Will I always have dry eyes following LASIK since I am menopausal and have thick corneas?

Question

1'm 46, menopausal, have had 30 yrs of contacts, have thick corneas (-7,-8) While I'm scheduled for surgery soon, I'm afraid. Will I have dry eyes forever? Can nutrition help with this condition? Will it get worse as I age? (ie When I'm 75 will I need drops every 1/2 hour???)

Christopher Coad, MD · Answer

Post menopausal women tend to have the most difficulty with dry eyes.  Dry eyes do not generally get better with age and often get worse.  There are many treatments now including nutrition (omega 3 &ndash; like fish oil and flax seed).  Other treatments include punctual plugs, Restasis RX eye drops in addition to topical lubricants like artificial tears.  There has also been success with treating dry eye with IPL (Intense Pulse Light) treatments.  Most patients can be successfully treated.  Be positive.

Sandy Feldman, MD · Answer

Dryness can worsen after LASIK. No one can predict how much dryness will occur to any individual.  Usually, dryness worsens after LASIK for a period of 3-6 months and improves over time.  Some prescriptions, such as farsighted ones, in which the cornea is steepened, may have longer periods of dryness. Speak with your doctor further about your particular situation.

Anthony J. Kameen, MD (retired) · Answer

This is a great and important question. There is no question that the subset of patients that have the driest eyes(whether they have laser vision correction or not) is women during or after menopause. That being said, however, I see very little chronic dryness in any patient more than two weeks after LASIK(or PRK). The introduction of the femtosecond laser that creates the corneal flap has greatly reduced the incidence of dry eye across the board. Any dryness induced by the swelling after laser correction will resolve quickly. Two easy tricks: drink the 8 glasses of water per day that we are all supposed to be drinking and start omega 3(fish oil) tablets now and take them for the rest of your life......omega's are proving to be instrumental in the long term good health of many organ systems and the eye is one of them!

Will I always have dry eyes following LASIK since I am menopausal and have thick corneas?

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Will I always have dry eyes following LASIK since I am menopausal and have thick corneas?

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Everything you need to know about LASIK

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