You'll enjoy follow-up visits at one-week post-surgery, then one month, three months and six months later. Additional visits can be arranged, if necessary. At these follow-ups, various eye measurements are made to check on your healing process. You will also be using eye drops prescribed to you by your surgeon.
If you're outside of the Wellington area, your post-operative care will be co-managed and arranged with your local optometrist.
Visual Recovery
Following SMILE and LASIK, visual recovery is rapid, with most patients seeing very well the next day.
Following PRK, your vision will be quite fuzzy during the first week. However, most people have reasonable functional vision even on the first day after their surgery, with most patients seeing at least 6/12 (which is approximately half way down the eye chart).
By seven days post-operatively, when the bandage contact lens is removed (for PRK), most patients can see well enough to drive.
About 90% of patients will be seeing well enough to return to normal activities by day six or seven, although full-time computer workers may need a few extra days to recover.
Your vision will improve rapidly in the first few weeks after surgery, but it can take one to three months to fully stabilise. If you've had a large correction your eyes may take longer to settle.