Until a few weeks ago, Senthil Kumar, a textile entrepreneur, had to depend on his spectacles to see the world.
Now, he enjoys clear vision and has gotten rid of his spectacles after he agreed to SMILE (small-incision lenticule extraction), the latest laser eye surgery technique to treat refractive errors.
The new painless procedure is becoming popular among patients as it lasts just 10 minutes and promises immediate healing.
The eye surgeon uses the laser to create a small lens (lenticule) inside the cornea, depending on the power defect to be corrected.
“We remove the eye tissue from the cornea through a minimal incision of two mm. In Lasik, another technique that is largely used, we have to go for an incision of 28 mm,” says Arulmozhi Varman, medical director of Uma Eye Clinic.
After undergoing other eye surgical procedures, patients may be restricted from certain physical activities like swimming.
“With SMILE, however, the healing is overnight and there is no restriction on swimming. It is just a single-step procedure,” says Dr. Varman.
Another advantage SMILE has over Lasik procedure is people with any degree of power defect can forego their spectacles or contact lens, says Amar Agarwal of Dr. Agarwal Eye Hospitals, where the SMILE procedure has been recently launched.
“Earlier, we used to reject 30 per cent of patients for corrective surgery as their cornea was less than 560 microns thick. Now, these patients too can opt for the SMILE procedure,” he says.
However, SMILE is about 30 per cent costlier than a Lasik surgery which costs about Rs. 30,000 for both eyes.
