Richard B. Meister, M.D.



Richard Meister, Sacramento Lasik surgeon "Never before, in 20 years of refractive and cataract surgery, have we had so many different ways to restore people’s vision. It’s really exciting to bring the miracle of sight to our patients.”
-Richard Meister, M.D.















Dr. Meister graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1971 with a B.S. in Zoology and Science Education Bachelor of Science degrees. Prior to medical school, Dr. Meister attended post-graduate courses at UC Berkeley while doing research in microsurgery at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco as director of the experimental surgery lab.


Dr. Meister interview on LASIK surgery

In 1978, he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Medicine at the University of North Dakota. He graduated from medical school at UC Davis in 1980 and in 1981, he completed his internal medicine internship at UCLA Harbor General Hospital in Torrance, CA. Dr. Meister completed his ophthalmology residency at the prestigious Hermann Eye Center, University of Texas at Houston in 1984. He served as chief resident and was voted “Most Outstanding Resident” by his peers.

Dr. Meister has specialized in refractive surgery since establishing his Sacramento area practice in 1984. He is a true pioneer in the field of refractive surgery. In 1984, he was the first surgeon in Northern California to perform radial keratotomy using the Russian Technique. Seven years later, Dr. Meister introduced a new surgical technique to the area and became the first surgeon to perform ALK in Northern California. Prior to the FDA approval of excimer laser vision correction in the United States, he began traveling out of the country with his ALK keratome in 1993 to perform LASIK as it was being developed worldwide.

Since the FDA approval of the excimer laser in 1995, Dr. Meister has performed thousands of laser vision correction procedures in the United States. He was the first surgeon to perform laser vision correction on patients in Sacramento in December of 1995. In 1996, Dr. Meister became the co-medical director and a founding partner of Pacific Laser Eye Center, where he performs laser vision correction and other refractive procedures for patients in the greater Sacramento area.

Dr. Meister performed early excimer research on hyperopia and astigmatism treatments for the FDA beginning in 1997.  He began treating hyperopia and astigmatism long before other surgeons in the U.S.  In January 2003, he was the first in Northern California to obtain space age Wavefront technology, allowing the treatment of defects in the optical system that were previously unmeasurable.  Dr. Meister now uses the WaveLight Allegretto Wave laser for the majority of his laser vision procedures.  The Allegretto Wave’s ability to reshape the eye while compensating for the cornea’s natural aspheric shape provides superior visual outcomes with many patients achieving better than 20/20 vision.

Dr. Meister is committed to remaining at the leading edge of new refractive technology. He remains current through an international network of leading surgeons, which allows him to deliver the most up-to-date care to his patients. Dr. Meister is a certified instructor for teaching physicians excimer laser surgery. He has appeared on radio and TV programs Statewide and lectured internationally on refractive surgery.

Sacramento LASIK Center