No, immediately, after Lasik surgery, the patient should not attempt to drive. Lasik eye surgery is quite safe and is have quick recovery. However, the precautions must be safely followed, after the surgery.
Immediately After the Surgery
Though the vision seems to be clear enough, immediately after the Lasik surgery, blurriness is quite possible for several hours, post Lasik. The numbing eye drops, which are used by the surgeon, during the surgery, wear off after a few hours of the surgery. Then eyes become more sensitive to the light. The eyes will start watering and it affects the vision of the eyes.
In addition to that the vision affected, mild sedatives, which are given prior to the surgery also become an important factor. This sedative is given to help the patient to relax and it sometimes give a slight drowsiness and it affects the overall reaction time after the procedure of Lasik.
So, during this course of reaction and recovery, immediately after the surgery, your friend or family member has to accompany you to drive you home. During this course, it is important that the patient keeps relaxing and take rest. Driving may give additional stress to the mind, apart from the physical strain to the eyes. Protective shields are given to wear after the surgery and he or she must wear them, while getting back home. So, it is always a good idea to take your friend or family member to drive you back home.
Legal Driving Aspects After the Surgery
Once the surgery is over, it is not the end of medication or hospital visit, as one has to keep visiting the hospital, for follow-ups. When the patient returns to the Lasik medical center, for the first post-operative exam, the eyes are checked up for the eyesight, by the doctor. This check is also done to ensure legal aspects for driving, without any need for corrective lenses. In this visit, some paperwork may be given by the doctor to forward to the local Motor Vehicles department office. When everything goes well and after natural cure of the refractive error problem, legal driving license will be given without need of the corrective lenses. Eventually, motor and vehicles department office can remove the restriction of ‘requires corrective lenses’, from the driving license.
After the confirmation of the visual acuity meeting the requirements of the legal requirement, which is 20/40 or better, in many of the geographical areas, the patient is safe to drive legally after the Lasik surgery procedure.
So, be very cautious to take the decision about driving and decide to drive only after getting legal safe driving license.