Are dry eyes normal after LASIK?

What's normal

Dryness after LASIK is expected, not unusual. StatPearls reports dry eyes in about 85 to 98 percent of patients one week after surgery, dropping to around 60 percent at one month. The cause is mechanical: creating the flap and reshaping the cornea cuts corneal nerves, which interrupts the reflex that tells your eye to make tears. Management is artificial tears and sometimes punctal plugs until the nerves regenerate.

Dryness usually shows up as a gritty or sandy feeling, burning, blurring that clears when you blink, watery eyes that seem to contradict the word dry, and vision that gets worse late in the day or during screen work. The FDA says you may be advised to use artificial tears to help lubricate the eye, alongside any prescribed drops.

The Academy says that for several weeks or even months after laser eye surgery it is normal to have dry eyes, along with some blurry or changing vision and glare or halos. By about six months, the Academy says most of these symptoms have disappeared or are much less obvious.

Typically worst in the first 1 to 2 weeks, much improved by 1 to 3 months, largely resolved or much less obvious by about 6 months per the Academy.

When it stops being normal

Dryness that is getting worse instead of better, or that is not responding to the drops you were given, is worth a call. The FDA warns that some patients may develop severe dry eye syndrome, where the eye cannot produce enough tears to stay moist and comfortable, that this can reduce visual quality through intermittent blurring, that the condition may be permanent, and that intensive drop therapy and use of plugs or other procedures may be required.

The FDA's general instruction applies: contact your eye doctor immediately if you develop any new, unusual, or worsening symptoms at any point after surgery, because such symptoms could signal a problem that may lead to loss of vision if not treated early enough. Dryness paired with real pain, light sensitivity that is worsening, or dropping vision is not simple dry eye and needs to be looked at.