Preparing for LASIK starts weeks before surgery day and involves more than just booking an appointment. The procedure has a 90 to 95% chance of delivering 20/20 vision or better, but that outcome depends partly on how well you prepare. From adjusting your contact lens routine to setting up your home for recovery, each step helps your surgeon get accurate measurements and gives your eyes the best conditions for healing.
Stop Wearing Contact Lenses Early Enough
Contact lenses reshape your cornea slightly over time, which can throw off the precise measurements your surgeon needs. How far in advance you need to stop wearing them depends on the type of lens.
For standard soft contact lenses, recent large-scale studies suggest that even a single day without lenses is enough for most patients, as long as your eye measurements are consistent between your initial consultation and the day of surgery. If there’s any discrepancy in your prescription readings, your surgeon will likely ask you to leave lenses out for at least seven days and come back for retesting.
Soft toric lenses (the kind that correct astigmatism) may need a longer break if your corneal mapping shows warpage or irregular shape. Rigid gas permeable (RGP) lenses require the most lead time: roughly four weeks for every decade you’ve worn them. If you wore RGPs for 20 years, that could mean eight weeks without lenses before your evaluation. Switch to glasses during this period so your cornea returns to its natural shape.
Know What Makes You a Good Candidate
LASIK is FDA-approved for adults 18 and older, but most surgeons prefer patients to be in their mid-20s when the eyes have fully matured. The key requirement is a stable prescription, meaning your vision hasn’t changed for at least two consecutive years. If your glasses prescription shifted at your last eye exam, you’ll need to wait.
Certain conditions can disqualify you or delay the procedure. Corneal ectatic disorders, where the cornea is abnormally thin or bulging, are the most important to rule out. Severe dry eye, uncontrolled autoimmune conditions, and pregnancy can also affect eligibility. Your surgeon screens for all of these during the consultation.
What Happens at the Preoperative Evaluation
The consultation appointment is more involved than a standard eye exam. The cornerstone test is corneal topography, which maps the shape, curvature, and thickness of your cornea in fine detail. Your surgeon typically reviews four different maps: one measuring corneal thickness (pachymetry), two showing how the front and back surfaces of your cornea compare to a perfect sphere, and one detailing curvature across the entire surface.
The back surface of the cornea gets special attention because it’s the best early indicator of ectasia, a condition where the cornea progressively thins and bulges after surgery. Your surgeon checks that the steepest point on the back surface sits centrally rather than off to one side in a thinner area. Abnormal corneal topography is the single most important risk factor for post-surgical complications, so this test essentially determines whether you’re a safe candidate.
You’ll also get a full refraction (the “which is clearer, one or two?” test), pupil size measurement, and an assessment of your tear film. Bring your current glasses and any recent prescription records to speed things along.
Medications and Supplements to Discuss
Tell your surgeon about every medication, supplement, and herbal product you take. Some can affect healing, bleeding, or corneal health. Blood thinners like warfarin and clopidogrel are obvious ones to flag, but over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, naproxen, and aspirin can also interfere.
Herbal supplements deserve attention too. Fish oil, garlic, ginkgo biloba, ginger, vitamin E, and high-dose vitamin C can all thin the blood or affect healing. Echinacea, St. John’s Wort, kava kava, and valerian are also on most surgeons’ caution lists. Your surgeon will tell you exactly what to stop and when, but plan to bring a full list of everything you take to your consultation so nothing gets missed.
If you take isotretinoin (commonly known by its former brand name Accutane) for acne, mention this specifically. It causes significant dry eye and most surgeons require you to be off it for a period before considering LASIK.
The Week Before Surgery
Your surgeon’s office will give you a specific timeline, but the week before surgery is when preparation becomes daily. If you wear eye makeup, stop using it at least a couple of days before the procedure. Mascara, eyeliner, and eyeshadow can leave residue around the lashes that’s difficult to fully remove and can increase infection risk.
Start using artificial tears regularly if your surgeon recommends it. Well-lubricated eyes going into the procedure can ease the recovery process, especially since nearly all patients experience some degree of dryness afterward. Stock up on preservative-free artificial tears now so you have them ready at home.
Surgery Day: What to Do and Avoid
On the morning of your procedure, skip all facial products. No makeup, perfume, hair spray, scented deodorant, or anything with a fragrance. These products release particles into the air that can interfere with the laser’s function. Wash your face thoroughly with a gentle, unscented cleanser.
Eat a light meal before your appointment. You won’t be under general anesthesia, but having food in your stomach helps if the mild sedative some clinics offer makes you feel slightly queasy. Arrange for someone to drive you home. Your vision will be blurry and your eyes will be sensitive to light immediately after, so driving yourself is not an option.
Wear comfortable clothing. The procedure itself takes only about 15 minutes for both eyes, but you’ll be at the clinic longer for preparation and post-procedure checks.
Set Up Your Home for Recovery
Before you leave for surgery, prepare your recovery space. You’ll want to rest in a relatively dark room for five to six hours after the procedure, keeping your eyes gently closed. Set up a comfortable spot with pillows, water within reach, and an audiobook or podcast queued up since screens are off-limits during those first hours.
Your clinic will send you home with a postoperative kit that includes protective sunglasses and plastic goggles. The sunglasses go on immediately when you leave the clinic. The goggles are for sleeping: wear them whenever you nap or sleep for at least the first 24 hours (up to a week if you prefer) to prevent accidentally rubbing your eyes.
You’ll also have two prescription eye drops, an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory, that you’ll use four times a day for about a week. Space them five minutes apart. For dryness between doses, over-the-counter artificial tears fill the gap. Once you finish the prescription drops, artificial tears become your go-to for as long as dryness persists.
For pain, over-the-counter acetaminophen or ibuprofen is typically sufficient. Most people describe the discomfort as mild grittiness or a foreign-body sensation rather than sharp pain.
What to Expect With Dry Eyes After
Dry eye is the most common non-vision side effect of LASIK, and it’s worth preparing for mentally and practically. About 95% of patients notice some dry eye symptoms immediately after surgery. By one month, that drops to about 60%. For most people, symptoms peak in the first few months and gradually fade over the following year.
Women tend to experience more pronounced dryness than men. People with high prescriptions (especially strong nearsightedness) also face a somewhat higher risk. Symptoms include fluctuating vision, a gritty or foreign-body feeling, and occasional stinging. Having artificial tears on hand throughout the day, especially in air-conditioned or heated environments, makes a real difference during those first few months.
Realistic Expectations for Results
LASIK delivers strong outcomes by any surgical standard. About 99.5% of patients reach at least 20/40 vision (the legal threshold for driving without glasses in most states), and 90 to 95% achieve 20/20 or better. In patient satisfaction surveys, roughly 78% of people describe the procedure as “worth it,” with about 13% saying it wasn’t and 9% unsure.
Vision typically stabilizes within a few weeks, though minor fluctuations can continue for three to six months. Your surgeon will schedule follow-up appointments during this period to track healing and make sure your prescription has settled where expected. If you’re over 40, keep in mind that LASIK corrects distance vision but won’t prevent presbyopia, the age-related need for reading glasses, which is a separate issue from the refractive errors LASIK treats.