Gangnam Dr.ICL Eye Clinic - ICL Lens Implantation, Implantable Contact Lens

Yes. ICL lens implantation surgery is available to almost anyone from age 18 to around 50. Even patients with severe corneal dryness, keratoconus, or Avellino corneal dystrophy can undergo ICL surgery as an alternative to glasses. However, in rare cases where the space inside the eye for the ICL is extremely narrow, surgery may be difficult. At Dr. ICL Eye Clinic, we determine precise ICL eligibility based on precision diagnostic equipment optimized for lens implantation surgery and the examination results of specialists who have performed over 10,000 ICL surgeries.

ICL's myopia-correcting lens power range is very wide, from -0.5 diopters (D) to -18.0D, making it applicable to almost all eyes, from mild myopia to extremely high myopia. In the past, numerous studies reported that post-surgical visual outcomes for high myopia were better with ICL than with laser surgery, so ICL came to be preferred mainly for high myopia and became known as a procedure only for severe cases. In reality, however, an increasing number of patients with relatively mild myopia are now choosing ICL surgery as well. This is partly because awareness of high myopia has grown: the WHO recently tightened its definition of high myopia from -6D to -5D, and the Japanese Ophthalmological Society's refractive surgery guidelines (Ohashi Yuichi, Kinoshita Shigeru, Sawa Mitsuru: Guidelines for Refractive Surgery, 7th Edition, 2019) expanded the indication from -6D or higher to -3D or higher. It is also because patients who previously underwent LASIK and experienced a decline in vision after 10 or more years often prefer lens implantation, which carries a much lower risk of corneal complications, over undergoing LASIK again as a retreatment.

You can usually get a preview of this during the pre-surgical eye examination, but at Dr. ICL Eye Clinic we go further by using a specialized visual function simulator called iTrace to analytically project your post-surgical vision. In addition, our specialists, who have personally performed over 10,000 ICL-only surgeries, recommend the post-surgical vision best suited to each patient's individual lifestyle, so you can rest assured you'll receive surgery with the most appropriate lens for you.

The phenomenon of vision gradually declining over time after LASIK has been reported in numerous academic studies. (See related research) For those without enough remaining corneal thickness for a second LASIK procedure, or who simply prefer not to undergo LASIK again, ICL surgery can restore vision once more.

The pre-surgical examination takes about 2 hours in total, including the preliminary questionnaire, precision testing, consultation with an ophthalmologist, and one-on-one counseling with an ICL specialist counselor.

For an accurate pre-surgical examination, please stop wearing soft contact lenses for 3 days and hard contact lenses for 2 weeks before the exam. You may wear eye makeup on the day of the exam, but please note that you will need to remove it at the clinic before testing. Since pupil dilation testing may be performed, it is best not to drive yourself to the appointment. There is no specific restriction on alcohol consumption the night before the pre-surgical exam, but it is advisable to maintain reasonably good physical condition.

If you come to the first examination having already observed the contact lens restrictions, it is possible, in the shortest case, to undergo the second examination that same morning, receive the ordered lens in the afternoon, and even have surgery the same day. However, there is no reason to force same-day surgery when the examination results are unstable or the eye condition is not favorable. At Dr. ICL Eye Clinic, the best timing for surgery is determined based on the judgment of our experienced examination team and ICL specialists.

After the two examinations (the first eligibility exam and the second exam to determine ICL lens power), there is no restriction on wearing contact lenses until the day before surgery. However, starting the day before surgery, you must stop wearing contact lenses, since pre-surgical eye drops need to be administered from the day before the procedure.

This depends on the method used for double eyelid surgery, but it is generally possible after about 1 month has passed. For the buried suture method, the pre-surgical examination can typically be done after 1–2 weeks; however, because a device is used to fix the eyelid during ICL surgery, the stitches could come loose, so we recommend waiting a month before ICL surgery. For the incisional method, eyelid swelling and incomplete eyelid closure during the early recovery period can worsen dry eye and make examination results inaccurate, so even if it takes more than a month, it is safer to determine the timing of the examination and surgery while monitoring your recovery. Conversely, if ICL surgery is performed first, double eyelid surgery is generally possible about 2 weeks later.

Dry eye is known to worsen for a period of time after LASIK, but it typically returns to its original state after several months. Compared to LASIK, which creates a corneal wound about 7–8mm in diameter at the center of the cornea (a circumference of about 24mm), ICL surgery creates only a 3mm wound at the peripheral cornea, so the likelihood of dry eye worsening is much lower. In particular, Dr. Lee Dong-hoon of Dr. ICL Eye Clinic uses a surgical technique that creates a sutureless microincision as small as 2.8mm—smaller than in typical ICL surgery—in the conjunctiva, an area that heals much faster than the cornea, in order to minimize the possibility of dry eye. Of course, patients who already have dry eye before surgery are advised to continue using artificial tears regularly after surgery as well.

A standard myopia-correcting ICL cannot treat presbyopia, but EVO Viva ICL, a lens that simultaneously corrects near and distance vision, can treat both myopia and presbyopia.

Not only can ICL correct astigmatism, but for high astigmatism it offers far better correction than glasses or contact lenses. With high astigmatism, glasses that fully correct the astigmatism power often cause dizziness, while under-correcting them leaves vision blurry—an unfortunate no-win situation. At Dr. ICL Eye Clinic, however, we aim for full correction by using precision testing (cycloplegic refraction) to detect even latent astigmatism that would otherwise go unnoticed. Even with astigmatism fully corrected, there is none of the dizziness caused by the image minification and distortion seen with glasses—caused by vertex distance (the distance between the back surface curvature of the eyeglass lens and the wearer's eye)—and your field of view becomes significantly wider, so you can experience a level of vision that is a step above what glasses provide.

With the older ICL models from a decade ago, which did not have a central hole, intraocular pressure could rise after surgery and additional treatment was sometimes needed. However, since the upgrade to the current EVO+ ICL, intraocular pressure rarely rises after surgery. So it is not the case that glaucoma automatically rules out ICL surgery. Even while undergoing glaucoma treatment, ICL surgery is considered possible if visual field loss is mild and intraocular pressure is well controlled. That said, decisions about vision-correction surgery in glaucoma patients must be made with the utmost caution. At Dr. ICL Eye Clinic, we refer such patients to glaucoma specialists at our affiliated hospitals, Seoul National University Hospital and Samsung Medical Center, and proceed with ICL surgery only after receiving their written approval.

The first ICL model was used in 1986, which as of 2023 means 37 years of history, and the current Collamer material, first used in 1993, has now been in use for 30 years. Worldwide, more than 2 million ICL surgeries have been performed, and in South Korea, since domestic prescriptions began in 2002, there have been 20 years of history and more than 250,000 surgeries performed. So there is no particular reason to worry about long-term clinical outcomes. That said, rather than being complacent simply because you feel no discomfort after surgery, we recommend annual eye checkups—just as the true purpose of a health checkup is to protect your health while you are still healthy. Regular annual examinations are important not only to catch any potential complications early, but also to detect and treat, at an early stage, the risks inherent to high myopia itself—such as optic nerve or retinal disease—which can occur regardless of ICL surgery, simply from living with high myopia. Dr. ICL Eye Clinic provides precision checkups using equipment optimized for lens implantation surgery, not only for patients who had surgery with us, but also for those who had ICL surgery elsewhere and wish to receive regular follow-up care.