LASIK: What to Expect

To establish your candidacy for LASIK, we must perform a refractive surgery evaluation. A refractive surgery evaluation will encompass everything that our comprehensive eye exam does plus several additional tests:

• Full dilated eye health examination
• Dilated and undilated eyeglass prescription measurement
• Normal and dim light pupil measurements
• Corneal thickness measurement and corneal mapping
• Dry eye evaluation

The refractive surgery evaluation takes about two hours.

The LASIK Procedure

Once we determine you to be a candidate for LASIK, your procedure will be scheduled.
On the day of your procedure, you should have a friend or loved one drive you. Your eyes will be numbed with special drops, and you will have a chance to take an oral medication to help you relax. Then you will enter the laser suite. You will remain awake throughout the procedure, and will be asked to focus on a fixation light.

LASIK corrects your vision in three steps, shown in the animation to the right:

1. A small instrument called a microkeratome is used to create a thin flap, (some patients opt to use a laser for this step). The flap is then carefully folded out of the way.
2. The excimer laser reshapes the cornea.
3. The flap is replaced so it can adhere naturally in the proper position.

The procedure takes about 6 minutes per eye, and you will not feel any pain, but may experience some eye pressure during flap creation. After surgery, we allow you to rest a bit, and then examine your eyes to be sure all is well before you go home.

Recovery

Return of vision begins immediately following the surgery, although it will still be quite blurry for several hours after surgery. For the first 4 hours your eyes will feel scratchy and water a lot. We recommend that you take a 3-4 hour nap, so you can sleep through the worst of this sensation. After your nap, your vision will be much better, and the next day it will be even better! Most LASIK patients are able to drive and return to their normal activities the following day. PRK patients will experience a slower recovery of vision, and will have a few more days of irritated eyes after surgery. Driving and work may not be possible after PRK for a few days to a week, depending on your pre-operative prescription. After the PRK procedure is finished, we place a special bandage soft contact lens on the eye. This lens remains on the eye until the surface is healed, usually 5-7 days.
If you have any concerns about your level of vision the next day, it would be wise to have someone drive you to your first appointment.

You will be using medicated drops and artificial tears after surgery, and will be given written and verbal instructions about this at the time of your surgery, and also the next day.