Refractive Surgery: LASIK and SMILE treatment
LASIK involves creating a thin corneal flap using the Femtosecond laser. This Femtosecond laser has been used in over 8 million patients to date. The corneal flap of tissue is then lifted to allow the Excimer laser to reshape the corneal tissue and correct your vision.
Refractive surgery is suitable in over 90% of patients with a stable refraction, and who are over the age of 21 years. We use the latest model Wavelight Excimer 550 laser, which has the world’s fastest eye tracker and tissue saving capability.
Femtosecond flap creation and Excimer laser treatment takes about 15 minutes per eye. Wavelight Excimer LASIK delivers excellent visual acuity with quality vision.
SMILE is performed using the Visumax Femtosecond laser within the cornea and manual removal of a lenticule of tissue to correct your myopia.
How is Laser Surgery Performed ?
The surgery is performed under topical local anesthetic eye drops with a pre-operative oral sedative tablet (10mg temazepam). The creation of the corneal flap is with the Femtosecond laser, creating a thin tissue flap in about 10-18 seconds.
There are no blades used in this surgery. The flap is then lifted and the second Excimer laser is then used to reshape the cornea to within a thousandth of a millimeter !
The Excimer laser has a tracking device with the ability to follow eye movements up to 200 times per second; insuring accurate delivery of treatment. Once locked onto the eye’s pupil and treatment is over in 3 to 8 seconds. The flap is finally repositioned and stabilized.
Are your eyes suitable for laser surgery?
Refractive surgery is suitable in 90% of patients with stable refractive errors, who are over the age of 21 years.
Patients who no longer have reading vision, Presbyopia, may also benefit from LASIK surgery to gain a degree of mono-vision.
Patients who have already had cataract surgery and are still wearing glasses can also benefit from correction of their residual refractive errors.
At your consultation a comprehensive ocular examination is necessary to ensure patients are suitable for laser surgery.
35 Years of History
Professor Ioannis Pallikaris, in 1986, coined the term, “laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) for Eye Surgery that involves the creation of a thin corneal flap and by using the Eximer laser, reshapes the corneal tissue under the flap to correct the eyes refraction.
LASIK surgery has overcome the issues of pain and delayed healing associated with corneal surface laser, known as PRK.
Because LASIK and SMILE allow for rapid recovery, a prospective randomized trial has found in favor of same-session bilateral surgery.
Patient selection by Comprehensive Assessment
The process of patient selection is through a comprehensive examination of your eyes. This may require more than one examination if you have been using Contact Lenses.