SMILE-Method: Eye laser without fear!

Since contact lenses can influence the form of your cornea,  you should not wear them for several weeks before the surgery.

The morning of the surgery:

Start your day with your usual routines. That will help to calm you. Cleanse the eye zone carefully and do not use cosmetic products such as facial cream, make-up or perfume the day before and the day after the surgery. You can eat and drink normally but should refrain from excessive smoking. Wear comfortable clothes to feel at ease.

Surgery:

It is an outpatient treatment and last for both eyes approximately 20 minutes.A bit of excitement and tension are completely normal. If you feel too anxious you can ask for sedation. Prior to the surgery we check together all data before anesthetizing the first eye with eye drops. To avoid you blinking during surgery, a lid-opener is inserted while the other eye is covered up. Then your eye is gently fixed with an individually tailored contact glass. The Femtosecond laser VisuMax® then generates the lenticule and a miniscule tunnel incision (2-2,5mm) in the cornea. After that, the surgeon dissects the lenticule and extracts it. During this process you see a bright point but feel nearly nothing. After the surgery the tiny tunnel incision closes automatically. There is no need for other post-surgical measures. After the surgery it is convenient that family or friends collect you as you are not allowed to drive a vehicle. For the protection of your eyes we suggest that you wear sun-glasses.

After the surgery:

Be careful not to rub your eyes after the surgery. We provide you with eye-drops for the week after the surgery which you should administer up to 5 times a day. On request we provide additional artificial tears. After 2 to 3 days you can go back to work and undergo sport activities. Hobbies such as swimming or sauna should be avoided for about 3 to 4 weeks to minimize the risk of infections. A control of the successful treatment takes place the day after, several days after and several weeks after the surgery. Should you have any question you can always call upon us.

Surgical risks can be reduced to a minimum through conscious acting and through our quality management but cannot be excluded completely. But there is a solution for nearly all complications, if patient and physician behave correctly.

Usually the complications are limited to four problems:

1. Loss of vacuum

A loss of vacuum can occur during the 30 seconds of the surgery through extensive pinching or sudden movements of the head. Depending on the progress of the treatment the surgery can either be continued immediately or can be repeated at a later time.

2. Infections

Infections can occur at every surgery.
However the minimal-invasive intervention of the SMILE method bears a smaller risk than LASIK or LASEK.

3. Result

Aim of the treatment is the complete correction of defective vision. This goal can be achieved in appr. 95% of the cases with one single intervention. Individual tissue reactions can implicate over- or under-correction which necessitate a second intervention.

4. Keratectasia

A constitutional tissue weakness can, very rarely, provoke a protrusion of the cornea soon after the surgery or years after, which can compromise the vision. Until now no case of Keratectasia after a SMILE surgery has been published. As well as after a SMILE surgery on a healthy eye.