Many of us have experienced this scenario: wearing glasses to bed and waking up to find the frames bent or broken, or one or both of the lenses missing. For those who decide to wear contacts, it’s also possible that your trip to the beach was going swimmingly until you splashed in the water and lost contact, which made it difficult to see for the rest of your trip.
Is Lasik Eye Surgery Painful?
Thankfully, LASIK surgery for the eyes is painless. Your doctor will insert numbing eye drops into both of your eyes just before the procedure. During the procedure, you might still feel a little pressure, but you shouldn’t experience any pain.
To keep you calm and relaxed throughout the procedure, your surgeon may also give you additional medication, such as Valium.
After surgery, it’s normal to experience mild itching or burning sensation in your eyes, but this should pass quickly.
Afterward, they will cut a flap in the cornea, the outer layer of your eyes, using a tiny blade or laser. They’ll then reshape your eyes with a laser. After your procedure, your eyes may:
- Burn
- Itch
- Have the sensation like there’s something in them
You will be given a shield to prevent you from accidentally poking or rubbing your eyes. Additionally, using the shield prevents you from sleeping with pressure on your eyes.
Once the anesthesia wears off after your surgery, you might feel some minor discomfort or pain, according to the FDATrusted Source.
Can I Have Laser Eye Surgery While Completely Unconscious?
Most laser eye surgery patients remain awake throughout the procedure. It usually only takes a few minutes to complete the surgery.
Less than a minute is typically needed for each eye to undergo the laser procedure. With the more recent SMILE technique, each eye is treated in only about 25 seconds.
Surgeons prefer using anesthetic eye drops to general anesthesia, which puts you to sleep.
General anesthesia carries risks and would raise the cost of the procedure, according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
Even though it’s uncommon, general anesthesia can have some potentially fatal side effects, like malignant hyperthermia, which results in a fever and muscle contractions.
You might be given a sedative like a valium to help you relax if you’re feeling anxious before your surgery.
Anaesthetic Eye Drops
We completely numb the surface of your eye with local anesthetic eye drops prior to starting the procedure. This indicates that during the procedure, you shouldn’t feel anything touching your eye. Additionally, these drops will help keep your eyes moist.
Once the eyes have become numb, we will keep your eyes open by using a device known as a speculum. Being unable to blink might seem strange, but it shouldn’t hurt. This allows us to carry out the action.
After a few hours, the eye drops will start to wear off, and you might experience stinging, itching, or burning. It shouldn’t, however, persist past the following day.
Sedatives
You can ask us to sedate you if the procedure is causing you any anxiety. You’ll feel relaxed and sleepy as a result of the sedation, which will make you feel more at ease both physically and mentally. Even though it’s uncommon, some people do not respond well to sedation. For the sake of the patients, Oculase typically steers clear of sedation.
General Anaesthesia
In order for the laser to be directed precisely onto the eye during laser eye surgery, the patient must maintain constant focus on a guiding light beam. This is typically avoided because it is much harder and requires general anesthesia and heavy sedation. For the sake of patient safety, Oculase does not employ anesthesia.
Potential Side Effects And When To Call Your Eye Doctor
After laser eye surgery, severe pain is not typical. Your doctor should be contacted right away if you are experiencing severe pain because it could be a sign of a potentially dangerous complication.
If your vision continues to worsen rather than improve, or if you notice any redness, discoloration, or discharge around your eyes, you should also call your doctor.
Dry eyes are the most frequent adverse reaction to laser eye surgery. Studies have found that 85 to 98 percent of PeopleTrusted Source experience dry eyes a week after LASIK surgery.
Other potential side effects include:
- Change in vision. Up to 20% of people who have had LASIK report vision changes, such as glare, seeing a halo, starburst patterns when looking at lights, haze, and decreased contrast sensitivity.
- syndrome like the Sahara’s sand. A condition known as Sand of Sahara syndrome, also known as diffuse lamellar keratitis, is characterized by inflammatory particles under your corneal flap. It’s thought to occur in as many as 2 PercentTrusted Source of LASIK procedures.
- problems with the corneal flap. Problems involving the flap your surgeon cut during the procedure occur in 0.1 to 4 PercentTrusted Source of people undergoing LASIK.
- Corneal ectasia. The weakening of your cornea, known as corneal ectasia, results in a change in the shape of your cornea. It occurs in about 0.04 to 0.6 percent TrustedSource of people after LASIK.
- Infections. Infections occur in less than 0.1 percent TrustedSource of people who receive LASIK.
Rare side effects of LASIK occurring in less than 1 out of 1000Trusted Source people include:
- ischemic optic neuropathy
- retinal detachment
- vitreous hemorrhage
- posterior vitreous detachment
Conclusion
Most patients who undergo laser eye surgery don’t feel any pain at all. The pressure you experience during the procedure will likely be minimal because your surgeon will give you numbing eye drops beforehand.
After your procedure, you may experience some discomfort or minor pain as the eye drops wear off.
But excruciating discomfort can be a sign of a major complication. After your procedure, you should immediately call your doctor if you experience excruciating pain.
