Before you undergo LASIK, your surgeon will inform you that one of the immediate effects is feeling you have an eyelash in the eye.
This is a persistent sensation that can border on feeling as though the edge of a tiny piece of paper is pressing into the eye surface.
“The ‘eyelash feeling in eye’ is typically just for a few hours after LASIK,” says Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, MD, eye surgeon and founder of The Boxer Wachler Vision Institute, and developer of the Holcomb C3-R® procedure which treats a degenerative eye disease.
Dr. Boxer Wachler continues, “This feeling is from the edge of the LASIK flap. A tiny amount of surface cornea ‘skin’ quickly heals of the flap edge. Most times by the next day that feeling is gone.”
After LASIK you will be instructed to lie with your eyes closed for several hours.
In my case I was told to do it for six hours. During that time it felt as though a tiny piece of paper was in my eye.
I had one eye done at a time, a week apart, and I had that same eyelash stuck feeling after the second eye was done.
The sensations soon completely disappeared.
If the feeling of a lash stuck in your eye continues after the period of time that your postop information explains, then you should see your surgeon about this.
What’s really important is that following LASIK surgery, you must do everything that is instructed of you – everything down to a T – including:
- the required amount of time to keep your eyes closed after the operation
- the absence of rubbing your eyelids no matter how much they itch
- the proper application of all the eye drops that you’ve been told to use.
Following the postop instructions faithfully will minimize any chances of that eyelash feeling in the eye persisting beyond what is normal.
Dr. Boxer Wachler has delivered hundreds of lectures on eye surgery to thousands of eye surgeons from around the world, and is a pioneer in keratoconus treatment.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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