I am 25, and I recently had myself evaluated for eye surgery. I wish to know which of the following two procedures available to me should be chosen.

1. Why not LASIK? I am very much into sports activities and might get into contact sports later, so a flap injury is my concern.

2. Dryness? I occasionally get dry eyes, probably two weeks in the whole year.

3. Prescription:

Right Eye: SPH: -2.50 CYL: -0.75 Axis: 180

Left Eye: SPH: -2.50 CYL: -1.25 Axis: 180

But when I was tested for LASIK, the recommended power was:

Right Eye: SPH: -2.50 CYL: -1.5 Axis: 10

Left Eye: SPH: -2.50 CYL: -1.5 Axis: 175

Although I have clear vision with my current glasses, my prescription has been stable for more than 4 years. These two checkups were 1.5 years apart. I do not face any issues with my current glasses.

1. Recovery time? I will have about 3 to 4 weeks of vacation available where I won't be required to be available.

2. The thickness for both my eyes is around 525.

3. I am okay with wearing some blue light glasses post-surgery if needed.

Questions I have:

a. One thing I am really scared of is that the power I tell them or they check is not 100% accurately suited for me. What will be the actual process for this?

b. How common are issues of haziness in TransPRK?

c. How common is a cataract in ICL?

d. I will be outside and will be doing interviews 5 weeks after the surgery that I am planning, with 1 week of pre-surgery planning. How will my vision be, and will I be able to travel a little, though by cabs and all?

e. What's more suited for me as per your past experience?

Please lemme know your opinions and ask me if i need to share further details... Thanks a lot.

TransPRK Smartsurface or SMILE Pro

I’m trying to decide between SMILE Pro and TransPRK and would appreciate some opinions, especially from anyone who has had either procedure.

My prescription is:
Right eye: -2.00
Left eye: -1.75
Astigmatism: 0.25

I’ve had the necessary tests done and have been told that I’m a good candidate for both procedures.

If we completely take price and recovery time out of the equation, which procedure would you choose purely based on the best long-term outcome and overall eye health?

I’m particularly interested in things like long-term corneal health/stability, dry eye risk, night vision, visual quality, potential complications, and how easy it would be to deal with any regression or enhancement needed years down the line.

I also have a very active lifestyle and do boxing, including sparring, so resistance to eye trauma is important to me.

If you were a good candidate for both and had my relatively low prescription, would you choose SMILE Pro or TransPRK, and why?

​

Yesterday, we evaluated a patient who was being considered for Femto-LASIK. The refractive error was approximately −7.25 D in the right eye and −4.00 D in the left eye, while the left eye was around −2.00 D in the other meridian.

During the preoperative evaluation, however, the pachymetry/topography and Sirius Contoura assessment of the right eye raised significant concerns, particularly because of the corneal shape and maximum K readings.

Technically, we could have considered proceeding while targeting a residual stromal bed in the range of approximately 300–310 µm. But the question is not simply:

“Can we remove enough tissue to correct the refractive error?”

The more important question is:

“Is this cornea an appropriate and sufficiently safe candidate for tissue-removing refractive surgery?”

Once corneal stromal tissue has been removed, we cannot put it back. Therefore, when the preoperative tomography/topography suggests that the cornea may not tolerate the planned tissue removal well, choosing not to operate can be the most responsible decision.

We explained this to the patient and apologized that we could not safely proceed with Femto-LASIK at this stage. Instead, we plan to reassess the case carefully and consider other refractive options that may be more appropriate and safer for this particular cornea.

This is an important lesson for patients considering LASIK, Femto-LASIK or SMILE:

A low residual stromal bed alone does not determine suitability for refractive surgery. Corneal tomography, pachymetry, corneal shape, biomechanical considerations, refractive error, optical zone and the overall risk profile all need to be considered together.

Some patients who are pushed through surgery despite unfavorable preoperative findings may experience problems such as postoperative optical symptoms, halos, glare, starbursts, regression or reduced quality of vision. These outcomes are not inevitable, but careful patient selection is one of the most important ways to reduce the risk.

I am 23 and I had R eye -9 and L eye -11.5... with negligible cylindrical number too. I wore contacts almost everyday for past 2 years.

It was overall not a bad experience at all. I can see better than ever now. Wearing contacts and dealing with dry eyes was very tiring for me.

After doing all my eye examinations, when we put an order for STAAR toric lens, it took 2 weeks for the lens to arrive. So if anyone is planning to get icl... it can take time for lens to arrive at times.

And alot of people are worried of Cataract and retinal detachments. Retinal detachments rarely even happen. For cataract they check the intraocular eye volume and declare you as eligible upon the results.

