ReLEx smile: the future of laser eye surgery
We focus on the state-of-the-art techniques for eye correction. And we are willing to give you our opinion about what can be expected in this area in the future.
The newest revolutionary technique for giving patients a new eyesight in a fast and effective manner, is called the ReLEx smile surgery. With this minimally invasive treatment, it is now possible to perform an eye surgery through a keyhole operation, without the need of separating a corneal flap from the eye, as it is the case for LASIK.
Whereas in earlier days a whole door needed to be opened, nowadays, the operation can be performed through the keyhole.
This means that the ReLEx technique is a completely new method in the world of eye laser surgery. The execution of this very complex procedure obviously requires specialist skills. One of these high-level specialists is Dr. Van Cleynenbreugel, associated to Medifocus and pioneer in the field of laser eye surgery.
“Unlike the LASIK method, where a flap is detached from the cornea in order to access the underlying tissue, in the case of the ReLEx method, the underlying tissue is accessed through a minuscule connecting tunnel.”, says Dr. Van Cleynenbreugel. “The tissue of the cornea is corrected in a very precise manner by the laser and afterwards, a very tiny layer of tissue is removed by the surgeon, through the tunnel or ‘the keyhole’. This is a brand new principle, marking a new era.”
As only a small incision of barely 2 millimetres is needed in the cornea, the recovery process of the ReLEx method is remarkably smoother than for the other techniques. Immediately after the intervention the eye starts healing. For most patients, the eye recovers so fast that in the evening they are capable already of reading the subtitles on TV. Further recovery, where patients are functioning completely and can perform their daily activities again, is usually reached after about 24 hours. At that point, the eyesight is not perfect yet, but sufficient to, for example, drive a car.
Besides the speed of the recovery, ReLEx smile is also more appropriate than LASIK for larger corrections. In general, the traditional LASIK laser eye surgery can improve the eyesight of patients with a maximum deviation of about -6. The ReLEx method is less restrictive as the larger deviations are treated with about the same precision as the smaller deviations, in contrast to LASIK.
Patients with a thinner cornea can also be helped, because this technique doesn’t require the creation of a corneal flap as it is the case with LASIK. Therefore, the treatment is less dependent on the thickness of the cornea.
The reason why only limited deviations can be corrected with the traditional laser eye surgeries is that the higher the deviation, the more tissue needs to be removed from the cornea. For some patients, the cornea is not thick enough to remove the necessary tissue after the creation of the corneal flap. As the ReLEx smile treatment is performed through an extremely precise miniscule hole at the side of the eye, the front side of the cornea remains intact, allowing for the treatment of larger deviations. Therefore, the method can be applied on a larger number of patients.
In case of the ReLEx method, the state-of-the-art Carl Zeiss VisuMax laser is used. This is the only femtosecond laser that limits the pressure on the eyes (this is why you don’t feel anything during the treatment) and which is more precise than any other laser.
With the hypermodern 3D techniques, the laser pulses on the side of the cornea, creating tiny bubbles of a size less than 1/1000th of a human hair. In this way, the tissue that needs to be removed is measured in a very precise manner. Afterwards, the surgeon removes the part of the tissue using miniscule tweezers.
In the meantime, we have reached the milestone of 1 million ReLEx smile treatments worldwide. This is a historical moment because this number is considered an indication that ReLEx smile will replace the older techniques, such as PRK, Lasek and LASIK, in the future. Moreover, the largest part of these ReLEx smile treatments has been performed during the last year. This means there is an exponential growth, indicating that worldwide the older techniques, such as PRK, Lasek and LASIK, are being set aside.
If you would like to make an appointment or you would like more information about the ReLEx smile method, you can contact us without obligations.
Preliminary examination
Would you like to know whether you are eligible for laser treatment or eye surgery?