PRK is a laser eye surgery procedure and so there is no considerable pain resulted during and after the surgery. However, the intensity of pain is a bit more compared to the Lasik eye surgery procedure.
Understanding the PRK Procedure
To understand the level of pain during and after PRK, the procedure of PRK must be explored and understood. Unlike Lasik, no flap is created during the PRK procedure. Instead, the cornea’s epithelial tissue layer is removed gently. Later eximer laser is applied to the cornea exposed for the purpose of reshaping. Once the process of cornea reshaping is done, a bandage with contact lens, which do not have any prescription power would then be placed over the cornea, allowing to grow back the skin, underneath.
Pain During and After PRK
Since the cornea tissue layer is removed and alter laser beam light is applied, there is a mild pain experienced by the patient. It should be mild pain, not more, because numbing drops are applied, just before starting the procedure.
After the PRK procedure, healing is taken place in three stages, initial healing, removal of bandage contact lens and total healing. During these three phases, pain is a bit more in the first stage and it should be decreasing, later in the following stages. On an overall, it takes about 30 days of duration for total recovery to complete these three stages. Pain is expected during the phase, where contact lens bandage is present. However, pain relieving medicine is prescribed by the surgeon to feel relaxed and get rid of the pain. So, after the PRK procedure, though pain is there, it would be relieved because of this medicine and mild discomfort is anyways expected and experienced by the patient. Recovery period consists of many follow-up visits to the surgery medical center and the surgeon monitors the healing process and adjusts the overall medicated drop dosage for controlling the epithelial tissue healing and ensure natural and complete healing. Usually complete healing takes about 30 days, since the cornea’s epithelial tissue is regenerated by itself naturally, for every 30 days.
Both during and after the PRK surgery, pain is considerably less, though it exists. However, in case of serious pain, which does not decrease even with the over-the-counter pain medications, the patient has to report to the surgeon immediately, as it can be a sign of possible complications. Special protection shield must be worn continuously after a few days of the surgery to prevent any flavours of shampoo, soap, hairspray, lotion, makeup etc. In all the stages, the pain can be easily managed with the pain relieving medication and so there is nothing to worry about the pain.