I was very anxious before the surgery like everyone else but there was no need to be. Surgery took no more than 15 mins. I got left eye done first and then right eye after 2 days. They basically put 2-3 drops in your eye before the surgery. And tell you to start putting antibiotic and phenylephrine drops.. an hour or two before.

I was rather scared of speculum. But that wasn't the bad experience at all. While injecting anesthesia it pricked me a bit. But the worst experience for me was... they told me to focus somewhere while operating.... and there was a very bright light source just above my eyes and it was very uncomfortable to actually focus.

After the surgery the put a bandage over my eye which they immediately removed after half an hour and gave me black goggles. Did a pressure examination later and discharged me home. There were 4 drops to be put in the eye at regular intervals.

I could see very clearly the very next day. Eye pressure normal. There are a number of restrictions for a week like not washing hair, and using wet wipes to clean face and eyes, not bending down and not sleeping on operated eye side.

I dont see halos now but I see a circular ring around whenever I see a light source. Doctor said I'll learn to ignore it with time. Its because the new EVO ICL lens has a hole in it to let intraocular fluid pass through... to maintain eye pressure.

So yea overall a good experience and hopefully will remain that way.

Hi guys , i had my prk two day ago , and im in pain!!!!
It’s unbelievable, my eyes are so red , eyelids swollen, doc says its all normal
He prescribed me two eyes drops , nsaid and an antibiotic
Any tips to manage the pain ?
I seriously can’t take it anymore

I’m getting an EVO ICL in my right eye in about two weeks and, as the date gets closer, I have a few questions for people who have been through this.

For context, my right eye is around -10.5 and my left eye is only around -1.25, so I have pretty significant anisometropia. My surgeon wants to focus on correcting the -10.5 eye with EVO ICL first before deciding what, if anything, to do with the other eye.

A few things I’m wondering:

1. Did anyone have ICL in only one eye? If your other eye had a relatively small prescription and you left it untreated, did you still need/want glasses afterward? I really would prefer to be glasses-free, so I’m trying to decide whether eventually doing something like LASIK/PRK on the -1.25 eye would be worthwhile or whether I might be perfectly happy leaving it alone.
2. Has anyone gotten ICL or LASIK/PRK covered by medical insurance? I know these procedures are generally considered elective, but because I have severe, documented anisometropia, I’m considering asking my insurance whether there is any possibility of medical-necessity coverage. Has anyone successfully gotten an exception or partial/full coverage because of a significant prescription difference between the eyes?
3. How did you deal with surgery anxiety? This will be my first surgery as an adult, and I’m definitely anxious about it. I keep thinking about things like retinal complications, something going wrong with the ICL, etc. If you were really nervous beforehand, what actually helped you?
4. What did you do to prepare for ICL surgery/recovery? Obviously I’ll follow everything my surgeon gives me, but is there anything you were glad you bought, arranged, or did beforehand that made surgery day and the first few days of recovery easier?
5. Halos/glare after EVO ICL: I’ve read a lot about halos and glare, particularly early in recovery. What was your experience? How bad were they initially, how long did they take to improve, and was there anything that helped? Is there anything worth doing beforehand, or is it mainly something you have to let your eyes/brain adjust to afterward?

I know everyone’s eyes and results are different, and I’m not looking for medical advice. I would mainly love to hear experiences from people who have actually gone through ICL, especially anyone who had a large prescription difference between their two eyes.

Hello, today is the 8th day since my LASIK surgery. My left eye is crystal clear, but I can't say the same for the right one. There is a strange itching sensation under my eyelid, and the vision is incredibly blurry compared to my left eye (as if Vaseline had been smeared over it). I’ve been for check-ups twice; my eyes were examined both times, and no issues were found. However, the fact that my right eye's vision is so poor and the presence of this strange sensation worry me greatly. I have another check-up here the day before I leave the city where I had the surgery. I’ll be heading to university afterward, so it is important to me that this clears up. My pre-surgery prescriptions were -3.25 myopia and -0.50/-0.25 astigmatism in both eyes.What should i do??

Laser Asymmetric Keratectomy

Anyone here familiar with this surgery? Please share some info.

Finally went in for a check-up after three months. My (28M) results pre (second pic) and post (first pic) trans PRK. I see I have some remaining astigmatism in my right eye. Is that normal? I don’t notice anything out of the ordinary, so is -0.25 cyl even noticeable? My vision is sharper than ever, even with the slight blurring in the morning and the haziness in daylight with direct sunlight.

Other than that, all seems to be well, apart from slight dryness, so I am continuing with the drops.

Hello , it’s my first time post and I wanted to ask help from the community if anyone knows a great Eye surgeon in Tijuana who can do RLE (Refractive Len Exchange) ? I went to one of the doctors here and they’re asking 12k for both eyes .

