Most people qualify for LASIK. Only about 15% get screened out, usually for reasons beyond their control.
It’s dangerous to have LASIK if your corneas aren’t thick enough or your pupils are too big. You should also have eyes that are in good health.
But that doesn’t always mean you can’t get LASIK if you have dry eye syndrome. Keep reading to learn more!
LASIK And Dry Eye
If you have dry eye, or you know that you’re prone to it, any kind of eye surgery is likely to exacerbate it. When the nerves in your cornea get severed, the eye has trouble sensing how much moisture you need.
Not only can it be painful to have dry eyes when recovering from LASIK, but it can affect your recovery and how long it takes. But you still can have LASIK even if you have dry eyes without having a long, painful recovery.
Assessing Your Risk
The first step to getting LASIK is having a LASIK consultation. This process involves assessing your risk for dry eye. To do this, your eye doctor will take samples of your tears.
With these samples, they will measure how well your tears disperse over the surface of your eye. Dry eye is usually the result of insufficient tear quality.
A healthy tear should have three components: mucus, oil, and water. When your tears have more mucus or oil in them, they have less water, providing less moisture.
Luckily, even if you have dry eyes or are found to be at risk, there are ways to improve your tear quality. If your tear quality improves, you can then safely have LASIK.
Non-Invasive Dry Eye Treatment
You may be able to balance out your tear composition without any kind of invasive treatment. Sometimes, changing your diet can help.
Eating foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids can improve the balance that makes up your tears. If it’s too hard to incorporate more Omega-3 rich foods into your diet, you can also take supplements.
These can include fish oil or flaxseed oil. You can also use over-the-counter artificial tears a few times a day.
It’s very possible these simple changes will improve your tear quality. If they don’t, you may need to discuss other medical treatments with your doctor. Lifestyle changes and medication may be enough to make you a LASIK candidate.
Surgical Treatment
If nothing else works, you can have minor surgery to put punctal plugs in. These are tiny plugs that block off the drainage channels in your eye.
The result of blocking off these channels is that tears have to stay on the surface of your eye longer. This makes up for poor tear quality and can help with symptoms of dry eye.
Post-LASIK Care
Even if you get your dry eye under control, you still should be aware of dry eye symptoms while you’re recovering after LASIK. You may want to continue or even increase the use of artificial tears, as directed by your doctor.
You should also call your doctor if you experience more discomfort than expected. They may be able to provide more follow-up care to further treat any dry eye symptoms.
The bottom line is this– you can still get LASIK if you have dry eye. But you need to be aware of your symptoms and get proper treatment before and after LASIK surgery.
Ready to find out if you could be a good LASIK candidate? Schedule a LASIK consultation at Ellis Eye in San Francisco, CA! What are you waiting for, when crystal clear vision could be right around the corner?
