How can I be certain that SMILE has good success rates as a newer procedure?

SMILE is indeed a relatively new refractive surgical procedure, however all the current published and anecdotal evidence indicates that the results are comparable to other forms of refractive laser procedures (including Epilasik, Femto-assisted Lasik) for safety, predictability and stability at short-term, intermediate and long-term end-points (up to 5 years). This is a significant finding as SMILE was only introduced in 2011.

In fact, from a biomechanical perspective, some authors believe that the SMILE cap offers almost 7% improved biomechanical stability over the femto-Lasik cap. Side-effects of glare, haloes and dry eyes / corneal paresthesia post-operatively are also believed to be superior with SMILE.

You should have a frank and detailed discussion with your refractive surgeon about the advantages and disadvantages of each type of refractive surgery before committing yourself. Suffice to say that if your surgeon offers you both femto-Lasik and SMILE, you wouldn't be making a bad choice either way as both are excellent procedures with established results.

Best of luck!

ESG

ReLEx SMILE though newer has been in practice for the last 10 years. As it is still a laser-based vision correction technique, it adheres to the same principles of achieving its goals by way of reshaping the cornea, very much like how Advanced Surface Ablation (PRK, Epi-LASIK & TransPRK) and Femtosecond-LASIK work.

In many ways, ReLEx SMILE tries to address some of the limitations of the earlier generations of laser procedure (flap creation in LASIK & longer visual recovery time in Advanced Surface Ablation).

In addition, ReLEx SMILE achieves these goals by reducing the incision size by 5 times compared to LASIK. Many surgeons are drawn to ReLEx SMILE primarily from the perceived increased safety from a smaller incision. So far, the data has been encouraging and with more time, we will have a better grasp of whether these perceived advantages hold true.

ReLEx SMILE does have 1 limitation though and that it is currently unable to correct hyperopia. Thus far, results for correction of myopia and astigmatism, comfort and speed of recovery has been similar to that of LASIK.

Our view of ReLEx SMILE is that it is not so much an entirely new technique but rather a refinement of the previous techniques by way of lessons learnt over the last 30 years.

Dr David Chan