PRK Results

Results from PRK are similar to LASIK, but recovery takes longer.

DR. JEFFREY MARTIN: PRK results are equal to LASIK results. What I tell my patients is that with PRK it takes a little longer to get there. With LASIK, the next day my patients are driving in very pleased, ecstatic about their vision. The next day my PRK patients are being driven in, very unhappy with their discomfort and mildly blurred vision. But within three days to a week, PRK patients catch up to LASIK patients. And within a month, the results are exactly equal. It's the same custom laser vision correction procedure without a flap. So with no flap, the skin layer of the eye, or the epithelium, takes longer to heal back over. So for three or four days you'll have a contact lens on your eye which helps you heal quickly. We remove that at around the third day post operative and then your life gets back to normal. What I tell people after PRK, if we were to do the procedure on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, which are my typical surgical days, by the following Monday they can be back at work, driving a car, back in their life. But for a couple of days after the procedure they're going to have to take it easy.