LASIK eye surgery is the most recommended Refractive error correction surgery in the world. More than 35 million people around the world have already gone through this surgery and have achieved better eye-sights. This surgery is done to correct the common eye-sight problems such as myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia, and astigmatism, after the patient’s eye sight stables (which generally happen after the age of 18).
If you have been suggested to get a LASIK eye surgery by your ophthalmologist, then you must be curious to know much time it takes for the eyes to recover after the LASIK eye surgery. Here you will get detailed information about the various stages involved in recovery period and the time it takes to get a perfect 20/20 vision!
What happens after LASIK eye surgery?
After your LASIK eye surgery experience, the first thing you will realize is how painless and quick the surgery is. Most of the patients get scared before the surgery since the operation is done on a very sensitive organ of the body. However, it’s absolutely painless and takes only 10-20 minutes for surgery on both the eyes.
You won’t get a perfect eye-sight just after the surgery, but your eye-sight will get better with time. In the beginning, your eyes will be padded for some time and you will also get blurry vision. But as the time passes your vision will improve. You will achieve better vision after 6 hours or within the 24 hours of the LASIK surgery.
For patients who have lesser prescriptions, it will take more time to recover unlike the ones who are on higher prescription. For them, it may take more than 6-8 hours to achieve improved vision after LASIK. However, majority of the patients are happy with the results of the surgery and the recovery time it involves.
The things you will need to do after your LASIK eye surgery:
Every LASIK eye surgeon has different protocols for getting speedier improved vision after the surgery. Some surgeons suggest wearing eye-pads, sunglasses or protective eye-wears for some time to reduce the risk of getting any foreign material into the eyes during the healing process. So, it’s better to use them as recommended by the surgeon.
The numbing agent used during the surgery will wear off after 20-30 minutes of the surgery but after it wears off, it may cause irritation and itching in your eyes, therefore, you should ask your eye surgeon to prescribe suitable eye-drop to reduce the irritation.
Some surgeons also keep the patient for 10-15 minutes to check on the condition of the eyes after the surgery but most of the surgeons release the patients immediately.
Since you will get blurry vision after the surgery, therefore it’s recommended you not to drive home on your own after the surgery is over.
After 8-12 hours of your surgery, your eyes will seem blood shot or red spots may appear, but you need not worry about it since these are the common symptoms of the surgery and are completely normal and temporary.
Avoid rubbing your eyes in any condition just after the surgery since the corneal flap doesn’t heal properly. Rubbing eyes may dislocate the flap which will then require another surgery to fix it!
Your surgeon will prescribe you antibiotic eye-drop, steroid eye-drop and lubricating eye-drop which you will have to use whole year during your LASIK recovery.
What happens after 24 hours of the LASIK eye surgery?
Most of the patients start getting improved vision within hours of the surgery. After 24 hours, the eye-sight generally becomes normal and you can also join your work from the very next day of the surgery, but it is mostly recommended to take rest for proper healing.
Your ophthalmologist and surgeon may also do a re-examination of your operated eyes to check whether the healing process is all right or not and may even change your prescription accordingly.
What happens after a week of the LASIK eye surgery?
After a week of the surgery, you will enjoy a perfect vision like any normal healthy person. You won’t need those irritating eye-wears every time.
However, you may also feel some sort of discomfort in the eyes as if something is stuck in your eyes during the first week of the surgery. This condition is often described as “eyelash in the eye”. However, it will become normal with time so you needn’t be alarmed.
It is recommended to keep your eyes moisturized with the prescribed eye drops for the first weeks to a month to enhance the healing process of the eyes.
Your ophthalmologist may also recommend you to wear sunglasses, restrict eye-makeups, swimming and more to avoid any damage to the healing eyes for few weeks.
You will need to follow each and every instruction given by your ophthalmologist or surgeon and if any complication occurs with your eyes; you should contact your surgeon or ophthalmologist without wasting any time.
How much time it takes for the LASIK eyes to completely heal?
Generally, the LASIK eyes take about 3 months to heal completely. During this whole 3 months’ time, your eye-sight will keep on improving. However, for patients who are on higher prescription it may take 6 months to a year for the healing process to complete. The healing time varies from patient to patient based on their health condition. Only 3-5% of the LASIK patient may need enhancement after LASIK in order to get improved vision.
What are the common side-effects during the recovery time?
During this three months healing process, you might have to deal with few side-effects which are absolutely normal and will not hamper your daily routine. The most common side-effects after LASIK are: Poor night-vision, blurry vision, Halos around light, Glare from lights and dryness in the eyes. Therefore, it is recommended for the LASIK patients to reduce driving at night.
Mostly people with larger pupil face the problem of halos and glare from light, so, they may get customized LASIK eye surgery.
LASIK eye surgery is one of the most preferred refractive errors correcting eye surgery which takes only 10-20 minutes. Most of the LASIK patients get better vision within 24 hours of the surgery whereas for few people it may take longer time depending on their eye health condition. Generally, the recovery time for the LASIK is only 3 months but it may take longer time for the ones who are on higher prescription. However, most of the patients achieve perfect 20/20 vision after 6 months! With proper medication and care, the healing process fastens and the patient gets a normal vision like other people after LASIK.