Pre-exam
Preoperative Examination for LASIK in Thailand
Before the LASIK pre-exam
If you decide to contact one of the clinics in advance by email, they will send you a list of points important for your preoperative examination. All the websites listed under Bangkok’s top clinics have contact details.
The most important point is to take out your contact lenses well before the pre-exam. Why? To give your cornea time to return to its natural shape. Again, this is important, since otherwise the examination readings might not be accurate. How long before the exam do I need to take them out? That depends quite a bit on who you ask, but the Rutnin-Gimbel Excimer Laser Eye Center for example recommends one week for soft lenses and three weeks for gas permeable lenses. Others request as little as three days for soft and seven days for RPG and hard contact lenses. In any case, this means if you fly into Thailand for LASIK, you need to start not wearing your contacts already back home.
Other common requests are to bring a pair of sunglasses and that you bring somebody along to accompany you back home, since you will have blurry vision for a few hours after the examination due to the use of application of pupil dilating eye drops. If you come alone, someone will surely help you to stop a taxi to take you back to your hotel.
The pre-exam itself…
is actually quite good fun. Lot’s of interesting gadgets and completely painfree. It will take about three hours.
The other side of the pre-exam is that it gives you a chance to examine the facility and the people working there. If the place does not make you feel comfortable, walk out. One thing to evaluate is how up front the doctor is with the risks involved in LASIK surgery.
Before we forget it…
You will need to show a recent HIV test result before the operation. If you don’t have one, a test can be arranged at short notice in Bangkok. At some places it can be done inhouse, all others will recommend you a hospital in the neighborhood, where you can have it done the same day. For those on a super tight schedule, you can have your pre-exam in the morning, then go for the HIV test, have lunch, go back to the hospital to pick up the HIV result, return to the LASIK center and have your surgery done – all on the same day and possibly without prior booking. And all with plenty of smiles. Welcome to medical services Thai style. Needless to say that we still recommend that you take your time and make a booking.