Ophthalmologists suggest that it is better to receive SMILE surgery with at least 6 months of stable eyesight. Generally, SMILE has lower chance of rebound as it create smaller incision and the cornea is more complete. However, there might be sudden visual change due to other issues, please consult your ophthalmologist as early as possible if it is the case.

Our clinic suggests that customers should receive at least 2 days of comprehensive eye examinations so that we can obtain correct data and design a customized vision correction plan. Therefore, customers should stop wearing contact lens for some days before the first eye checkup:

Soft contact lenses (excluding astigmatism): Stop wearing for at least one week

Soft contact lenses (including astigmatism): Stop wearing for at least two weeks

Rigid contact lenses: Stop wearing for at least one month

Corrective contact lenses: Stop wearing for at least three months

*After the first eye check-up, pre-operation examination and visual correction could be conducted on the following day.

SMILE is an advanced laser correction technology that improves the limitations of LASIK vision correction. For example, LASIK requires a corneal flap to correct vision, so the incision is larger than SMILE. Meanwhile, SMILE only requires a small incision of 2-4mm and corneal flap is not needed, so the incision area is reduced by nearly 80%. It is therefore to have lower chances of getting dry eyes, infection and corneal flap displacement. At the same time, the recovery time is shortened.

Anesthetic eye drops are applied to your eye to numb the eyeball, so there is usually no pain experienced and with little discomfort during the procedure. The surgery usually takes within 5 minutes for both eyes.

Usually the procedure itself only takes about 5 minutes. However, patients may need to stay at the clinic for 2-3 hours for pre-operative preparations and examinations. 

SMILE has more than 2 million successful cases worldwide. It is an advanced technology from Zeiss in Germany. It was approved by the European Union in 2011 and approved by the US FDA in 2016. The clinical results of the FDA have shown that SMILE is safe, stable and highly effective. Meanwhile, 88% of patients had naked eyesight above 1.0 after 6 months of the surgery.

Presbyopia happens when the lens is hardened and lack of elasticity at the age around 40-50. It is an unavoidable age-related condition and has nothing to do with SMILE.

People who:

·         have incomplete eyeball development or with unstable myopia

·         have thin cornea, or high myopia/ hyperopia

·         severe dry eye

·         have history of glaucoma or retinal diseases

·         have infection on cornea, such as inflammation or previous trauma

·         have history of immune system disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus

·         are in the needs of long-term steroid intake

·         are pregnant 

SMILE is a minimally invasive technology, which only requires anesthetic eye drops, so general anesthesia and observation after surgery are not needed. Our clinic is equipped with international level aseptic operation rooms with advanced surgical instruments and examination machines to ensure the whole process is safe and reliable. 

All surgeries carry risks. The risk of vision correction is relatively low. Generally, its risks include under-correction or over-correction, poorer night vision, sensitivity to light and dry eyes. Complications come after vision correction surgeries are not common. Complications such as corneal infection or bacterial infection only happen in rare cases.

According to a survey conducted by the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery in 2016, ophthalmologists were nearly 5 times more likely to receive vision correction than the general public and many of them have already chosen to get rid of their glasses by getting vision correction done.

Yes. SMILE only changes the curvature of your cornea and does not affect the other parts of your eyes.

SMILE Xtra is a corneal collagen cross-linking surgery. It is suitable for patients whose cornea is too thin, who has high myopia and astigmatism or who is suspected of being at risk of developing ectasia. Ophthalmologist will evaluate your conditions and decide if you need to receive SMILE Xtra before vision correction. For the procedure, ophthalmologist will apply riboflavin eye drops into your eyes and irradiate your eyes to a UVA light to strengthen your cornea.

Corneal collagen cross-linking surgery can be performed simultaneously with SMILE.