When the sound of the word surgery hits the ear, it visualizes poking the body surface with the needles, splitting the blood. But don’t worry the truth with the LASIK surgery is very far from such usual surgery procedures. There are no needles involved in the LASIK surgery procedure.
Most of the patients do worry about the possible pain and discomfort, since the site of surgery is over the eye surface, which is the most sensitive organ and surface of the human body. One important factor to remember is that the laser eye surgery does not involve any needles or sharp blades to perform the procedure. Hence, there is no question of poking into the eyes with the needles and no pain over the eyes. Just like other surgery procedure, the site of the surgery is numbed.
Let us see how the procedure is run and the possibilities of pain before, during and after the LASIK surgery.
Before the Surgery
There is no pain experienced by the patient before the surgery, during the first step, giving anaesthetic drops to numb the eye. The surgeon then clamps the eyelids of the patients to keep the eye open. You won’t experience any pain, though clipping the clamps may make a bit uncomfortable. In case you are very conscious and anxious about the pain, giving a mild sedative may be preferred by your surgeon.
During the Surgery
During the surgery procedure, the entire process is pain-free for the patient, as anaesthetic drops are applied to the eyes to ensure that the eyes are numb, completely. Some of the older LASIK patients have reported that they have felt a slight pressure, while the laser is kept focused on the eye. The total treatment time applying the laser beam is not more than 50 seconds and hence the overall feel of discomfort may last in lesser than a minute.
After the Surgery
There are mixed experiences felt and experienced by the old LASIK patients some of them felt a mild sensation of stinging and some of them experienced pain at moderate levels.
The overall healing process is short with LASIK, comparative to the other procedures. So, the total post operative pain is very minimal and short lived. In addition to that the eye surgeon recommends the medication and medication drops to relieve the possible pain after the surgery. When the prescribed medicine and eye drops are followed with enough care, provided enough rest is given to the eyes for a day or two, you almost feel no pain after the surgery.