What to Expect Before and After Surgery
Please review the following guidelines to ensure the day of your surgery runs as smoothly as possible.
Cataract Surgery
Most of the time, we use local anesthesia (eye drops) to numb your eye. This is safe and enables you to go home the same day. You may also receive a sedative and/or anti-anxiety medicine during the procedure. Occasionally, we inject a Novocain-like medication under the eye to relax the eye muscles and numb the nerves for pain.
While the procedure itself typically lasts about 20 minutes, you may spend two to three hours at the hospital. This includes registration before the surgery and recovery after. You might feel a little groggy from anesthesia or have blurry vision in the early stages, so you’ll need to have an escort to take you home. Don’t forget to get your eye drop prescriptions filled before your post-operative visit.
Your eye will be very sensitive after cataract surgery, so your doctor may ask you to temporarily wear an eye shield or an eye patch. You may have symptoms such as:
- Blurry vision
- Fluid discharge
- Itching and mild discomfort for the first few days
- Light sensitivity
- Redness
Your vision may be blurry for a few days to a few weeks while your eye heals and adjusts. If you received an IOL lens, colors may seem very bright until your eye becomes acclimated to the new, clear lens.
You can read, watch TV, and resume most normal activities after cataract surgery. You should avoid, heavy lifting (such as groceries or laundry) for at least a week or two, or until your doctor gives you the okay. Do not drive until your doctor approves. It will take about four to eight weeks to heal fully.
You will see your doctor a day or two after surgery, and for follow-up appointments later. Your eye drop prescription will help prevent infection, reduce inflammation, and control eye pressure.
Complications after cataract surgery are rare, but they can occur, as with any surgery, including:
- Bleeding
- Elevated intraocular pressure
- Infection
- Inflammation
- Need for additional surgery
You will have periodic appointments with your surgeon to make sure your eyes are progressing as they should. During these visits, your doctor will monitor your vision, check the corneal flap and status of overall eye health. These follow-up visits are important to your results.
After Surgery
Here’s what to expect and what to do in the hours and days following your procedure.
- Protect your eyes. The corneal "flap" is not sutured or glued down. It will adhere by itself over the course of one to two weeks. Therefore, it is very important that you not rub the eye vigorously or go swimming during this period.
- You may take a shower or bath the morning after the procedure, but do not allow the water from the shower head to strike you directly in the face for at least one week. You may shave and wash your face, but wipe your eyes gently and do not allow water to get into the eye.
- To reduce the possibility that makeup might get under the flap before it heals, do not use mascara or eyeliner for at least one week after the laser surgery.
- The first night after the procedure, you may notice mild irritation, redness, and tearing, almost as if there is a hair or a scratch in your eye. This is normal and, in most cases, is better by the next morning. If you have discomfort, ask your doctor if you can take an over-the-counter pain reliever.
- Your vision should return very quickly. Most people see well enough to return to work and drive within one or two days. But everyone is different. Some patients may take longer to reach their final visual result, and may need temporary glasses, especially for reading.
Vision Correction Surgery
You can prepare for your surgery, to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Day of Surgery:
On the day you go in for surgery:
- Do not wear your contact lenses. Do not wear soft lenses for at least two weeks prior to surgery. Do not wear hard or rigid gas permeable contact lenses for two to three weeks before the procedure. Please contact us well in advance of your surgery if you have any questions about contact lens wear.
- Talk to your doctor about whether you should stop taking any medication you are currently taking, prior to surgery.
- Be aware you will be awake during the surgery.
- Please try to come to the laser center at least 30 minutes before your scheduled surgery time.
- You may eat a light meal or drink fluids before the surgery.
- Wear loose, comfortable clothing so you will not have to change clothes for the procedure.
- Please do not wear eye makeup the day of the procedure.
- The laser procedure takes about half an hour, however you should plan to be with us for 1 to 1.5 hours.
- As your vision may be blurry immediately after the procedure, you should not drive yourself to the laser center. Plan on taking a taxi or car service, or have a friend or relative accompany you home.
- We recommend you spend the rest of the day at home, taking it easy. If possible, take the next day off from work as well (or at least don’t schedule anything important) as your vision may still be a little bit blurry. Most people can work two days after the procedure without difficulty.
- Please discuss with your physician any other questions or concerns you have about the surgery prior to your surgery date.
After Surgery
The following information will help you understand what to expect in the hours and days following your procedure.
- Post-op visits are at the discretion of your physician.
- Your visits will consist of monitoring your vision, checking your corneal flap and overall eye health. These follow-up visits are important to your results.
- Protect your eyes. The corneal flap is not sutured or glued down. It will adhere by itself over a week or two weeks. It is very important that you not rub the eye vigorously or go swimming during this period.
