Shinagawa vs Eagle Eye Centre (Dr Lee Sao Bing / Dr Julien Theng)

TL,DR : I did epilasik with Eagle Eye Centre (Dr Julien Theng) after weighing all the pros and cons.

Personally, I felt that Shinagawa was superior in almost every aspect compared to Eagle Eye Center. Not that Eagle Eye wasn't good, it's just that they couldn't match up to the level of service or ambience.

Ambience wise

Shinagawa had a much more cosy and atas feeling. Eagle Eye was noticeably more crowded though, which then also resulted in a longer waiting time before the nurses/doctors/receptionists could attend to you. But if you're the kind that feels more at ease seeing other people go through the same procedure as you, you'll feel more reassured at Eagle Eye

Service wise

It felt better in Shinagawa since the waiting time was shorter. I had to spend a lot of time just waiting around for my turn at Eagle Eye. It was like a spin-the-wheel game with the call-in for Eagle Eye as well. 9 out of 10 times I wouldn't be able to get through and I'll have to end up calling and calling and calling non-stop. That was the part that really got on my nerve. That said, you do get a guaranteed response if you contact them through their website, so that was always my last go-to resort.

You also get a lot more personal time with the Dr in charge of you at Shinagawa. For Shinagawa, Dr Lee Sao Bing was the one who attended to me, he explained my results and recommended me the procedure entirely in person. But for Eagle Eye, there's a consultant who does all that with you, so you'd have to make up your mind before going in to see the doctor. My doctor was Dr Julien Theng, and although there are a lot of reviews online that says he has a very reassuring voice and so on, I didn't get that feeling. What I felt was that he was quite robotic, it's as if he has said those lines ten thousand times (he probably had) and was just repeating them without even having to process it. The whole confirmation check plus consultation took like, maybe a minute or two before I was ushered out and the next patient invited in. The lasik assessment also had lesser tests compared to Shinagawa. But I was still quite reassured since the test results were similar to that of Shinagawa.

(*Digress: 

I also went for a lasik assessment at Dream Eye Center in Seoul, Korea. They did a whopping 24 types of tests on my eye. The whole thing was free and the consultant spoke perfect English. So you may want to drop by if you're visiting Korea. Of the 24 tests, other than your usual ones like cornea thickness, shape, etc, they also tested for eye dryness. You can pay 50 000 won (~SGD60) for a DNA test to see if you have any genetic issues that makes you more prone for cornea collapse. I really wanted to do it there because the whole thing (including medication and follow up checks for 2 years) was dirt cheap. They quoted me 1.6million won (~SGD2000), which is like less than half of what you'll have to pay in Singapore)

That said,

Everything at Eagle Eye Center was still very professional. There wasn't anything that made me lose confidence in them along the way. And yes, the one-day assessment plus surgery was really a god-sent. I know there are some research/sayings that it's not good to do on the same day, but aiya, trust your doctors right. 

So why did I not go with Shinagawa even though I preferred them?

Dr Lee Sao Bing recommended that I do the bladeless lasik (which is the one with the flap). I enquired about epilasik since I wasn't very keen on living with a flap for the rest of my life but he was quite against it. According to him, my degree was quite high (600 plus for degree and 125 for astig) so there is a possibility of corneal scarring. I'm not sure if it's because the clinic doesn't offer epilasik (on their website they say they do, but none of my friends who went to Shinagawa did epilasik), but I didn't want it to be a case where the doctor can go "I told you so" if things really turned out that way.

Also, I was all for going ahead with the bladeless lasik but it was as if some higher almighty force was telling me not to. I had to reschedule my surgery 3 times because every time, a day or two before the surgery, I would get an eye infection (read styes). So after the third time, I was like, forget it flip table, I'm not doing this.

So yeah, that's how I ended up going for epilasik at Eagle Eye Centre (will update about it in my next post). 

Surgery updates can be found here.