When Is It Ok to Rub Eyes After Lasik?

Modern surgical methods have allowed surgeons to make much small incisions(in the case of cataracts) and precision created corneal flaps(in the case of LASIK) that make rubbing the eye much less of a threat than in the past. That being said, regarding either procedure, the patient should be careful not to rub or bump the operated eye(s) for about two weeks postop. In my 25 years of doing laser vision correction surgery, and surgery for cataracts, I can count on one hand the number of times... more

A LASIK flap never fully heals! So if you rub it incredibly hard or get hit, the flap can come back up In LASEK there is no flap, so no matter how hard you rub or get hit, there is no risk of a flap dislocation If the flap dislocates, it has to be repositioned, and often sutured back into place, which is a lot of work After a few days, you can gently rub your eyes after either LASIK or LASEK

Just yesterday, I performed a flaplift for a one day post operative patient who rubbed his eyes following LASIK. In my experience eye rubbing is likely to cause a problem only on the first post op day. After one month following LASIK, the risk of displacing the flap with eye rubbing is very low. However, there is no benefit to rubbing your eyes ever. I would advise that you resist the urge to rub and use tears to lubricate your eyes instead. One of the reasons I like PRK is that there is no... more