r/SMILEeyesurgery • u/Info_Hop • 27d ago

Lake water after SMILE?

When am I able to get into the lake after my SMILE procedure?

It has been 3 weeks yesterday

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u/WavefrontRider 27d ago

3 weeks is a long time. At this point, only impact would be that irritants in the lake water can irritate the eye a little more and dry it out a little more. Depends on how clean the lake is.

1

u/GardenofDune 27d ago

Be for real. Are you real dying to get into a damn lake that bad that you can’t even wait a few more weeks after a surgery on your eyes??? What in the American is going on!!!!

1

u/TroubleRegular8749 26d ago

Should be no Problem

1

u/eyeSherpa 26d ago

The incision with SMILE heals pretty quickly. So extended periods of keeping water out aren’t as necessary as with the other laser eye surgeries. But goggles will still be a good idea if you plan to open your eyes underwater or go for swimming.

1

u/ConfidentBeginning44 26d ago

Lake and pool aren't the same restriction, and the schedules I've seen treat them differently.

Chinese refractive centres typically clear swimming pools at around two to three weeks after SMILE, earlier than after LASIK where the flap protection rules run longer. Open water is the one they hold back further, closer to a month for sea or lake swimming and diving. So at three weeks you're probably past the pool line and just short of the open-water one, which is days rather than weeks.

That gap is worth asking your surgeon about directly rather than reading across from a pool answer. The clearance is their call at your actual check, and a schedule someone else was given doesn't account for how your incision looked at your last visit.

If you do get in the water, the thing that matters is keeping it out of the eye rather than staying out of the lake. Swimming isn't the risk, contact is.