A common question for those considering LASIK surgery in Portland, Oregon, is, “How long will it take?” With an efficient process and prioritized minimized healing time, Dr. Tersigni ensures patients a quick procedure.
How long does the LASIK surgery process take from start to finish?
On the day of your procedure, expect to be at our office between 2 to 3 hours. This ensures that you will have ample time to fill out any paperwork, recheck some of your measurements, get comfortable, complete the procedure (which typically takes approximately 15 minutes), and time afterward to make sure you are comfortable before you leave.
For the procedure itself, you will receive eye numbing drops to keep you comfortable throughout the entire procedure. Dr. Tersigni will then use a femtosecond laser to create a flap in the outermost layer of the cornea. This flap acts like a self-sealing bandage that helps your vision recover quickly and comfortably. The creation of this flap only takes about 18 seconds per eye. Next, Dr. Tersigni will use an excimer laser to reshape the cornea to correct your vision. The excimer laser can make corrections as small as 0.25 of a micron, which is about 1/4000 the size of a grain of sand! This extremely precise laser treatment takes seconds to complete. Collectively, the procedure usually takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.
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How long does healing take?
Immediately after surgery, we recommend that patients go home and rest their eyes to kick start the healing process. You will need someone to drive you home since your vision will be somewhat blurry for the first few hours after your procedure. You will have a follow-up appointment scheduled for the next day, where we will check your vision and make sure you are healing properly.
How long before I can go back to work after LASIK?
Most patients can usually return to work the next day, but talk to us on the day of your Tersigni Advanced Ocular Analysis if you have any specific concerns.
Before Your LASIK Procedure: Time Well Invested with Your Tersigni Vision Advanced Ocular Analysis
There is much more to LASIK and modern vision correction than just the procedure itself. To determine a patient’s starting point, you will first undergo our Tersigni Vision Advanced Ocular Analysis, which is a comprehensive eye examination that provides in-depth, micron-level details about the health of your eyes. This analysis allows Dr. Tersigni to evaluate the health of your eyes and determine if LASIK is the right procedure for you or if you might be a candidate for one of the other modern vision correction procedures available at Tersigni Vision. Because contacts alter the shape of your cornea, you will need to revert to wearing glasses for a short time before surgery to ensure that your corneas return to their natural shape for this evaluation.
This whole process is much more than a simple “LASIK screening.” You will receive a detailed analysis of your eyes from front to back that will help Dr. Tersigni determine the best treatment for your unique eyes as well as your daily activities, and you will have as much time as you need to have all questions answered. Below are some of the equipment we will be using during your visit:
Tersigni Vision Advanced Ocular Analysis
- AcuTarget HD – measures vision quality and light scatter. It also diagnoses early dry eye, stages of dysfunctional lens syndrome, “over-40” vision and cataracts.
- LENSTAR LS900 APS – takes 32 precise laser optic measurements of the entire eye, including pupil size and corneal astigmatism.
- Maestro 3D Fundus & OCT Scanner – performs a high-resolution, three-dimensional optical coherence tomography scan of the eye. The high-definition images aid in assessing the overall health of the retina, macula, and optic nerve.
- Konan Nsp-9900 Specular Microscope – determines the health of corneal cells within the eye through automated endothelial cell counting of the central and paracentral cornea.
- Pentacam HR – provides high-resolution tomography and images of the shape, size and position of ocular structures involved in LASIK and refractive surgery. It also captures the curvature and thickness of the cornea, which is used for EVO ICL (implantable contact lens) sizing and post-operative examinations.
- Visante OCT Anterior Scanner – produces high-resolution images of the front of the eye where laser vision correction is performed and aids in evaluating complex LASIK cases. It also provides imaging of the front of the eye for ICL sizing.
Once we have performed your Tersigni Vision AOA and decided that you are a good candidate, you are ready for LASIK!
See the next article in the LASIK FAQ series: Can LASIK Make You Go Blind?
