How Long to Wait for Lasik Surgery Without Wearing Hard Lenses?

the rule of thumb in the textbooks used to be 1 month out of RGPs for each decade of wear. in reality, this rule is overly conservative, and you don't need to wait that long

i am recommending a newer rule of thumb, which is a month out, then do a topography or orbscan or wavescan to check for warpage

it's not the time out that matters, it's however long it takes to unwarp

the tricky thing is after RGPs your astigmatism actually goes UP in the unwarping process, as compared to soft lenses, where it goes down, so your doctor needs to know this and wait for your astigmatism to increase to the max value (kind of opposite)

hope this isn't too confusing :)

My rule of thumb for leaving out hard or gas permeable contact lenses before Lasik surgery is "one month per decade of wear." Now, I know you are groaning, but this has been my rule for the 18 years I have been performing Lasik in the US and a few years before that during the FDA trials. What this does is give the corneas time to go back to their natural shape, rather than their lens warped state. Sometimes as a bridge, if the time period is going to be 3 or 4 months, we will fit the patient with soft contacts that they can wear up until about 10-14 days before the procedure, then, they too have to come out and glasses worn until surgery. I have had many patients tell me that the contact lens "holiday" is the hardest part of the procdure! But it is worth it!