Carter Eye Lasik Vision Correction Blog

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Does LASIK Hurt?

You will not feel any pain during LASIK surgery. Dr. Carter administers anesthetic eye drops to numb your eyes before and during the procedure. This is local, not general, anesthesia, so you will be awake during the procedure. You might feel some pressure, but this won’t be painful. When you arrive for your procedure, you will be given an oral medication to help you relax.

There shouldn’t be any postoperative eye pain associated with LASIK. Some patients report feeling some discomfort after LASIK, and most of those report that it disappears in 12-24 hours. This discomfort is not described as pain. Rather, it is watery eyes, itchy eyes, and sometimes, dry-eye or scratchiness. For most patients who experience any discomfort, this usually resolves as healing progresses over a few days.

The entire LASIK procedure takes about 6 minutes for both eyes, while the actual laser surgery takes only a minute or two. You may find it difficult not to scratch or rub itchy eyes, so, an eye shield can be placed over the eye, especially at night, to prevent rubbing while you sleep.

For answers to other questions about LASIK surgery, please see our Questions page.

Dr. Harvey Carter of the Carter Eye Clinic in Dallas offers his 20/20 or It’s Free™ guarantee of satisfactory results. Please contact the Carter Eye Center in Dallas for more information and to schedule your free LASIK consultation.

posted by Evan Langsted at 2:53 PM