How Much Pain is Normal During Recovery from LASIK Surgery?

Everyone's perception of pain is different.  That being said, most people have a scratchy and sore feeling in their eyes for the first three to four hours.  The best way to avoid pain is to sleep after the procedure.  If you get to sleep in the first half hour after your procedure, most patients have no complaint of pain at all.  When I had my procedure, it felt like there was a piece of sand in my eye for the first four hours.  Over the counter pain relievers such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen can be used if needed.

The recovery after lasik is quite rapid and the amount of discomfort most patients experience is minimal. I tell all my patients to expect significant light sensitivity, foreign body sensation, tearing, and scratchiness the first 4-6 hours (max) after their surgery is finished. If no medical contraindications, I give my patients anti-anxiety/sedative medicines to help them fall asleep on the way home from my surgery center. The absolute best thing you can do to help speed up the recovery after surgery is to fall asleep. If you cant fall asleep then just go home, lay down on your couch or bed, and just keep your eyes closed. Listen to music, talk to your friends or family, etc., but by keeping the eyes closed it minimized discomfort and speeds up recovery time without a doubt. By the next day after surgery, vision is still improving but a large majority of the general discomfort has lifted. Minor foreign body sensation ("eyelash" in the eye) is common but most people are functional to return to work at this point if they choose. There are extremely rare scenarios where someone could have discomfort beyond a few days, but adhering to the surgeon's eye drop regimen usually gets you out of that quickly. Have a relationship with your surgeon and be sure to notify his/her office if anything seems out of the ordinary in regards to pain in the first 7 days especially.
-Lee Katzman MD

Pain is an individual feeling and most people experience discomfort lasting four to six hours.  This usually consists of tearing, watery eyes and foreign body sensation. If you sleep, you will usually miss this feeling. Sometimes, individuals do heal differently so if you are experiencing pain, seek the care of your LASIK surgeon.

Sometimes, light sensitivity does occur and may be due to dryness of the eyes or a condition known as transient photosensitivity syndrome.  Instillation of eye drops usually helps these conditions.

I like to use a scale of 0-10 when describing discomfort. Obviously a "0" is no pain and a "10" is pain on the order of child birth, kidney stones or a broken leg. Most Lasik patients should expect about 3-5 hours of discomfort that they would grade as a "1" and then it goes away, to be followed by no more discomfort other than some mild dryness upon awakening the first few mornings. I hear the description of a mild onion sensation to describe the first few hours post Lasik, but, usually, this is no worse than a bad contact lens day sensation.