Hi! This is my 2-month SMILE LASIK review!
Since kindergarten, my vision differed a lot between my eyes, with left eye 0.9 and right eye 0.3, so I wore glasses for over 20 years. As an adult, my vision became left eye -3.75 and right eye -4.0, with severe astigmatism too.. I wore colored contact lenses starting as a student, and after becoming an office worker I did switch to daily disposables, but because I wore lenses for more than 8 hours a day, my eyes were so dry every morning.. One day, a coworker had SMILE LASIK and said they could see so well and that life without contacts was so convenient, so I immediately booked a consultation at the same clinic!
The consultation fee was 100,000 won by bank transfer, and if you had surgery the same day after the consultation, the consultation fee was included in the surgery fee. Since I visited already decided on surgery, after hearing that SMILE LASIK was possible, I proceeded with surgery right away. I used the Lunar New Year holiday in case I might end up doing LASEK, and they told me to expect about 5-6 hours for the consultation + surgery during the holiday. Used mom's help going home haha
I arrived at 10:30 and I think I had about twenty tests.. Honestly this part was the hardest and most hectic... Still, the optometrists stayed with me 1:1 from the start to the end of testing. There was no waiting in between, which was so nice!!! (Took about one hour total) They said my eyes were very dry, so I was worried, but fortunately not dry enough to make surgery impossible Out of 10 points(?) both eyes were 5?
They told me to eat lunch and come to another floor by 1, so I had hangover soup nearby.. and got some coffee. While eating, they said they would send a video about the surgery process and precautions and told me to watch it with the sound on, so I watched it twice because I'm a scaredy-cat,. But the video and the actual surgery process are really exactly the same, so you need to watch carefully!!! After eating, I went a little after 1. There were quite a lot of people, so I thought the wait would be long, but after paying and playing a phone game for a bit, they called my name right away. I had about three or four more tests, then was guided to another floor and moved there. Up to here took about another hour.
I thought I would wait again, but they said surgery would begin right away, so I was like??? and went in. Before surgery, during the explanation, they said scary things like I must not close my eyes, if something goes wrong the laser shoots for 30 seconds and they would switch to LASEK during surgery, blah blah. But actually, they put an eye holder in, so my eyes couldn't close, and I just looked at the green light while the nurses kept telling me how many seconds were left 〰️ so I clenched my teeth and endured it.. The feeling of removing the cornea was a bit.. unusual, but the examination process was harder..
In terms of how it felt, anesthesia and surgery together seemed to take less than 5 minutes, and right after surgery my vision was extremely hazy, but I could really see better than before surgery.. A whole new world. After surgery, they scheduled my next-day checkup and the 2-week checkup, prescribed two eye drops and three boxes of artificial tears, so I went straight to the pharmacy in the same building. Because it was surgery, insurance didn't cover it, so the medicine cost about 50,000 won separately
I have severe dry eye, so from right after surgery until going home, my eyes stung a lot, (but honestly I was so excited that I could see that I don't think I cared much). I went home, slept right away, and when I woke up, the stinging had lessened and I could see so well.. From the next morning, there was no stinging at all, and I could see unbelievably well, so for a while I went around reading every bit of text I could see lololol
My vision was: At the checkup the day after surgery: left eye 1.2, right eye 1.0 (morning checkup on Lunar New Year's Day At the checkup 2 weeks after surgery: left eye 1.0, right eye 0.9 (+ also had a retinal exam; at this time my dryness was so severe that my vision dropped slightly, but I only searched for myopic regression like I was losing it;; At the checkup 6 weeks after surgery: left eye 1.2, right eye 1.0 They told me vision can go up and down depending on condition and eye recovery, and after surgery, all checkups were done quickly with waiting times within 10 minutes!!
Since people seem to worry a lot about dry eye and glare/halos related to vision correction surgery, in my subjective feeling: They said my dry eye didn't seem to be improving, so at the last checkup they did prescribe high-concentration artificial tears (so expensive because insurance didn't cover them), but actually it was severe even before surgery.. I don't really know of any major inconvenience yet. If anything, after surgery I'm more conscious of it and putting in artificial tears more diligently. Glare/halos were definitely severe at night for about a month after surgery. It was like Christmas lights popping everywhere I don't drive, but the glare was definitely uncomfortable. Building signs were so dazzling.
But for me, the improvement in quality of life is big enough to outweigh all these drawbacks I'm so satisfied with SMILE LASIK, highly recommend!!