Will I need to wear contacts after the surgery?
LASIK and PRK laser vision correction procedures reshape the eye’s front surface by removing small amounts of tissue from the cornea. No one can predict how your eyes will heal. Occasionally, this can cause irregularities in the shape of the cornea. These irregularities most times can be corrected with a follow-up laser procedure called an enhancement. If your cornea is too thin for an enhancement procedure, or other problems rule you out for an enhancement procedure you would be able to wear contact lenses.
Some patients may still require a lens prescription for activities like reading or driving at night. In those instances, most patients prefer to keep a pair of glasses handy. Anyone over the age of 40 is likely to have presbyopia which is a condition that limits close-up vision for activities like reading. Having the LASIK or PRK procedures will not prevent the development of presbyopia. For those who have refractive error following LASIK or PRK, re-treatment is a possibility.
With LASIK or PRK, we are able to restore your vision to its best visual outcome. The goal is to get rid of your glasses and contacts. It is rare for a patient to have to wear contact lenses after you have had a successful laser vision correction procedure. So, yes you can wear contact lenses after having LASIK or PRK. We do not change the color of your eyes while we are reshaping your cornea, so if you choose to change the color of your eyes with contacts even if you have perfect vision after LASIK or PRK it is possible contact lenses.
