Does LASIK Hurt? Is Laser Eye Surgery Painful?

“Does LASIK hurt?” is one of the questions we always get from patients, and for good reason. In the past two decades of innovation in the field, LASIK has evolved to give patients better experiences. Despite this, however, people still fall victim to misinformation about LASIK, how it’s done, and its safety.

If you’ve encountered one of these types of misleading content and are becoming fearful of laser eye surgery, we’ve got good news for you. As a well-established expert in the field, Dr. Manger vouches for the fact that LASIK is not painful and assures that the WOW LASIK procedure offered by Saddleback Eye Center is 100% pain-free!

We understand that concerns about laser eye surgery are normal feelings, but we’re proud and happy to report that it doesn’t hurt at all. Most of our patients have never reported feeling pain or discomfort during or after their procedures.

But to better understand why our LASIK procedure isn’t painful, we’ll demystify the process in this article. We detail Saddleback Eye Center’s approach to laser eye surgery so you can get a clear picture of how and why it doesn’t cause discomfort.

How Does LASIK Work?

When you understand how LASIK is performed and how the tools used to perform it work, you’ll have a better grasp of its effects on the body.

LASIK eye surgery is a highly popular and effective procedure designed to correct common vision problems, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. It involves using a femtosecond laser to make a small flap on the clear part of the eye (cornea).

Next, an excimer laser reshapes the cornea, guided by detailed measurements of the patient’s eye. This laser allows the process of reshaping to be accomplished with pinpoint accuracy, and the corneal flap is repositioned where it naturally adheres without needing stitches. The entire procedure improves how light focuses onto the retina, resulting in clearer vision.

If, at this point, you’re starting to ask if the laser hurts, then don’t worry. Before this entire process begins, your eyes are numbed with the help of anesthetic eye drops. But let’s discuss why LASIK surgery at Saddleback Eye Center is 100% comfortable.

Offering a Painless and Excellent LASIK Experience

When it comes to LASIK surgery, we go above and beyond to provide the most excellent experience patients can receive. It’s not enough for us to call the procedure “painless.” So, at Saddleback Eye Center, you can guarantee you will be 100% comfortable during and after your procedure. Here are specific ways in which we achieve this:

1. Time for the procedure is kept to a minimum.

Generally, LASIK surgery takes under an hour. In fact, we can typically reduce this to 30 minutes, spending no more than 15 minutes on each eye.

LASIK eye surgery is very non-invasive as it only deals with the very outer tissue of the eye. There is no need to go into the eye or blood stream. Due to its non-invasive nature, this patient-friendly procedure affords a quick healing time and patients will notice improved vision almost immediately after surgery.

2. Comprehensive care and innovative technologies.

We are committed to reducing discomfort at every stage of the LASIK process, including pre- and post-procedure care.

At Saddleback Eye Center, a WOW Experience isn’t just a fun name to encapsulate what our services offer you. We take it to heart and offer expert comprehensive services that deliver the best care and encourage the best health outcomes that include:

• One of the most comprehensive assessments. Excellent patient outcomes stem from thorough, accurate assessments. That’s why we conduct a 2-2.5 hour,  14-step comprehensive eye exam to ensure you are in an optimal state to undergo and recover from the procedure.
• Using only the most advanced technologies. Dr. Manger strictly uses state-of-the-art bladeless technology to perform LASIK. This ensures your LASIK experience is 100% pain-free, safe, and accomplishes the best outcomes. Among the tools we use are the nation’s top two lasers for reshaping the cornea—the femtosecond and excimer laser.
• Add-on services for pre- and post-procedure support. Your comfort is always our number one priority at Saddleback Eye Center. So, we go above and beyond to offer additional services to ensure this. From meals to take when your eye exams extend past lunchtime to arranging hotel accommodations and transfers because you traveled to see us, we ensure you have everything you need for support.

3. Direct care from an established expert.

More than technology and comprehensive services, our best asset that makes LASIK pain-free and completely safe is the skill of the doctor who directly handles your procedures.

Dr. Manger is hailed as one of Orange County’s top LASIK surgeons and personally performs each and every LASIK eye surgery at Saddleback Eye Center. Tools are only as effective as the person using them, and at our clinic, you get the most seasoned master handling them.

As he exclusively focuses on LASIK eye surgery and conducts every procedure himself, he has conducted 94,000 LASIK procedures since 1996. This has helped put him in the top one percent of LASIK surgeons nationwide and makes him a leading authority in the world of LASIK.

99.7% of his patients see 20/20 or better after LASIK, while the remaining 0.3% enjoy seeing at 20/30 or better—unmatched success rates in the field.

How Do I Get Started?

Hopefully, by this point, we’ve alleviated your concerns and proven to you that LASIK is not painful. However, if you have additional questions, please feel free to contact us for further explanation.

To ensure you’re fully informed about LASIK, we invite you to watch a recorded video of our Inside LASIK webinar. After watching, you can also fill out the patient form below the video to qualify for an extra $100 discount towards your LASIK procedure.