Adéu, flaps.SMILE Pro
No flap, at any point. We work through an opening of about 2 mm, and the laser itself takes about ten seconds per eye.
A disc, and a 2 mm door.
A femtosecond laser works inside your cornea without opening it first. It shapes a thin disc of tissue, sized to your own prescription, while the front surface of your eye stays exactly as it was.
Then the surgeon opens about 2 mm at the edge and lifts that disc out. That is the whole treatment. Nothing is folded back, nothing is put back, and there is no flap to think about afterwards.
The laser is the ZEISS VisuMax 800.
An opening of about 2 mm instead of a cut of about 20 mm: about 90 percent less cutting.
Three steps, SMILE Pro.
The disc forms
Inside the cornea, shaped to your prescription. The laser itself takes about ten seconds per eye.
A 2 mm door opens
At the edge of the cornea. The front of your eye stays intact.
The disc comes out
The surgeon removes it. The cornea's curve changes, and light lands where it should.
Is it for you?
- You are short-sighted, with or without astigmatism.
- You play contact sports, swim, dive or spend your life outdoors. There is no flap to think about, ever.
- You would rather we worked through the smallest opening we can.
Your eyes decide this, not a web page. The free check measures your cornea and tells you the same day whether SMILE Pro suits you, whether another of our six methods suits you better, or whether this is not for you at all.
When you get your life back.
- Screens and driving
- The next day
- Back to work
- Usually the next day
- Sport
- 1 day
- Eye makeup
- 2 to 3 days
- Swimming
- 3 to 5 days
Day one is hazy, and it sharpens over the days that follow rather than overnight. The check-ups are included: the day after, one week and one month. You buy the prescribed drops at a pharmacy.
Both sides of it.
What it is good at
- No flap is made, at any point in the treatment.
- We work through an opening of about 2 mm rather than a cut of about 20 mm.
- The laser itself takes about ten seconds per eye.
- Most people are back at screens the next day.
What it asks of you
- Day one is hazy. Vision sharpens over the following days, not overnight, and that is longer than some people expect.
- Astigmatism-heavy prescriptions often do better with Femto-LASIK.
- It is not the most versatile laser we own. Femto-LASIK is, and for some eyes that matters more than the size of the opening.
The ones people actually ask.
No. Drops numb the eye before anything starts. You feel pressure, not pain.
Femto-LASIK makes a flap: a thin layer about 20 mm across, folded back and laid down again at the end. SMILE Pro makes no flap and works through an opening of about 2 mm instead. Which one suits your eyes is exactly what the free check answers.
Leave them out for at least 24 hours before, ideally 2 to 3 days. If that was not possible, come anyway and tell us what you wear.
It is possible, but most people treat both together. The in-between period with one corrected eye is harder than people expect.
If your result needs fine-tuning, we correct it at no cost during the first year.
For distance, that is the goal. But from around forty-five the lens inside every eye stiffens, and most people eventually use reading glasses. That happens with or without treatment, and we will tell you honestly what to expect for your eyes.
If this one is not the answer.
We run six. That is the whole point: the one we recommend is the one your eyes need, not the one machine we happen to own.
Adéu, maybe.
Thirty minutes, no cost, and a straight answer the same day. We measure your eyes, learn how you use them, and tell you which of our methods fits, if any of them does.