Eye surgery recommendations in Tokyo

9 comments

1. This is not Japan-specific, but I strongly recommend you dont get Lasik. They have a sizeable number of people who had their lives ruined due to mess ups. One of my friends had a “successful” Lasik only to have her eye nerves damaged in the process. Such cases make life a living hell, no one should go through that.

2. I don’t think Shinagawa Lasik does PRK. I went with Minamiaoyama Eye Clinic for PRK, the experience overall was pretty good.

3. same thing with me (corneal thickness and vision deficit) and had the ICL last month.
   ive been told that modern lenses have apparently been improved so the possibility of gettin cataracts have gone down significantly, but you will get halo glares because of it. it doesnt bother me at all so its fine, but you might want to reconsider if you think it will affect you.

   i did mine at yoshino ganka clinic in ueno btw

4. I went to [Minamiaoyama Eye Clinic](https://minamiaoyama.or.jp/en/) asking about SMILE, and they recommended ICL for me instead.

   After a long time considering it, I finally had ICL surgery there.

   For all of the information I’m about to write below, please keep in mind that I am not a doctor and confirm everything with a professional.

   Here’s the confusing thing when looking at information about ICL online.

   Most ICL surgeries use the Visian brand of implanted lenses. (In fact, if you see someone using something that isn’t Visian, you should probably avoid it as it probably isn’t approved in most countries).

   Almost a decade ago, new models called the Visian EVO and EVO+ were introduced. They have been widely used in Europe and Japan since then. However, the American FDA did not approve them until early this year. You will also sometimes hear these called “hole ICL” because there is a hole in the middle of the lens that lets intraocular fluid flow more freely and significantly reduces the risk of cataracts.

   A lot of studies you will see out there were done on the earlier generation of Visian ICLs, which were the only ones available in America until very recently. A lot of the English-language documentation talks about the older generation as well.

   With the older generation, you had to have an iriodotomy done before the implantation to increase fluid flow. That is not necessary with the EVO because of the hole in the middle of the lens.

   I had the Visian EVO+ lenses implanted about eight months ago and so far I am reasonably happy. Vision is excellent, although I still have halo effects at night, and those are likely to persist forever. I have heard that your brain basically learns to filter them out. I don’t drive very often, so I can’t speak to its effect on nighttime driving. I feel like I’m a bit more sensitive to daylight, but that has continued to improve month by month.

   I was under the impression that the risk of dry eye is lower with ICL as well, but I do have some dry eye issues related to computer use. I’m not sure to what extent those were being masked by my contact lenses before, but I use artificial tears now most days.

   I do think that it was a better choice than laser surgery for me, and I’m very glad that I did ICL here instead of in America, both because of the newer generation of lenses as well as the much lower price (especially after the income tax deduction).

   However, you may be in a different position.

   By the way, I used Minami-Aoyama, and they get mentioned here a lot, but one other English-speaking clinic I came across while searching was [Sapia Tower](https://eyeclinic-tokyo.jp/en/). I have seen very little feedback about them, but if you want another opinion, there you go.

   I have no qualms about Minamiaoyama, though — I think the surgery went about as well as possible, and the surgeon was, as far as I know, very experienced and well-qualified.

5. i had ICL last september at the SBC shinjuku eye clinic. i used SBC because i’m already a point card member. the price seemed comparable to other clinics. they use the new type that have the hole i them for the fluid flow.

   there was some dryness and eye fatigue until about 2 months after the surgery. none now, though i do have a bit of halo-ing at night and feel a bit more sensitive to bright sunlight. the perfect vision is worth it though, it’s amazing to wake up and see. i had over -7 diopters and astigmatism

6. How much does it cost? My eyesight is horrible. I’m also thinking of going for an operation…

7. It might depend on the lenses they use, but when I had ICL done they said that they had a newer, more porous type of lens that didn’t have the same issues with intraocular pressure, and personally speaking I haven’t had any issues in the 5 years since.

8. Can’t speak to PRK specifically but I got ICL done at Senshinkai and they also do PRK. I wasn’t a candidate for Visian EVO so I got the iridotomy to relieve eye pressure before surgery. I had -7 left -5.5 right and strong astigmatism but now I can see great. Downside of ICL is that it’s pricier than LASIK.

9. I talked to one of the rep in Shinagawa clinic and he told me they don’t offer PRK anymore.
   There were several reasons but one thing that I still recall is that because not many people are opting for it anymore.