What happens on the day of my laser eye surgery?
When you arrive, we’ll help you relax, we’ll repeat some scans and check your eyes again.
Needles are nasty so we don’t use them for your laser eye surgery. Instead, we just numb your eyes with eye drops so they don’t feel much. We prepare your eyes for the vision correction laser with some pressure on your eye for half a minute. There’s less pressure with LASEK than LASIK and you won’t see much during this stage. If you’re having LASIK, you may not see anything for a short time. You’ll feel the wetness and temperature of eye drops applied to your eye, but you shouldn’t feel pain.
During the next laser vision correction stage, you’ll be looking at a flickering green light. It’s quite easy to do this because your eye is anaesthetised with the eye drops and it’s held open with a small clamp. You may smell burning, like hair in a candle. But rest assured, nothing is burning. This laser can’t burn anything. There’s a faint buzzing sound for a few seconds, your eye is briefly washed with fluid and then it’s done for that eye. Repeat for the second eye and 10 minutes after you walked in for treatment, you walk out.
Afterwards we’ll check that you’re feeling OK, give you aftercare instructions and eyedrops, and confirm your follow up appointment. Then you’re on your way home for a well-deserved nap. You should be in and out of the clinic within a couple of hours amazed at what has just happened on your laser eye surgery day.
Immediately after the surgery, your vision will be slightly blurry but is usually surprisingly good. After an hour or two your eyes usually feel a bit scratchy, watery, or light sensitive for a few hours. There could be some discomfort or mild pain, but it usually doesn’t last long.
About 8 hours after LASIK your eyes should feel comfortable, and you should see very well. Recovery from LASEK takes a bit longer. LASEK discomfort can last a day or two and your vision usually improves within a few days. You’ll have a special contact lens in your eyes after LASEK to help you heal which is removed after a few days.
You should take it easy for a few days after surgery and follow the aftercare instructions. You can get back to work and driving within a day or two after LASIK and after a few days after LASEK. Then just enjoy not having to put on your glasses or put in contact lenses every day. Having better eyesight makes it totally worth it, just give us a call to start your journey!
