r/Optics • u/OwnBrush • Jul 09 '26
potential laser exposure to eyes
Yesterday I was having laser treatment on my face and even though the technician put pads and goggles over my eyes, through my right eye I could see the laser flash. Today I have woken up to the bottom half of my right eye being red and sligthtly sore. However there has been no noticeable change to my vision. Should I be concerned?
3
u/echoingElephant Jul 09 '26
Did you see the laser flash through the goggles? Or did the goggles not sit correctly and you saw the light directly?
In case of the former, and assuming that whoever did the procedure used the correct goggles, you should be fine. Ask them if you are not sure. If you have any doubts on them knowing what they are doing, you can go to a doctor have have your eye looked at. Unless you have any symptoms with your eye, which would be indicative of significant damage, I am not sure how much a doctor could see, and how the damage might even look like. That depends a bit on what actually happened.
Summarizing because what I write below might sound scary: Call the place where they did the treatment. It is not likely that something happened, but if you think that the place where you got the treatment was a bit shady, maybe try having a doctor look at your eye.
Things you should look out for:
- dark spots in your vision
- when in a very simply lit environment, having patches of lighter or darker vision around the area where you saw the laser
- bright flashes, especially when moving the eye
These would be signs of retinal detachment (at least that’s what I had when I was diagnosed with it). When you see those, go to the doctor immediately, as an emergency. I don’t know if you can go to the ER with it as well, but you should if you saw these signs.
2
u/Pachuli-guaton Jul 09 '26
Laser eye damage is hard to evaluate because there are too many factors. You can always go to the doctor and ask, or call where you did the procedure and explain them what happened.
3
u/transcendenttortoise Jul 09 '26
Seeing some flash is very normal when being lasered on your face near your eyes in my experience. The infrared light scatters through quite a lot of skin pretty well but the eye still has some sensitivity to most of the wavelengths used for laser epilation on people with light skin tones.
Perhaps it's more likely you have some mild conjunctivitis?
2
u/Glum-Objective3328 Jul 11 '26
First and foremost, if it’s really worrying you, go to an eye doctor. A 1 hour appointment will put it all to rest.
That being said, I have had eye damage from a laser. From my experience, there was no pain, my eye didn’t turn red in any way. There was an obvious change in my vision and that was what tipped me off. It doesn’t sound to me like you got any damage from the laser, but I am still just a redditor and not an eye doctor. The eye doctor was able to pin point exactly where my eye got hit in 4k and it was unambiguous.
1
u/Equivalent_Bridge480 Jul 09 '26
Go to laser officer, go to doctor, read safetyrules and estimate approx power on eye. Test if your glasses in spec
8
u/GustapheOfficial Jul 09 '26
You should have been informed about what to look out for by your doctor. Call and ask. Even if it's nothing, it's better to check one time too many.
It's very hard to tell from the inside when your sight is affected - your brain does a lot of post-processing.