What to Expect During and After a Traditional LASIK Treatment

If you're like a lot of people who have bad vision but would rather not resort to a life spent wearing corrective eye-wear, it's understandable if you find yourself worried or apprehensive at the thought of getting surgery to correct it. The idea of being less dependent on, or possibly totally free of glasses and contact lenses to improve your impaired vision is a wonderful one. But not knowing what to expect can be terrifying enough to keep people from giving it a chance, even though the most commonly performed correctional surgery, LASIK surgery has a rate of serious complications as low as 1%! The chance of less-serious complications such as halos and glare isn't much more likely: only 3% to 5% of patients reported problems.

The surgery itself is relatively painless, especially after the doctor puts the numbing drops into your eye. The doctor then uses a laser or an instrument called a microkeratome to create a small flap in the cornea. With the help of an excimer laser, bits of corneal tissue are removed after the flap is folded back. Taking the tissue out helps to reshape the cornea, allowing light to enter the eye in such a way that it hits the retina correctly and improves vision. When everything is done, the flap is put back in place and the doctor gives the patient time to recover before sending them home.

In most cases, there is an immediate difference in clarity following traditional LASIK surgery. In other cases, it takes a few days, and only occasionally does it take a week or so. Unlike corrective surgeries for larger body parts, the recovery time is much less. Most of the time patients feel well enough to return to their regular routine the very next day. Doctors do suggest, though, that patients take a few days of rest in order to allow their eyes the ability to heal without strain.

There is a chance you might not be able to achieve 20/20 vision with traditional LASIK, but you will definitely find your vision is considerably closer than it was. If you need to rely on glasses sporadically, your prescription would also be much less than it had been previously. But in most cases, patients find themselves able to be relatively free of corrective eye-wear until they hit their 40s, and in most cases only need reading glasses. Depending on how bad your vision is to begin with, those odds could seem like a significant difference, and the low chance of complications may be worth it in the long run.