UPDATED: September 3, 2024
Checkout our Youtube video all about SMILE eye surgery medical tourism in Korea!
The quick answer is that it’s exactly what it sounds like: traveling for medical care. This can look a lot of different ways, but the idea is always the same: people from countries with expensive and/or subpar medical care can travel overseas for elective or planned procedures, often at a fraction of the cost. Some people decide to make a vacation out of medical tourism while others travel only for the procedure.
In the USA our medical care is excellent but it comes at a cost. While America often gets a negative reputation for medical care, that’s largely in reference to the costs and accessibility associated with the practice. The USA still leads the world in cancer survival rates as well as lower heart attack and stroke mortality rates compared to other comparable nations. I say all this to say, medical care in America is really good, but it’s very expensive.
America is most known for its innovation and medical education systems, which means a lot of what America thrives at can be found overseas for a much lower cost.
For example, we’ve been to various doctors overseas for everything from dental care and eye surgery to stomach bugs and ear infections. What did all of those doctors' visits have in common? All of the physicians were educated and trained in the USA and spoke English. Granted, some spoke better English than others, but generally speaking, the communication was wonderful and the care was equal to what we’d receive at home for a much higher cost.
Medical tourism is a wonderful option for some, but still not plausible for others. I’m by no means suggesting that medical tourism is a fix for the broken healthcare system in the USA, but it is an option for some, but still too expensive for others.
There are four main things we’d recommend considering before giving medical tourism a go.
There is no one best country for medical tourism, Canada, Singapore, and Japan regularly rank at the top of the list, but less expensive options such as Mexico and Costa Rica are also popular destinations for Americans. It all depends on what sort of medical care you’re interested in. If you’re based in the USA like we are, we’ve heard great things about dental care in Mexico. Considering Mexico’s close proximity and low cost of living, this makes a great vacation/medical trip destination for lots of various procedures. If you’re looking for orthopedic surgeries, consider heading to India, Spain, or (yes) Mexico. We had a wonderful experience with eye surgery in Korea (SMILE or LASIK), and we’ve also heard great things about plastic surgery in Korea if that’s something you’re after. Do your research for specific countries and practices. You can never be too careful when choosing a physician and hospital, so do your research. We recommend starting with websites such as medicaltourism.com.
As we’ve said before, oftentimes physicians all over the world are educated and trained at the same universities in the USA. But, like every college, someone has to be at the bottom of the class, so read reviews, talk to other travelers, and find out who has a great reputation based on skill and bedside manner.
Korea is a rapidly developing country on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. For many Americans, Korea is a mystery and oftentimes what first comes to mind is k-pop, k-drama, the Korean War, or some other non-medical related topics. Here are the reasons why Chris decided to get SMILE eye surgery in Korea.
We’re all pretty familiar with LASIK eye surgery, so think of SMILE as being the newer, better, and less invasive form of that. The procedure was developed in Germany and has been available to patients since 2007. Yes, it’s newer than LASIK, but it’s not new. It’s been readily available for interested patients for almost 16 years!
I’m not a scientist, so I’d rather refer you to this article and this article written by much more knowledgeable people than myself. Here’s my brief explanation though…
LASIK involves a corneal incision that essentially flips the cornea open with a laser then uses another laser to reshape the “underlying stroma by removing the appropriate corneal tissue for vision correction”(source).
SMILE on the other hand doesn’t flip the cornea open, but rather creates an almost keyhole type incision that the laser enters through to reshape the cornea.
SMILE is still the more expensive option since it’s newer, and it’s best suited for nearsighted patients. LASIK is less expensive but a better fit for farsighted patients as well as available to nearsighted patients.
One thing they mentioned to us while at the doctor’s office in Korea is that SMILE holds up better over time for people who regularly put their bodies through high-impact activities (running, soccer, etc.). My basic understanding from what they were saying is that overtime the cut that was made and flipped back on the cornea during LASIK can become damaged over time and impact, but SMILE holds up better since there was only a hole instead of a flip on the eye.
All in for both eyes including the pre-procedure office visit, pre and post treatment care (eye drops, antibiotics, etc.), check up appointment the following day, and full time English translator, we paid ~$2,100 USD. I’m rounding that number because while we were there, the USD was really strong (about .71 for every 1000 won), so it might be slightly more today or when you visit. Note, that’s for both eyes which were nearsighted and had a severe astigmatism. Not too bad in our opinion!
In the USA this same procedure would have cost $2,000-$3,000 USD per eye! ($4,000-$6,000 total)
In our case, it was well worth the money to go overseas to have the procedure performed. Here’s how we justified the plane tickets…
Y’all know we travel as part of our jobs and we’re always looking to visit a new country and Korea has been on our wishlist for a long time now. But, tickets to Asia aren’t cheap! We waited until we saw a good deal come available and snagged it. Here’s a very basic overview of our budget for 3 weeks in Korea. Keep in mind that you can travel there for a much shorter trip and save a significant amount of money. We’re digital nomads so we like to travel slower and enjoy living/working in a new place for a longer amount of time than we’d be there for just a vacation.
Plane tickets: We flew Delta round trip from Nashville (BNA) which cost ~$1,100 per person.
Hotel: The short answer is that we ended up staying at one of Marriott's smaller properties in the Gangnam neighborhood. It was safe, very clean (and I’m usually super picky about hotels!), and just about a mile from the eye center. We were able to get an extended stay discount (reservations for two weeks or longer) which brought down our average nightly rate to ~$75/night for our three week reservation.
