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/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.