Why is Korea so much cheaper when it comes to vision correction?

Factors that Influence my Vision Correction Choice

Vision correction surgery has become a frequently performed surgery all across the world. You can pretty much go anywhere to get your vision fixed. Where you end up going will depend on various factors. These include: Location, local clinic quality, ophthalmologist skill and your budget. 

• Local clinic quality - If you live in a country that offers superior medical services, the difficult choice is finding the right clinic with a doctor that you like at an affordable price. 
• Location - The country you are situated in obviously plays a large part in whether you will have the procedure done there or not. In case you are from a country where you do not trust the medical services, or feel you can get better options abroad, visiting another country is also an option. It is very common for individuals to fly to other cities or even countries in search of better medical services. 
• One of the biggest determining factors when choosing a clinic that you trust to work with your eyes is the surgeon's surgical history and skill. If you find a doctor that has a proven track record that is always a good sign. This is easier said than done with all the fake reviews online these days.
• But, we have found that PRICE is the most important thing for people when choosing a final clinic for a vision correction.

 

How does Korea compare to other countries

As vision correction technology becomes more standardized the level of equipment becomes less important and the operating skill of the surgeon increases in importance. Usually a combination of the surgeon’s experience, clinic facilities, cost of living and median income will determine the price of a procedure in any given country, 
In order to compare the price of vision correction, we have to look at the costs of the three main laser eye surgeries namely: LASEK, LASIK, SMILE in various countries across the world.The countries we will compare with are USA, UK, Thailand, and South Korea.
 

What are the prices

The price of LASEK, LASIK and SMILE is orders of magnitude more expensive in all developed countries on our list and even more expensive in countries that are regarded as more affordable, like Thailand. 
When taking into consideration the fact that Korea boasts one of the most technologically advanced medical industries in the world, it is quite surprising that vision correction is so much cheaper in Seoul. Also if you consider the fact that 80% of the Korean population is University educated it seems almost impossible that prices are cheaper than all other developed countries, AND the service and quality is regarded as world class.
 

Why is Korea so cheap

So we need to ask ourselves why is eye surgery so cheap in Seoul? We briefly mentioned it in the paragraph above. Korea is a highly developed and highly skilled country. Because of this the city of Seoul has thousands of eye clinics all concentrated in a small area. This is great for the customer as it drives down prices and allows people to shop around for clinics that they like.



Another reason why Korea is so great for medical procedures and especially vision correction, is the sheer amount of procedures that are performed in a year in Korea. This allows the country to improve their medical knowledge and skills. An example of this is the AI that has been developed at B&VIIT vision correction center. The AI uses the data of over 500,000 previous corrective surgeries in order to make very accurate assessments on the type of procedure necessary for each person.