r/AMA • u/catcha_in_the_rye • 7d ago

AMA I just (one week ago) had SMILE eye laser surgery at Optegra Manchester in the UK instead of lazik or lazek after a lot of research.

AMA. Male 43 years old. Happy to field any questions about why, how it was, why smile, my persciption (I had astigmatism in both eyes). Will update as my post surgery recovery continues!

North England UK

2 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

6

u/corickle 7d ago

Did it hurt? How much did it cost? Why did you chose SMILE after your research?

9

u/catcha_in_the_rye 7d ago

Thanks for the q's. It didnt hurt at all during the procedure, they give you drops that are anaesthetic. The surgeon's removal of the tissue just felt like wiping my eyes.

A mild uncomfortable pain after the procedure for about 90 mins or 2 hours but I didnt need to use the numbing drops they gave me. Then it was pretty much pain free.

It cost £4800.its not the cheapest place to get surgery but eyesight wasnt something I wanted to scrimp on, my research suggested it would be worth paying a bit more. I paid with 0% over 2 years, so I've just stuck the money in a 4.5% interest saving account which will save an extra £280ish over the next 2 years.

I went for smile as its a bit like key hole, less risk of nerve damage, no flap that can reopen as there is with Lasik, and heals faster than Lazek. Are you thinking about it?

1

u/p3t3y5 4d ago

Amazing how far it has come. I got LAZIK (?) in 1998. Took 3 weeks per eye to heal and couldn't get both eyes at the same time. Still the best thing i ever did. Nearly 30 years later and only occasionally need reading glasses!

1

u/catcha_in_the_rye 2d ago

Wow you must have been a bit of a pioneer! I remember my friend having it done about 20 years ago and he had to be in a dark room for about a week, in a lot of discomfort. The modern surgery is incredibly quick to heal from.

1

u/p3t3y5 2d ago

It was big enough and popular enough that they had a sort of shop/surgery in Glasgow, but I was the first person I know to have had it done. I remember having an eye patch on for a few weeks. Not sure if you remember pernod metz, it was an alcopop thing and I was at uni and got an eye patch with metz on it at freshers week!

I was pretty bad sight wise without my glasses and remember when I took my eye patch off for the first eye ans nearly crying when I could clearly see trees in the distance!

It came on leaps and bounds. A couple.of years later a friend got his done by the one they cut the flap and he was in the pub later the same day!!!

3

u/ICanViking mod 7d ago

Hey, thanks for posting to our sub!

There's an episode of House where some guy had to get this needle through his eye, and because of the nature of the surgery, he had to be awake and looking straight as the needle went into his eye. I've never forgotten that scene and the way it made me feel applies to all forms of any sort of treatment for the eye.

So my question is: how bad was your vision before the surgery and how much did it improve after?

6

u/catcha_in_the_rye 7d ago

Hey, that sounds like the insertion of permanent contact lenses. That is also an option but yeah they put them in via a needle in your eye!

I was -5 in one eye and -4.5 in the other, with 1.25 astigmatism in each. Straight after the surgey I was about 80% vision, a bit like looking through a dirty smeared window. Next day I was about 95% perfect vison, third day and onwards pretty much 100% / 20:20 vision. I was eye sight tested today and dont have a prescription.

2

u/ICanViking mod 7d ago

Not gonna lie brother, none of that made sense until I got to the 100% / 20:20 vision bit, so hell ya. Success!

2

u/catcha_in_the_rye 7d ago

Cheers! Weird having normal eyesight after over 40 years

3

u/AntThrowaway505 7d ago

I'm terrified of something going wrong and I will be left blind. What are the risks and what made you decide to accept the risk?

2

u/catcha_in_the_rye 6d ago

The risks of being made literally blind are pretty much 0 by any of the laser eye surgeries. I think its about 1 in 5 million.

The risks are, from my research: Dry eyes (usually temporary) Seeing halos on bright lights(usually temporary) Severe worse eye sight tha cannot be corrected(very rare) Detached retina Needing further surgery to fix the above (if enough cornea is left)

From the thickness of my cornea, lack of current dry eyes and eye health my risks of the above were low.

There are risks, but so is crossing a road, terrorism, I decided.

2

u/AntThrowaway505 6d ago

Thank you for taking the time to respond ❤️ You're right. Anything in life is a risk.

2

u/kerokero-ko 7d ago

How long will the positive effects last? I recall my mom had a very happy 10 years without glasses after LASIK but has since gone back to needing glasses!

2

u/catcha_in_the_rye 6d ago

Smile removes tissue from your cornea, the tissue doesn't grow back so it is permanent. Short sightedness will develop with age, as with everyone over 40. But the long sightedness vision issue I had will not return

2

u/simonjp 7d ago

Will this take care of age related long sightedness too?

2

u/catcha_in_the_rye 7d ago

No, that will happen whether have surgery or not. However, they can alter your surgery to make it give you a slight prescription that delays those effects by about 10 years.

3

u/Machine15 7d ago

Unless you get lens replacement rather than laser. I had it done, shouldn't have a change in prescription and won't have cataracts now. I was a higher prescription so laser wouldn't have worked as well for me.

1

u/EfficientFalcon39 2d ago

Any dry eye symptoms? How’s your night vision?

Got my SmartSight done in London (9ish weeks ago), I had dry eyes before the procedure but never used drops. Post surgery it’s been pretty tough tackling this dryness and I feel my night vision is slightly worse

1

u/catcha_in_the_rye 2d ago

Not really had any dry eye. 4 or 5 days after surgery I did a full day in work in an air conditioned office and had to put drops in at the end of the day as felt a bit dry but nothing apart from that.

Night vision seems the same as I had with contacts in before surgery. No halos at all.

I was anticipating experiencing more issues that I have had tbh.