fyi, when i've looked into this, the top notch places in singapore, malaysia, bangkok, and hong kong, cost as much as the US.

granted, these arent exactly "3rd world" locations, and arguably they have better care than in the US (even bangkok)

jordan and israel are popular places for medical tourism, fyi.
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i was living in the UK at the time, and all the popular places there (e.g. OPTIMAX) were basically high volume lasik factories: deceptive a la carte pricing. prelims exams and consultations with inexperienced assistants. sit-downs with finance guys who were basically kids hired off the street. these people couldnt spell "diopter" to save their lives.
the whole low-rent experience reeks of usedcarssalesmanship. (i was paying in full.. perhaps the wrong demographics for them)

would have felt much less comfortable doing it there than e.g. a modern hospital in Singapore.
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to be clear, the actual operation would have not run that much different. the notion of eyeball surgery colors people's perception. its not exactly a brain surgeon working with scalpels. and not to downplay the ophthalmologist, but the actual surgery component is just supervising the excimer machine. the correction program is entered into the machine which then does its job.
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obv the doc needs to be trustworthy in evaluating your candidacy for the procedures -- prk, lasik, etc-- based on your corneal thickness, pressure, current vision, degree of astigmatism, stability, suitability of your profile with his machine whether they be nidek, b&l, visx, etc...... but the procedure is machine.
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in the end, i found a doctor in BC/Canada. what sold me over was the responsiveness and forthrightness in email, over the phone, and in person. i had no discomfort. reading 20/20 the next morning. no "recovery" needed. no lingering aberrations (halos, starburst, night time difficulties, etc). nothing. 3 years later my vision hasnt drifted. basically the perfect procedure.

obviously this is specific to my eyesight and profile and is no way any guarantee for anyone else. but for me it went 100%.

pm me if you want the clinic's info.
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btw i spent plenty of hours equipping myself with info from here and other sources:
http://www.allaboutvision.com/