The Day of Laser Eye Surgery – Preparation and Planning

Your Laser Eye Treatment Day

When the day of your laser eye treatment arrives, you will naturally feel a mix of excitement and nervousness. Here are a few things to keep in mind before your LASIK treatment starts:

• We will need approximately 3-4 hours of your time on the day of the surgery.
• You will need to sign a consent form.
• Avoid aspirin or other medications that may cause blood thinning. There are no further restrictions on eating, drinking, or medications.
• Wear comfortable clothing, but do not use creams and lotions, eye makeup, perfume, or hairspray.
• As the temperatures in our operating rooms range between 19 and 23 degrees Celsius, we recommend that you dress warmly and comfortably.
• Please bring only the essentials, as you may need to change rooms multiple times within our clinic throughout the day.
• Do not wear your contact lenses before the laser eye procedure. Consult your doctor for further details.
• Bring someone to drive you home, or make other arrangements for your return. You should plan for approximately 2 to 4 hours for the entire stay, including the laser eye treatment.
• Before entering the operating area, you will have the opportunity to take a light sedative.

Before your laser eye procedure, your eyelids and eyelashes will be cleaned. Antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and anesthetic drops will be instilled in your eyes.

During the Laser Eye Surgery

During the specially tailored laser eye surgery, you will be taken to the operating room and initially receive one of several doses of anesthetic eye drops. A surgical technician will clean the skin around your eyes. Then you will be placed in a lying position on a comfortable operating chair and receive additional anesthetic eye drops until you are ready for the treatment.

During the laser eye surgery, you will lie comfortably on a couch. Your surgeon will use the information from the extensive preoperative tests to program your individual treatment for the laser. An infrared camera will monitor and track your eye during your laser procedure to control the laser as precisely as possible. Your laser eye surgeon will personally confirm all laser programming and operate the laser.

Our professional staff focuses on two main goals – the expert execution of their tasks and your well-being before, during, and after the operation. In the meantime, the anesthetic eye drops will have numbed your cornea, and the sedative will begin to take effect. Our experienced team will be very happy to guide you through the process step by step.

Femto LASIK

For FemtoLASIK (also for PRESBYOND), a so-called flap (a thin layer of corneal tissue) is created with the Visumax 800 femtosecond laser, the latest femtosecond laser in the world. A special device on the eyelid prevents closing or blinking during the procedure. We ask you to remain still and not speak for about 5 seconds during the flap creation. You will feel only slight pressure and notice that your vision in the treated eye becomes gray to dark.

Reshaping the Cornea

For the reshaping of the cornea, you will be automatically moved with the operating table to the Mel90 excimer laser after the flap creation while you remain comfortably lying down. You will receive additional anesthetic eye drops and instructions for the next part of the procedure, where the excimer laser reshapes your cornea.

A holding device keeps your eye open for this process. You will be asked to look at a small, green, blinking light. This serves as a fixation point to optimally center the eye for correction. With the press of a button, the doctor transfers the individually pre-programmed data from the computer to the laser, and the cool laser pulses reshape your cornea. A tracking device ensures that each laser pulse is correctly placed even with the slightest eye movements. The removal of the tissue is usually thinner than a human hair.

The laser treatment with the Zeiss Mel90 excimer laser is normally completed in less than 10 seconds. If both eyes are treated, the process is repeated for the other eye. During the entire procedure, you are fully conscious and can follow the process. Our friendly staff will accompany you every step of the way.

After the surgery, your surgeon will check both flaps for perfect adjustment. You will then be taken to the recovery area, where you will receive instructions for the next 24 hours.

Although most patients say they did not experience any pain during their laser eye procedure, some report feeling slight pressure on the eye.

SMILE PRO

The SMILE procedure (Small Incision Lenticule Extraction) involves reshaping the cornea by removing a small lens (lenticule) from the central corneal layer. The process uses a femtosecond laser and removes the lenticule through four small incisions on the corneal surface.

The SMILE eye laser procedure is a complete femtosecond laser procedure. While two different laser devices (femtosecond laser and excimer laser) are used in the FemtoLASIK operation, only one laser (femtosecond laser) is used throughout the entire SMILE Pro operation. Therefore, the procedure is slightly different from FemtoLASIK.

Differences in Patient Experience:

You do not need to be repositioned or turned in a different direction for another laser. You remain in the same position throughout.

You will not notice any tissue smell that sometimes occurs during the treatment with the excimer laser.

In the SMILE operation, there are no laser noises like those during the excimer laser ablation of corneal tissue in the FemtoLASIK procedure.

For further information and to check eligibility for laser eye surgery, we are always available to answer all your questions. Please schedule a non-binding and free quick-check appointment at Lasikwelt Eye Laser Center Cologne.

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