Do eye doctors get vision correction surgeries? In a word, yes!
You probably used to read and hear from people that they didn’t want to move forward with laser eye surgery because their ophthalmologist wore glasses or because they were under the impression that no eye surgeons have had the procedure themselves. If this was true in the past, it indeed isn’t now. In fact, at B&VIIT Eye Center, all of the doctors received vision correction surgeries themselves.
Today we brought you an exclusive interview B&VIIT’s doctor Dr. Tae-Keun Yoo on his personal vision correction surgery experience.
He received SMILE surgery from our Dr. Ryu. , one of our very own doctors here at B&VIIT Eye Center.
.Q: What was your motivation to get the surgery?
I mean, as a person who’s been wearing glasses for a long time, I’ve had enough of them. So, I finally decided to give it a go. After the surgery, my family tells me that I look so much better now. (chuckles) It was kind of awkward looking at my face at first without glasses. When my daughter saw me, she said, “Daddy, why aren’t you wearing your glasses? Put them on!”
Q: Is there any specific reason why you wanted to get the SMILE surgery?
My first choice was SMILE. Initially I was worried my eyes would get dry post-surgery. But considering everything, SMILE seemed like the best option for me. So, when the B&VIIT AI System proposed the most optimized surgery method for me as SMILE, I was so relieved!
Q: Was it scary? Tell us about your surgery experience.
When you lay down under the laser, you see a green flashing light before you go in. You keep looking at the green flashing light, and it disappears during the surgery. During the operation, the nurse and the doctor gave me the exact timing and told me what is going to happen step by step, so actually it wasn’t scary at all. For pain wise, I felt light pressure, but no pain at all.
Q: How was the blurriness the day after your surgery?
My vision was blurry the next morning after the surgery. To be honest, I forgot to put in the eye drops the night before because I was so tired. Since I didn’t put it in, it felt quite blurry in the morning. (chuckles) No worries though! From then on, I set alarms diligently and used my eye drops. The thing that I found really accommodating in my recovery process was the B&VIIT mobile application. B&VIIT installs an app for you after the surgery, and you can set up alarms so you can be automatically notified when to put the eye drops in!
Q: What is your visual acuity now?
It’s unbelievable. My visual acuity is 20/20 in both eyes.
Q: 1-month post-op, would you recommend vision correction surgery to people?
So I have now been in the shoes of a doctor and a patient. Looking back, contact lenses and glasses definitely were a nuisance in my day-to-day life. My glasses often broke, and there were actually sometimes I tripped and fell due to the foggy glasses. I remember I often had a difficult time putting the contact lenses in, and my eyes used to get really red and irritated because of them. It’s so amazing to be completely free of that. I can’t believe that I can clearly see now. Most of all, I love being able to buy sunglasses right from duty-free shops and being to wear them so freely without prescription!
I hope this interview of Dr. Yoo has been of some help to those who are contemplating SMILE surgery, or any vision correction surgery. If you want to know more about his journey, watch Dr. Nike’s TMI Lesson episode 26!
Turn on the English subtitles and enjoy~