Food: When you eat like the locals, you save a lot of money. We generally skip breakfast and just opt for coffee so our budget might be less than yours if you like breakfast, but for two meals a day (generally mom and pop Korean restaurants) + coffee in the morning, we spent ~$40/day on food and drink.
Entertainment and tours: We purchased two tours while in Korea: a DMZ tour and a Gwangjang Market food tour. We’d highly recommend both as a small splurge while in Korea. The DMZ tour with TIP Tours cost ~$64 per person and the food tour cost $75 per person. Total we spent $278 on entertainment.
Transportation: Transportation is super safe and very affordable in Korea! We took the subway as often as possible, which ran ~$1 per trip. We also used Uber a good bit since we were staying so far away from many of the neighborhoods we most enjoyed. Sometimes it was just easier (and faster) to Uber. Each Uber ride cost between $10-20 which was a fair payoff in our opinion when the alternative was standing on a subway for over an hour during rush hour. Sometimes we’d Uber one way then Subway back to save money. Total spent on transportation was ~$325 (this includes rides to and from ICN airport).
SMILE eye surgery procedure: The procedure cost $2,100 for both eyes. This included all examinations and medications for post-procedure care.
Other: We’re not big souvenir people so we didn’t buy anything on the trip past a couple of postcards. We did pay for a dog sitter a few times during our longer outings to places that weren’t dog friendly (DMZ, food tour, etc.) which ran ~$40/day (note: I’m not going to figure that into this budget though since most people won’t be traveling with a dog.)
Total = $7,318
Okay, I know that sounds like a lot, but that was the total cost for two people in Korea for three weeks including the eye procedure cost. Like I said before, it would have cost $4,000-6,000 to have the same procedure performed in the USA. We already wanted to visit Korea, so for us it made sense to spend that much money. It might not for you though! It all depends. Keep in mind that you could spend significantly less money than us if you were to find cheaper plane tickets and go for less time.
The way we looked at it was that we were going to visit Korea anyway and LASIK had been in the plans for a couple of years now, so if you assume that LASIK would have cost $6,000 in the states and we were already going to do it anyway, that means we only spent $1,318 more dollars to go to Korea. I know, that might seem like a stretch, but that’s how we decided to go ahead and splurge!
Absolutely. SMILE has been widely available since 2007 and has been proven to be both incredibly successful and safe! In fact, today statistics show that SMILE has fewer complications than LASIK, and can be more successful in correcting vision (source).
While the idea of booking a medical appointment in a foreign country can sound a bit daunting, don’t be intimidated. You can 100% do it! I can’t vouch for every practice around the world, but our experience at BGSS Eye Clinic in Korea was incredible.
Let me start by saying that for international patients, BGSS Eye Clinic will connect you with their translator through an app to do all the scheduling and arrangements. Now that might not sound legitimate for us as Americans, but I assure you, it is. Koreans are incredibly tech savvy and when you’re dealing with a language barrier, text is much easier for both parties to save from any miscommunications. The translator you’re connected with in the app will be the same one you walk with through all office visits and the procedure.
Important note: Korea doesn’t use Google. They have their own version of communication apps, search engines, and more. While much of the world uses What’sApp or text messages, Korea most commonly uses an app called KAKAO TALK. You’ll see this app used all over the country, so just trust me, download it before you even head on over to Korea.
The translator we worked with (Devon) was incredible, had perfect English, and made the process so smooth. Booking a SMILE appointment was very easy. If you know you’re going to want to do SMILE eye surgery in Korea, even before you head over, you can most definitely contact and schedule your appointment ahead of time. If you’re in Korea already and decide you’d like to try and give eye surgery a go while you’re there, still contact BGSS Eye Clinic. They regularly take last minute appointments (sometimes even at a discounted rate!).
The day Chris went in for his SMILE eye surgery was a breeze. The office who completed the procedure was offering a discount for same day procedures which might sound sketchy, but it’s completely normal, especially considering how routine the procedure is. The main thing to note is that your entire day will be devoted to your SMILE surgery so plan accordingly.
9:00 am: Initial consultation with the physician as well as examining the eyes
11:00 am: Finish consultation
1:30 pm: Head in for final check-in before procedure and review exam results and learn the post-procedure care instructions.
2:00 pm: Procedure begins
2:45 pm: Procedure is finished, head home
The rest of the day will be spent caring for eyes and sleeping/laying down.
To confirm that you’re a good candidate for SMILE eye surgery you’ll be put through a very thorough consultation process. The entire consultation will run about 2-2 ½ hours, but keep in mind that all of the analyzing and reviewing that they’re doing is to ensure that your eyes will respond well to the procedure. Here’s a quick outline of what you can expect during your SMILE eye surgery consultation.
*Heads up: There’s a lot of medical jargon in the section below. This is verbatim what the walk-through sheet said that the clinic sent over about Chris’ procedure. I am not a medical professional so I will not try paraphrasing it just in case I say something wrong.
Medical tourism for elective procedures can be a wonderful way to save money and to experience a new culture. If you’re considering LASIK SMILE (or any LASIK procedure), Korea is a wonderful place to travel to. Chris said he'd 100% have the procedure performed in Korea again. The process was seamless, easy, and painless (with the exception of slight eye discomfort for 24 hours after the procedure).
Would you travel overseas for elective and/or cosmetic procedures? If so, let us know where you’d go in the comments below!
Like this article? Checkout our other travel guides from Korea!