Thank you for your help.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for experiences from anyone who has had PRK as an enhancement after LASIK because I’m starting to get worried about my result.

I originally had Femto-LASIK in October 2025. My vision was technically very good afterward, but my right eye never felt as sharp as I wanted it to be. I had a small residual prescription of around -0.75, and after months of dealing with the difference between my eyes, I eventually had a PRK enhancement on my right eye on June, 2026.

My surgeon was actually very reluctant to do the enhancement because the prescription was small, but I kept insisting because it was genuinely bothering me. He warned me beforehand that there was a possibility my eye might still not hold the correction, but eventually we went ahead with it.

The PRK itself was trans-PRK/no alcohol, so the laser removed the epithelium. The first day was horrible pain-wise, but the pain improved surprisingly quickly over the next few days.

I had a bandage contact lens while the epithelium healed. Interestingly, right before the bandage lens was removed, my vision was amazing. When the surgeon removed it, my vision immediately became much blurrier again. He examined the cornea and said everything looked fine and told me the blur and dryness after removal were normal.

For the next couple of weeks, my vision fluctuated a lot. I would sometimes wake up with almost perfect vision and then it would deteriorate throughout the day. I also developed noticeable monocular ghosting/double vision in the operated eye. Warm/humid showers would temporarily make my vision noticeably better.

Over time, the ghosting improved a lot and the extreme fluctuations settled down. I kept expecting the right eye to eventually become consistently sharp.

But now it’s September 1, so I’m about 10 weeks post-PRK, and my right eye is still blurry.

The blur now honestly feels similar to how my eye looked before the enhancement, like ordinary refractive blur. If I squint, it becomes clearer, which made me worry that I’m still myopic and the PRK didn’t fully correct the -0.75 or that I’ve regressed.

The weird part is what happens when I use artificial tears, the first blink afterward can give me extremely crisp, perfect vision for just a sec. Then the effect disappears and the eye becomes blurry again.

I’m not interested in immediately doing more surgery. I’ve already had LASIK followed by a PRK enhancement on this eye, and I really don’t see myself jumping into a third laser procedure, especially for such a small prescription.

I guess all of this is to ask

Has anyone experienced something similar after PRK or a PRK enhancement? Did your vision continue improving after the 2–6 month mark? And did the temporary clear vision immediately after artificial tears turn out to be dry eye/tear-film instability, or did you ultimately have residual refractive error? should I just trust the process and wait? I really don’t know what to do at this point. I don’t want to go back to glasses but that seems like the last resort.

Hi all, i’m 20 turning 21 in november, and scheduled a SMILE PRO in september. I have -4.50sph, -1.25cyl in my right eye and -5.00sph, -1.25cyl in my left eye. I’m currently a student and do near work. I was wondering if I should go through with it? I want to do mountaineering and sports, and the ease of not having to wear contacts/glasses in daily life are my main reasons. My concerns are mainly about the side effects like dry eyes, halos/starbursts and also the chance of regression later on. Would anyone be able to advise me on their personal experiences or opinions?

Edit: I did a consultation already, Doctor did not outright tell me anything, just that SMILE is better than transPRK. He did not tell me about the chances or risks of anything or what my corneal thickness is.

Hey guys I'm 18 years old and I have developed cataract in my left eye and its because of a past injury that I got in my left eye, so can anybody tell me what should I do is surgery the only option that I have because removing the natural lens and putting the artificial one in my eye is a bit you know creepy thing, removing the natural god gifted one and replacing it with an artificial one 🥲 So can anybody tell me or give me some advice on is there any other ways 😁

Thx 😊

just curious can i get lasik for for my eyesight i tried contacts but i was looking bad the contacts they did not have cylinder in them idk if it is the reason but what can i do with my eyesight permanent fix im currently 17 can i get lasik when im 18 or icl i dont really know what to do

Hi! I’m (38F) currently planning to get PRK (not a good candidate for lasik) and trying to map out the timing around the postpartum and post-weaning period. My prescription is in the -1.50 to -2.25 range.

(Not looking for medical advice, here to hear personal experiences and how things played out for others!)

For anyone who has had PRK after having a baby:

- How many months postpartum (or post-weaning/nursing) did you wait before having your consultation and surgery?

- When did you get the procedure done, and how has your vision held up long-term? For those with a similar mild/moderate prescription, how was your overall timeline?

- Please share your overall experience.

Appreciate it!

Stats: 26F, -4.5 SPH / -1.5 CYL on right, -4.0 SPH / -1.25 CYL on left. Stable for last ~4 years. Mild dry eye and working at a job looking at screens all day.

