How long do I need to leave my lenses out before laser eye surgery?

Wearing contact lenses can ‘mould’ the corneal surface of your eye, meaning the curvature of your eye has been changed and your refraction (prescription) is altered. Therefore we ask that to enable us to properly conduct your laser eye surgery to the best of our ability, you refrain from wearing contact lenses prior to both your consultation and treatment appointments.

If you usually wear soft lenses we advise that before your consultation you don’t wear them for 3 days and for gas permeable/hard lenses we ask that you don’t wear them for a period of 28 days before your consultation appointment. This period allows time for your cornea to return to its natural shape and size, which will then allow us to achieve a more accurate result from your surgery. We have to give more time for hard lens wearers as these lenses have a greater effect on the cornea and as such, it takes longer for the eyes to return to their natural shape.

Once we have gathered the necessary results to plan your surgery you may wear your contact lenses again until the approach of your surgery date. We ask that you don’t wear contact lenses the day before, or the day of, your surgery if you wear soft contact lenses, or, if you wear hard lenses, leave them out for the 7 days prior to your surgery.

This minimum length of time is sufficient for the majority of our patients, however, everyone’s eyes are different and some people’s corneas may take longer to adjust than others, therefore it may be necessary that we ask you to avoid wearing your contact lenses for a longer period of time prior to your surgery date. Our team will advise you of this if needed.

We want to achieve the best possible end result for you so it is really important that you do follow our advice and refrain from wearing your contact lenses prior to your consultations and surgery, however trivial it may seem. The biggest reason we ask you to avoid wearing your contact lenses before your surgery is because if your cornea is still adjusting at your surgery appointment we will be unable to operate on you and inconveniently you will be required to reschedule the appointment for a later date.