SMILE

SMILE Fort Lauderdale

In 2017, another laser corneal sculpting option became available for nearsighted individuals. The VisuMax femtosecond laser manufactured by ZEISS of Dublin, California was approved in September 2016 for the use of the SMILE procedure. SMILE is an acronym for Small Incision Lenticular Extraction. This common corrective procedure is only offered by a few advanced laser eye clinics around the country. Dr. Lessner at Millennium Laser Eye Centers is a leading provider of SMILE in Fort Lauderdale and throughout South Florida.

A pre-operative exam is required and patients should not wear contact lenses for 1-2 weeks before the procedure. On the day of the procedure, patients should avoid wearing beauty products and makeup on the face to decrease the risk of contamination in the surgery room.

 Approximately 8 million laser pulses are painlessly by Zeiss Visumax femto-laser during the 16 second treatment for flap creation in the first step of LASIK and roughly 12.5 million pulses are used in equally painless 25 second lenticle creation in the first step of SMILE.

SMILE offers an alternative for those at high risk of eye trauma as no flap is created. This laser is intended to treat myopia with or without astigmatism.