After spending much time to research and reading though journal articles, i think the best refractive surgery right now in the market is the TransPRK with the Smart Pulse technology on the Schwind Amaris 1050s machine. They are marketing this treatment as SmartSurfACE.
I think this technology is pretty new as I can only find 2 published research papers.
Advanced-surface-ablation-with-a-new-software-for-the-reduction-of-ablation-irregularities
Trans advanced surface laser ablation (TransPRK) outcomes using
SmartPulseTechnology
This treatment does not create any LASIK flaps or SMILE lenticule thus it is safer during the operation and these flaps are permanent and will never heal completely to pre-operative strength.
In addition, the recovery is faster than other variants of PRK such as LASEK, Epi-LASIK cos it smoothen the cornea after the treatment. Apparently, the smoothness of the cornea seems to have a high correlation with recovery and haze.
Based on the published papers, patients who undergoes the TransPRK with the Smart Pulse technology will have faster recovery as they will have functional vision immediately with lower discomfort as compared to normal TransPRK. But it will not be as fast as LASIK. I guess LASIK would be almost instant clear vision after operation and can go to work next day ? Someone did post his experience on the TransPRK +
SmartPulse technology in a forum
here
There are 2 shortcomings with this treatment. This treatment seems to be only available at Dr Jerry Tan Eye Surgery. He has the Schwind Amaris 1050rs + SmartSurface software and I think his fees are very expensive like what some mentioned in this thread earlier. Dr Tony Ho from Clearvision has the Schwind Amaris 1050rs machine as well but it seems that he does not have the SmartSurface software cos' i can't find any details on his website.
The other issue is the usage of Mitomycin-C also known as MMC in short. For all PRK treatment, the current protocol seems to be that surgeons would apply 0.02% of Mitomycin-C on the stromal bed of the cornea for a short time, say around 15 to 60s depending on surgeon preference to prevent haze. I'm not too sure on the long-term toxicity of MMC. From what I researched, MMC is actually a drug approved for cancer treatment and it is proven to be carcinogenic in mice. On the flip side, MMC has been used for a long time in eye surgery earlier on in glaucoma and pterygium so the track record is quite established. Still, the thought of applying such a drug makes me hesitate.
I think I will book an assessment with Dr Jerry Tan to see if it is possible to zap my eyes without using MMC while keeping the risk of haze very low since my myopia is not very high.
Otherwise, there is a next promising treatment that can correct low myopia
without any laser zapping known as Photo-refractive Intrastromal Cross-linking or PiXL in short. Basically they just put vitamin B2 drops on your eyes and shine UV light for some time. It will strengthen and flatten your cornea to correct myopia. This is already under trials and interestingly, Eagle Eye Centre has published the results as I think they were doing trials on this as well. See article
here. I think this treatment will be established in the next 2 to 3 years with published studies in journals.
Sorry for the WOT here but I thought it would be good to share my findings. It seems that there's a lot of marketing for LASIK and it took me a long time to cut through all of this and use published journal articles to make some objective decisions. We only got one pair of eyes and laser treatment is a elective procedure so it is better to do some research instead. Otherwise, I guess glasses and contact lenses aren't that bad as well. Caveat Emptor
