are you curious what to expect after you have lasik recovery time side effects after
care instructions we're going to go over all that in this video what to expect days weeks
months and years after you have lasik let's focus in now before we get started definitely
follow the instructions given to you by your eye physician every patient is different so a lot of
the aftercare instructions might vary from person to person now what you'll find in this video are
kind of generic guidelines of what to expect after lasik and after care instructions but each person
may be different day number one vision now what's nice about lasik it's one of the faster recovering
laser eye surgeries that you can have done in fact some people right after they have lasik
notice that their vision is actually doing pretty well maybe a couple hours after the surgery
now this might not be typical for everybody but the recovery time for your vision should be pretty
fast so maybe in that first day you'll notice that your vision may might be doing pretty well but
don't be devastated if it doesn't because a lot of people might take a day or two or a few days to
recover now the comfort of your eyes on that first day you'll probably notice that your eyes will be
red they'll definitely be dry might have a gritty feeling mild irritation maybe even a little bit of
mild pain on that first day now as far as the do's and the don'ts of that first day the instructions
of the first day definitely going to expect that you're going to have some eye drops prescribed
to you now usually you'll have antibiotic eye drops just to make sure that your eye doesn't
get an infection you'll usually have a steroid eye drop to decrease inflammation and you'll
definitely have artificial tears to keep the eye lubricated don't underestimate the artificial
tears stay on top of those artificial tears likely you'll be given an eye shield that you're going to
wear that whole day you're going to sleep with it that's just to protect the eye from accidentally
rubbing the eye too hard or poking the eye that could possibly lift up that flap that you
got from getting the lasik eye surgery so it's just an extra protection that you'll be wearing
all day you might look funny all day but hopefully you just go home and nobody really sees you
and usually what you want to do that first day is just go home take it easy netflix and chill
you want to maybe take a nap you're pretty much going to want to keep your eyes closed except
for when you're doing eye drops basic thing is you just want to take it easy you want to stay
stay away from staring at computer screen stay away from staring at your phone or the tv
because when you're staring at something your eyes won't blink and they can dry out and might
feel irritated especially after you just had lasik so just for that day plan to go home take it easy
take a nap lay down close your eyes just netflix and chill listen to netflix and chill
also make sure that you have a driver to take you to the surgery and take you home you won't
want to be driving right after you have lasik eye surgery day number two after lasik surgery your
vision now this is where a lot of people notice that their vision will be getting a lot clearer
with both eyes now it's okay if you don't don't worry if it's not clear that next day you'll also
notice that there might be fluctuation in their vision so sometimes during the day it'll be clear
they maybe get blurry that's completely normal you'll also notice glares and halos especially at
night time so definitely expect that but hopefully on day two vision is definitely getting clearer
hopefully with your comfort you'll still probably notice that your eyes are red
probably still have that mild irritation dryness for sure the pain should be better because what's
nice about the eyes is they can heal really really fast so hopefully by that next day
pain or mild pain should be better if not gone now on this day you should expect to go to a
follow-up appointment with your eye doctor they'll make sure that the eye is healing
right check to see where your vision's at check the flap of the cornea if they put a bandage
contact lens right after the surgery on there they'll they'll take that bandage contact lens out
and then they'll give you further instructions for the rest of the week now as far as the do's
and the don'ts usually you can start resuming your normal activity if you want to read a book
look at your phone watch tv use the computer but a word of caution here you definitely want to
be careful make sure that you're using artificial tears make sure that you take breaks frequently a
lot of times when we are staring at a screen our blink rate drops way down our eyes can dry out
and so just be careful and be aware of your eyes and dryness and everything in fact a lot of
doctors might just say just avoid all that for a week to let the eye seal up which is probably good
but if you need to make sure that you use your teardrops take breaks remember to blink
just be careful there definitely avoid physical workouts physical exertion working out in the
yard where something might flick up and hit your eye and maybe get under that flap who knows what
you might still be using your eye shield on day two sometimes doctors will say hey
it's okay just be careful don't rub your eyes but you'll definitely still be sleeping with
that eye shield for sure now you may be able to not wear your eye shield but sometimes they'll
have you wear your eye shield even on day two just to protect your eyes from accidental eye rubbing
if you're not wearing an eye shield during the day try and avoid any eye rubbing knuckle digging or
even just kind of gentle eye rubbing just to kind of protect that flap a little bit you'll
still likely be wearing the eye shield when you sleep though you're going to avoid swimming
you'll probably avoid swimming for at least three weeks you're going to avoid showering to get any
direct contact of water in the eye you'll likely still be using the same regimen of eye drops and
also make sure that you're wearing sunglasses when you go outside you may be a little bit more light
sensitive right after the surgery but one big one they've actually found that uv damage to the tears
and the eyes can actually delay healing time so by wearing sunglasses your healing can actually heal
a little bit faster and also heal a little bit better so make sure that you're wearing sunglasses
when you go outside now one question a lot of people ask me is hey when can i return to work
you definitely want to take that first day off i would say the first couple of days i would take
work off but usually after a couple days you should be able to return to work you may still
experience fluctuations in your vision so it depends on actually what work you have but
maybe you can assess that but if you feel like you can accomplish the tasks with visual fluctuations
i'd say go for it just make sure you can still do your eye drops okay now onto the first week
after having lasik your vision your vision should be looking a lot clearer you should be noticing
a steadily improving vision throughout that week if your vision wasn't clear that first day or
second day by the end of that first week it should be looking a lot clearer now you likely still will
be experiencing fluctuations in your vision also you'll still likely have the glare and halos at
night comfort of the eye should be feeling a lot better the eye redness should be a lot
less but likely you'll still be experiencing the dryness you should still be using the artificial
tears quite a bit so that's one thing to expect the dryness definitely is the the comfort issue
that lingers a little bit longer but redness maybe the pain all that irritation should be way better
