ReLEx SMILE vs LASIK – how are they different?

We interviewed Dr Christoph Kranemann to learn about the difference between ReLEx SMILE and LASIK.

Christoph Kranemann: If we’re looking at historical data for SMILE, the recovery was quite a bit longer.

There was originally a learning curve because there are slightly greater surgeon components and skill components required to perform the procedure. Even now, you will likely find that different clinics have different recovery times. It does matter who performs your procedure.

In our experience, we find that the vast majority of people are totally functional on day one, as functional as they’d be with LASIK.

If you’re looking at the poor acuity on a vision chart, some of them are marginally less than LASIK on day one, but there’s no difference by week one. From a functioning perspective, there’s no difference between the two.

There are always going to be a few patients with either of these procedures who will take just a tad longer to settle in because you reshaped something. Depending on what the correction was and how the reshaping was, it may take a little time to settle in and for the vision to be optimal. That applies to SMILE just as much as to LASIK, and even more slowly of course to PRK.