Why can you wear contact lenses prior to eye exam but not prior to Lasik?

The most accurate examination of your eyes is with leaving your contacts out for a few days to weeks so that the natural shape of the eye is measured.  This is not as critical for glasses which can be changed relatively easily.  For surgery, we want to know that we are getting the best measurements, so that is why your doctor wants for the contacts to be left our prior to your surgery.

You are 100% correct! An ideal eye exam would involve always taking out the contact lenses two weeks prior, but because this is burdensome for most patients, doctors rarely do it unless they are planning to do surgery. In surgical cases no possibility of any kind of error is acceptable so we always ask the patient to remove the contacts.