If you wear contact lenses, you can have LASIK — but there is one important preparation step you need to follow before your evaluation and surgery.
Why You Must Remove Contacts Before LASIK
Contact lenses can subtly alter the cornea’s shape over time — a phenomenon called corneal warpage. Even soft lenses can cause slight distortion that affects the accuracy of pre-operative corneal mapping. If your cornea is mapped while still warped, the laser correction will be based on inaccurate data.
How Long to Stop Wearing Contact Lenses
- Soft contact lenses: Stop at least 3–5 days before evaluation
- Toric soft lenses: Stop at least 7–10 days before evaluation
- Rigid Gas Permeable (RGP) lenses: Stop at least 3–4 weeks before evaluation; ideally 6 weeks for long-term wearers
Once you remove your contacts, wear glasses only until after surgery. If measurements reveal your cornea hasn’t fully returned to its natural shape, we may ask you to wait a few more days.
After Surgery
Post-LASIK, most patients do not need contact lenses at all. If vision correction is ever needed in future, your surgeon will advise on the safest options based on your post-surgical corneal profile.