but the dryness is the one thing to expect now as far as the do's and don'ts or the instructions
for that first week you may still be wearing your night eye shields when you're sleeping
you likely won't be wearing them during the day but still may have them at night still avoid
eye rubbing avoid that for at least a month for this first week you're still avoiding showering
direct water contact even if you're in the tub and that's within reason i mean you still have
to bathe and clean yourself but just try and avoid the direct water contact into the eyes
you're gonna avoid swimming you're gonna avoid hot tubs you're gonna avoid that for probably
likely a month three weeks to a month you're also still avoiding eye makeup likely gonna avoid that
for at least three weeks now for the first week still want to be careful on screens computer phone
tv you want to be taking those breaks making sure that you're blinking using those artificial tears
just to help your eyes heal better make sure that your eyes don't get more dry than they
need to be now after that first week you'll have another follow-up appointment with your eye doctor
to make sure that the ice healing vision stabilizing flap looks good so yeah you'll
be having these follow-up appointments you're going to get sick of eye doctors after a while but
yeah they just want to make sure everything is going just right one month after lasik eye
surgery this is where you'll notice that your vision should be stabilizing you'll have less
fluctuations you'll also start noticing that maybe the halo and the glares are reducing or
getting better at nighttime so the month mark is usually a really good mark to measure stability
and the vision should be a lot clearer and yeah like i said having a lot less fluctuations
comfort redness should be a lot better the one thing that you might still be experiencing at
this point is dryness now like i said dryness can sometimes linger a long time after you have lasik
but a lot of people will start to notice that their dryness has improved by this point you
still want to be using the artificial tears but just that might be one thing to expect at that
month mark you still might be experiencing dryness now with the instructions and do's and don'ts
usually by the month mark you've tapered off your antibiotic drops and your steroid eye drops but
still will be likely using your artificial tears like i said now you'll also likely have another
follow-up appointment with your eye doctor make sure everything's healing up okay make sure it's
okay to taper off the antibiotic and steroid drops check the dryness check the flap just just just to
make sure everything is good now the month mark a lot of times you can start using your makeup
again you can start showering like you normally do you can start bathing like you normally do
you can start working out you likely have started already working out weeks before but at the month
mark is where a lot of things have stabilized and you're back to your kind of normal routine
now there still are a few things that you want to avoid eye rubbing deep eye rubbing
uh swimming out in the ocean or swimming in a lake hot tub use just be careful with all of that
uh direct water contact still but yeah most of what you're going to be doing is back to normal at
the month mark now as far as what to expect in the long term in the next year or the next two years
now as far as follow-up appointments a lot of eye doctors will have you follow up at three months
six months maybe a nine month follow up a year follow up just to keep tabs on you make sure that
the eye is still doing okay in the long term you may still be instructed to use artificial
tears especially if you're having symptoms of dry eyes now most people by the six month mark
the dryness is way better the corneal nerves have healed back there are some people in the 6 to 12
month mark where they're still having improvement with their dryness symptoms and there are some
people that have long lasting dry eye effects so that's just one thing to consider also in the long
term in the year maybe the year and a half there may be some people that have a little bit of their
prescription that comes back maybe they get a little bit nearsightedness now a lot of times
these people can be a candidate for an enhancement where they can go back to the eye surgeon they can
reopen that flap and do a little bit of a touch-up lasik to kind of take care of that little bit of
prescription that came back totally depends on the person and the condition and their prescription
but that's something to keep your eye on and that's also why you go back for those follow-up
appointments just to check the vision and make sure that it's stable now one thing to mention
is when you reach your 40s this will happen to everybody but this is when presbyopia can sneak in
presbyopia is where you have trouble focusing up close your eyes kind of degrade a little bit and
have a hard time focusing up close on your phone or if you're reading a book now this will happen
whether you have lasik or whether you don't have lasik so if you've had lasik your vision's been
great and then you get into your 40s and you all of a sudden can't see your phone or you're having
to kind of back up the phone doing the trombone thing that's completely normal it stinks but
it's completely normal it's not because of the lasik but yeah that's just one thing to expect
happens to us all now as far as long long term with lasik years to come just enjoy your vision
you're going to have clear vision in both eyes you're going to see things without wearing glasses
and contact lenses it's great now one thing to always consider before you have lasik and
one thing that you could possibly have and that's dryness there are some people
it's probably a low amount of people but they could have long lasting dryness effects or corneal
nerve problems where they might have a little bit of pain or nerve damage again small small
percentage that might have lasik but that's something to consider in the long term that could
be a long lasting effect so you might be using artificial tears for your eye dryness long term so
maybe a year or two years down the road so that's just something to consider now there are a bunch
of different variables that can cause dryness down the road and so i don't want to just go out
and say hey your lasik is going to be the cause of your dryness now it could be a many many different
things and a combination of different things but that's just one thing to consider that it could
happen so overall visual recovery time that first few days a week maybe a month you should be seeing
quite clear it should recover fast and like i said it's one of the faster laser eye surgery recovery
times that you can ever get now irritation recovery time you might have irritation mild
grittiness that first month it should gradually get better but as far as pain goes pain should
be really quick really fast to heal up but like i said irritation gritty dryness feeling might
last a while now remember at any time in between your follow-up appointments so let's say between
your one-month follow-up and your three-month follow-up appointment if you have eye pain or
your vision really takes a decline all of a sudden go in and see your eye doctor i wouldn't even wait
for a follow-up appointment you just want to make sure that everything's going okay so just make
sure if anything goes weird go get it checked out now if you're curious if you are an actual lasik
candidate if you qualify for lasik definitely check out my video i did about that or you
can check out my whole playlist about lasik right here i'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, stay focused