in Biology in St. Louis. He graduated with honors from University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. He served his ophthalmology residency at the Castroviejo Eye Clinic at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Manhattan, NY, and his cornea and refractive surgery fellowship at the University of California, Irvine.

When Best Doctors of America asked doctors questions like, “If you or a loved one needed a doctor in your specialty, to whom would you refer them?” his peers selected Lawrence Chao, MD.

Dr. Chao has been featured, quoted and published in both public (Orange County Register, LA Times, Vogue, and Glamour) and professional journals and magazines