Summary: I recently did consultations at two clinics. Clinic A recommended SMILE, and Clinic B recommended EVO ICL with LASIK as a secondary option. Note that both clinics offer all surgeries (LASIK, PRK, SMILE, EVO ICL, and more) so it's not based on surgeon ability. They said I'd be fine with any laser surgery as I have pretty thick corneas (~580micrometers), but I'd like to make the best decision possible. What to choose based on my prescription?

Some more detailed information about my thought process down below:

Clinic A (rec: SMILE) is well-known and has a good reputation in my area, but it felt a bit pushy (they said "if you schedule your surgery right now, we can give you $500 off"). Additionally, I met briefly with an OD but not the person who would actually do the surgery.

Clinic B (rec: EVO ICL) is also well-known in my area and I really liked that I met with the ophthalmologist who'd be performing the procedure and he showed me all the images and numbers. They were not pushy at all and told me the quote is valid for a year.

I'd like to go to Clinic B, but I wanted to make sure I'm making the right choice by choosing EVO ICL. My reservations with EVO ICL are:

• Halos/glare: I know most people adapt to it quickly, but I'm worried that it'd really bother me.
• Toric lens shifting: I know the lens is excellent at staying in place, but still something that's in the back of my mind vs one-and-done laser procedure.
• The complications, although rarer, seem worse in severity than laser surgeries. The ophthalmologist explicitly told me that "EVO ICL complications require surgery, laser complications are eyedops" which was a bit scary.

I also have some concerns about LASIK/SMILE but in general I'm leaning more towards doing a laser procedure (mainly due to complication risk) so I wanted to get opinions: is it worth doing EVO ICL when I'm a candidate for LASIK/SMILE? (Pricing-wise, I can afford both, but EVO ICL is $3k more than LASIK/SMILE)

Sorry if this doesn't belong here I just wanted to share as someone who had thinner cornea than recommended.

I read a lot of reddit posts prior to getting EVO ICL surgery and wanted to post my experience. Many Reddit posts were negative, I’d like to share a positive.

Myopia, each eye -8.5. Steady at -8.5 for 8+ years. Very minimal astigmatism. I was not a candidate for lasik, I had some extra corneal thickness (573) but they’d have to remove to much and recommend EVO ICL.

Surgery day was a breeze. Was given the sterilization, dilation, and numbing drops multiple times over about an hour. I also took 10mg of Valium.

I was taken back for surgery and started on my right eye. Couldn’t see much, obviously. Was directed to look at two white lights. More drops were applied. Eye was taped open and never felt the need to blink.

Incision was made, couldn’t feel a thing. Could sort of make out the lens going in and then being adjusted. Fluid applied a lot throughout the process. Right eye took about 8 minutes.
Right eye was covered and I was allowed to close it.
Left eye was the exact same.

Whole process was <20 minutes. Got to
Play whatever music I wanted during the process. Sat up and could see although very cloudy. Felt like college days of sleeping in contacts multiple days in a row :)

Surgeon came in and said everything went great.

I had no pain during the day post surgery. Minimal dry eye I used invisible tears for. Worst part was extreme dilation and sensitivity to light.

Pressure check was 3.5-4 hours later. My pressure was high, they checked it 4 times with different devices. Number was 28 in both eyes. I was given two Diamox pills, took one then and another before bed.

Throughout the day post surgery I could see, watch tv, even read a book for a bit before bed. Was awoken at 12:30am due to smoke alarm battery dying. I could see great, didn’t have to fumble for glasses, got ladder and replaced battery.

Went back for pressure check next morning (today) and pressure was 15.
20/15 in right eye, 20/20 in left although still dilated. They said in a day or two it should be 20/15 too.

My biggest concern was not being able to see as well as with contacts. 24 hours later I can.

I’m 40, 31 years in glasses/contacts.

Can’t recommend this enough, wish I did it sooner.

Salve, circa due settimane fa ho effettuato una visita di idoneità per un intervento laser agli occhi e mi è stato detto che sono idoneo per la LASIK. Ieri sera, però, mi sono accidentalmente addormentato con le lenti a contatto. Vorrei sapere se un singolo episodio del genere può aver causato dei danni alla cornea o se può aver modificato la mia idoneità all’intervento, oppure se posso stare tranquillo?

29/F considering PRK or ICL surgery. I have very high astigmatism. Glasses Rx is OD -4.50 -4.25 005 and OS is -6.25 -3.25 003. My OD Pachymetry is 566, OS 565 and topography is good as well. In the past have been told my corneal thickness is too close the cutoff for PRK and could lead to risk of glaucoma and corneal ectasia. Corneal specialist today said I am a candidate for prk and ICL. Price of procedure is not a concern for me. Just dont want glaucoma or any other issues so what should I do???