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Doctor has eye on new location

Year of Local Laura Greaves This is the 13th in a series of submitted stories produced by the Year of Local, a collaborative project highlighting businesses and not-for-profit organizations in Sarnia. Dr.
Dr. Murari and Sunita PatodiaSubmitted Photo
Dr. Murari and Sunita Patodia Submitted Photo

Year of Local

Laura Greaves

This is the 13th in a series of submitted stories produced by the Year of Local, a collaborative project highlighting businesses and not-for-profit organizations in Sarnia.

Dr. Murari Patodia has strong connections to Sarnia and its people, having grown up and attended high school here.

And he quickly realized the community was under-served.

“I knew that there was a need for eye care specialists here. I believe that just because you live in a smaller community, it doesn’t mean you should receive less than the best care,” he said.

Patodia attended some of Canada’s top institutions to study his specialty, including Western University, the University of Toronto and the Ivey Eye Institute.

Following thirteen years of education and training, he opened his practice on March 3, 1996 in a building on Water Street.

“We outgrew it the day we opened, but we were there for a year and a half before we moved into this building,” he said of the current location at 1298 Exmouth St.

Over the course of two decades, the practice has continually expanded its services and is known today as the Sarnia Eye, Esthetics & Lasik Clinic, or SEE Lasik for short.

And SEE Lasik is in the process of relocating a second time to better meet patient needs in a timely manner.

“We are always striving to improve access and quality of care. The new location promises to do just that with more ease and comfort for our patients.”

Patodia said he enjoys practicing in Sarnia because of the diversity of his patients.

“In a larger city setting you might be pigeonholed in a small aspect of eye care, and you might only do certain types of procedures. Here, I can do it all. I perform Lasik, cataract, glaucoma and eyelid surgeries. I also provide laser, injections for diabetes and macular degeneration.”

The clinic has been the first in the country to purchase certain diagnostic equipment. One of them is the Heidelberg HRA.

“We have a patient that flies in from Kingston every three months to visit us. He’s been coming to us because we’ve invested in this piece of equipment. It conducts an OCT scan, which is almost like a living biopsy. It’s the gold standard.”

Patodia’s clinic started offering esthetic services in 2001. While that might seem like a departure from his first speciality, he said ophthalmology and esthetics have much in common. For example, Botox was an ophthalmic solution before it was an esthetic one. Ophthalmologists like Dr. Patodia are trained in the use of lasers and light therapy, which feature prominently in esthetic treatments, allowing him to use his skills in new ways.

“For me, it’s a different expression of who I am and what I can do. It’s a different kind of pleasure.”

For more local stories, visit www.yearoflocal.com.


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