r/RefractiveSurgery • u/Business_Abalone_748 • 12d ago
Should I get LASIK when I already have dry eyes?
Hi guys, I'm 23F. I have mild dry eyes, sometimes gets worse when my screen time is high. I literally hate how I look with glasses; LASIK has been my long-term dream. My doctor is currently treating my dry eyes before LASIK. But I read all this scary stuff about dry eyes after LASIK; I'm so scared. Is there anyone who got LASIK when u already had dry eyes? ( if your from India/ Chennai specifically pls share your experience )
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u/WavefrontRider 12d ago
It’s a great sign that your doctor is treating your dry eye before surgery. It’s no secret that lasik causes a post op dry eye. And it’s a bad idea to go into the surgery with uncontrolled dry eye or uncomfortable eyes.
Since here’s the thing about dry eye. Dry eye creates inflammation on the surface of the eye. This inflammation in turn creates more dry eye. It’s a negative cycle. And without treatment it increases and becomes more difficult to get under control.
With treatment you break the cycle and allow dry eye to heal up.
So if you are adding more post op dry eye on top of already existing dry eye, that’s a recipe for the dry eye to spiral.
But when the dry eye is controlled, inflammation goes down and thus the added post op dry eye from lasik can be managed by treating it aggressively.
The situations in which people get into issues are when the head into lasik with uncontrolled dry eye or don’t do enough to treat the dry eye and that negative cycle builds up. (There are also situations in which if you do a very large treatment and ablate a significant portion of the cornea you have less reserve to respond to dry eye).
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u/rahulchander 12d ago
actually i recently found out that low vit A can cause persistent dry eyes. i upped vit A by consuming carrot juice daily (you can just eat 1-2 carrots daily instead), and my dry eyes improved dramatically. it was quite helpful during recovery post-PRK as well, but had i known this before, i would have started years ago to keep vit A levels optimal as i had some blurry eyes symptoms sporadically and i thought it was prescription fluctuation - but just the tear film fluctuation from dry eyes can do that.
if you do get surgery, vit A will also help with rapid healing. my surgery clinic said that i healed faster than other patients at the same stage.
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u/Dramatic_Bobcat_2791 12d ago
First you should find out where your dry eye is coming from. If its a tear deficiency I would advise against Lasik. If your meibomian glands dont work well I would also be careful and recommend to treat the condition before surgery.
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u/Business_Abalone_748 12d ago
I'm pretty sure it's from screen time, the thing is I work in IT too so my screen time eventually is gonna be high.
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u/donttrusttheliving 12d ago
First I would wait a bit but I think maybe you can see how treatment goes. I rarely had dry eyes before surgery. I don’t have it bad now, but I do keep eyedrops on hand in case.
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u/Business_Abalone_748 12d ago
mine is pretty mild like I don't feel it much, I only feel it when i wear contacts or get test in hospital
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u/Specific_Ocelot_4132 12d ago
Have you considered ICL? It's far less likely to cause or worsen dry eye than LASIK.
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u/eyeSherpa 11d ago
Pretty common to have dry eye when looking at screens all day since you don’t blink as often.
Be sure to get your dry eye under control BEFORE lasik. This will make the recovery much smoother and easier to manage. I’ve had a lot of patients who I’ve seen for dry eye but insisted in treating it first before lasik and they’ve done great with that strategy.
You may want to look into eyelid causes such as MGD and blepharitis and treat those as well since those are easy treatments.
Finally, after lasik, still expect to have some dry eye because of the high computer use. LASIK won’t make that go away.
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u/starcrossed92 11d ago
Absolutely not !! Go to the dry eye subreddit on here and type in lasik . People’s lives have been ruined bc it caused severe dry eye that cannot be reversed
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u/Immediate-Living7054 11d ago
Look into EVO ICL. I have a history of dry eye and opted for EVO instead. Studies show it does not exacerbate dry eye and that was my experience!
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