- You may take a shower or bath the morning after the procedure, but do not allow the water from the shower head to strike you directly in the face for at least one week after surgery. You may shave and wash your face, but wipe your eyes gently and do not allow water to get into the eye.
- To reduce the possibility that makeup might get under the flap before it heals, do not use mascara or eyeliner for at least one week after the laser surgery.
- The first night after the procedure, you may notice mild irritation, redness, and tearing, almost as if there is a hair or a scratch in the eye. This is normal and in most cases, it should resolve by the next morning. If you have discomfort, ask your doctor if you can take an over-the-counter pain reliever.
- Your vision should return very quickly. Most people have enough vision to return to work and drive within one or two days. However, because there are individual variations in healing, some patients may take longer to reach their final visual result, and may need temporary glasses, especially for reading.
LASIK Surgery
There are several steps to LASIK surgery:
- First, the surgeon will numb your eyes with eye drops. Then they will create a very thin flap of corneal tissue using either a blade (microkeratomer) or a femtosecond laser (iLASIK). We use bladeless, or iLASIK (intralase LASIK), technology, the most advanced, ultra-fast medical laser.
- Once we create the tissue flap, we position an excimer laser beam (STAR S4 IR Excimer Laser) over the eye. This ultra-precise laser creates a highly focused beam of cool ultraviolet light to gently reshape the cornea. Your refraction measurements will guide the excimer laser reshaping procedure, called photoablation. This generally takes less than 60 seconds.
- After we finish the reshaping, we put the flap back in its original position. The LASIK flap will heal completely over time. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.
After Standard or Custom LASIK Surgery
The recovery process is the same, whether you have standard or custom LASIK. You should know the following:
- You can resume regular activity within a few days after the procedure, unless your doctor tells you otherwise.
- You will have minimal discomfort during an overnight recovery period.
- Use postoperative eye drops for 10 to 14 days after LASIK.
The results of LASIK are irreversible. In those rare cases when the laser surgical procedure may over- or under-correct, a second LASIK procedure may be required to adjust the first surgery.
Photorefractive Keratectomy
There are several steps, to standard and custom PRK surgery:
After numbing the eyes with eye drops, the surgeon will remove the protective surface layer (epithelium). The amount of tissue we remove is about the thickness of a human hair. The epithelium will regrow within five days.
After removing the epithelium, the surgeon positions an excimer (STAR S4 IR Excimer Laser) laser beam over the eye. This laser is a very precise medical laser that creates a highly focused beam of cool ultraviolet light to gently reshape the cornea. We direct the light pulses to shape the eye to achieve the desired correction. Your refraction measurements will guide the excimer laser reshaping procedure (called photoablation). The reshaping generally takes less than 60 seconds. The procedure is painless.
Wavefront-guided PRK treats the same conditions as standard PRK. The main difference is that with wavefront-guided PRK, we create a detailed 3D map of the visual imperfections of the eye using wavefront eye-mapping technology. This approach is 25 times more precise than the measurements used to write standard prescriptions for eyeglasses or contacts. It allows the surgeon to reshape the cornea based on your anatomy. As a result, wavefront offers superior results, bringing it closer to 20/20 vision or better. The rest of the procedure is much the same as with standard PRK.
After the Procedure
The recovery process is the same, whether you had standard or custom PRK:
- Once the shaping is complete, we will apply a soft contact lens as a bandage during the healing process. We will remove this lens within five to seven days of the procedure.
- The recovery period typically lasts one to two weeks, and you may experience blurry vision and mild to marked discomfort during this time.
- You will notice most of the improvement during the first month after surgery. But your vision will continue to improve over the next few months.
- Since PRK healing is slower, you will need to use eye drops for longer than with other procedures.
- Because vision will improve gradually over time, your ability to see clearly will be compromised. It is not safe to drive during the healing process.
- You will need several post-surgery checkups with your ophthalmologist to make sure the eyes are healing properly.
The results of PRK are irreversible. While it happens rarely, if the procedure over- or under-corrects your vision, you will need a second procedure to make adjustments.
Implantable Collamer Lens Surgery
After numbing the eyes with eye drops, the surgeon creates a tiny incision in the eye. Then we will place the EVO ICL on top of your natural lens and fastened into position.
After Surgery
The recovery after ICL surgery is simple and includes these steps:
- The small incision will heal completely within a week or two.
- You should be able to resume regular activity within a few days after the procedure.
- You might feel minimal discomfort the following evening but should not have any the next day.
- You will only need to use eye drops for a brief period after the procedure.
Since ICL surgery does not change the anatomy of the eye or remove any cornea tissues, the implant can be removed or replaced if needed.
Refractive Lens Exchange Surgery
Refractive lens exchange surgery and recovery is identical to cataract surgery. After making an incision in the eye, the surgeon breaks up the natural lens. Then they remove it, and replace it with a new intraocular lens.