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If you choose to have laser surgery, we'll tell you what you need to do to be ready. Mainly, you'll need to
stop wearing contact lenses before the procedure - one week for soft lenses and four weeks for hard or gas-
permeable lenses.
Arrive at the Laser Eye Center of Hawaii as rested and relaxed as possible. Allow for two hours at the
center. Wear comfortable clothing. Do not wear makeup, earrings, hair spray, perfume or cologne on the
day of your laser procedure.
You will be asked to sign an informed form of consent and arrange for payment. (We can help you arrange
financing; please ask our staff for the information in advance.)
Pre-ops
We'll use anesthetic drops to numb your eye. If you are having LASIK, your surgeon may prescribe a mild
oral sedative.
You may experience slight feelings of discomfort. With the LASIK procedure, this may last a few hours;
with PRK, a few days. Asophthalmic (steroid) drops will help promote healing.
You can expect your vision to be fairly blurry. In the case of PRK, your vision may worsen over the first
three days. With LASIK there is usually a dramatic improvement in vision in the first 24 hours.
Do not plan on driving until you feel vision has improved. This may be a week with PRK and a few days
with LASIK. Sensitivity to light is normal and will improve.
Before leaving The Laser Eye Center, we’ll give you complete instructions including a post-operative
appointment schedule. This includes examinations the day after, a week after and one, three, six and twelve
months after the procedure, with annual checkups after that.
The earlier stages of PRK recovery are also longer. Your vision may get worse for the first three days. This
is normal. You will notice an improvement about Day 5 and it will continue for several weeks. We
recommend using eye drops for at least three months. The frequency will be modified after the one-month
visit.
With LASIK your vision improves more rapidly and you may feel comfortable enough to drive in two
days. You will be using eye drops for about ten days.
It may take as long as three months for your vision to stabilize following PRK or LASIK surgery. Recovery
is generally faster with LASIK and stability may be achieved as soon as two weeks.
With LASIK, although the flap is relatively secure in one week, we advise you not to rub your eyes hard
for a month.
With PRK the post-operative steroid drops must be continued as your doctor recommends. Deviations from
this regimen may lead to haze or regression.