A 3-Day SMILE Vision Correction Trip, Hour by Hour

Three days is the compressed version of a SMILE trip and it only works if everything goes right: examination and surgery on day two, the next-morning check on day three, and a flight that evening. Many clinics would prefer you allow four or five days, and some will decline to operate on a three-day schedule at all. Read this as the tightest realistic plan, then ask your clinic whether they will do it — because they decide, not you and not us.

SMILE (small incision lenticule extraction) is a flap-free laser procedure. Compared with LASIK, guidance on flying afterward tends to be a little less restrictive, but "less restrictive" still means an examined, cleared patient with lubricating drops and a post-op check behind them.

The part that happens before you fly

Stop wearing contact lenses. This is the single thing that ruins three-day trips. Contact lenses reshape the cornea, and the clinic cannot take accurate measurements until it has returned to its natural shape. Typical instructions are in the region of several days to a week or more for soft lenses, and substantially longer — often weeks — for rigid gas-permeable or orthokeratology lenses.

Ask your clinic for their exact number and follow it. If you turn up having worn lenses last week, the measurements will be unreliable and the surgeon may postpone. There is no way to fix this on the day.

Bring your prescription history. Stability over the past year or two matters to candidacy.

Understand you may be told no. Corneal thickness, prescription range, dry eye, and corneal shape irregularities can all make SMILE unsuitable. The day-two examination is a genuine assessment, not a formality. Some people are advised toward LASIK or LASEK instead; some are advised against laser correction entirely. Budget for that possibility before you book.

Day 1 — arrival

Afternoon. Land at Incheon and check in. Stay near the clinic; you will make this journey three times in two days, and once you will not be seeing well.

Evening. Eat, hydrate, sleep early. No alcohol — it dehydrates you, and dry eyes are the main discomfort of the next few days.

Before bed. Confirm tomorrow's appointment time. Lay out sunglasses, a cap, and clothes that do not pull roughly over your head. No eye makeup at all tomorrow; wash off any residual mascara or eyeliner tonight.

Day 2 — examination and surgery

Morning, roughly 9:00 to 12:00 — the examination

A long block, and meant to be. Expect refraction testing, corneal topography and tomography, pachymetry, pupil measurement, tear film assessment, and dilating drops.

The dilating drops matter for your day. Your pupils will stay wide for several hours. Bright light will be uncomfortable and near vision blurry — you cannot read your phone properly, and you will want the sunglasses.

You then see the surgeon, who explains what the measurements show, whether SMILE is suitable, and what the risks are. Ask about your specific numbers: corneal thickness, expected residual bed, and whether your prescription sits in the comfortable middle of the SMILE range or at its edge.

Consent forms, then payment.

Around midday — a break

You will usually have a couple of hours. Eat something light, and follow whatever fasting instruction the clinic gives — for SMILE under topical anesthetic there is often none, but ask.

Afternoon, roughly 14:00 to 16:00 — surgery

The procedure is short. Anesthetic drops go in; there is no injection and no needle in the eye. You lie down, a suction device stabilizes the eye, and the femtosecond laser creates a lenticule inside the cornea, which the surgeon removes through a small incision. Total time in the room, both eyes, is commonly ten to twenty minutes.

What people report feeling: pressure, a dimming of vision during suction, and no pain. Your job is to hold still and look where you are told.

Afterward you rest briefly, the surgeon checks the eyes at a slit lamp, and you are given drops and instructions.

Late afternoon and evening

Go straight back to your room. This is the uncomfortable part and it is normal: watering eyes, a gritty foreign-body sensation, light sensitivity, and hazy vision for several hours.

The instruction is almost always to sleep, or at least keep your eyes closed, for the first several hours. Do exactly that. Every hour with them shut is an hour you are not tempted to rub them.

Do not rub your eyes. Not once, not gently, not by accident while asleep — which is why the clinic gives you protective shields to tape on overnight. Wear them.

Take the drops on the schedule you were given, and set alarms. Have food in the room that requires no preparation.

Day 3 — the check, then home

Morning, roughly 9:00 to 10:00 — the post-operative examination

Most people wake up seeing dramatically better than the night before. Vision is often functional but not yet crisp, and it fluctuates through the day. That is expected.

The clinic checks the incision, the corneal interface, and your visual acuity, and confirms the drop schedule going forward — usually antibiotic drops for about a week and lubricating drops for considerably longer, often months.

This appointment is not optional. It is the point of coming to a clinic rather than ordering a result. If your flight schedule conflicts with it, change the flight.

Ask before you leave:

• Is it safe for me to fly today, on a seven-hour flight?
• Exactly which drops, how often, for how long?
• What is normal in the next month, and what should make me see an eye doctor immediately?
• When should I be checked again, and can that be done in Indonesia?
• Can I have my records and post-operative summary in English?

Midday — buy your supplies

Get preservative-free lubricating drops, more than you think you need. You will use them constantly on the flight and for weeks afterward. Buy them in Korea where the clinic can tell you which type.

Afternoon and evening — the flight

Only if the clinic cleared you this morning.

On the plane: drops every hour or so. Keep the overhead air vent pointed away from your face. No alcohol. Sunglasses on if the window shades are up. Sleep if you can. Do not rub — if your eye itches, use a drop.

Why we usually suggest four or five days

Three days leaves no room. If the examination finds something, if the surgeon wants to operate the following morning instead of the same afternoon, if your eyes are slower to settle, or if the clinic is unwilling to clear a seven-hour flight roughly eighteen hours after surgery — you have no slack.

A fourth day costs one hotel night and removes all of that pressure. If your ticket is flexible, take the longer version.

The following weeks, at home

Vision commonly continues to sharpen over weeks. Dryness is the most common ongoing complaint and usually improves; night glare and halos can occur and typically reduce over time. Follow the drop schedule to its end even when your vision feels perfect, and arrange a check with an eye doctor in Indonesia at whatever interval your Korean clinic recommends.

Anything sudden — worsening vision, significant pain, or a marked increase in redness — is not something to message an agency about. See an eye doctor the same day.

Kordy's part

We book and sequence the appointments, brief the clinic on your travel dates so the schedule is realistic, and stay on WhatsApp through the trip. We are a registered international-patient facilitator operated by DYPHI Inc., not a clinic. Whether SMILE suits your eyes, whether surgery goes ahead, and whether you are fit to fly are decisions for the ophthalmologist who examines you.