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LASIK
LASIK is an outpatient laser procedure that reshapes the cornea. It corrects nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, reducing or eliminating the need for glasses and contacts. The procedure takes about 15 minutes for both eyes, and many patients notice clearer vision within a day or two. A comprehensive eye exam, including corneal mapping and a review of your prescription history, determines whether you are a candidate.
Reaching for glasses before you can read your alarm clock, or fumbling for contacts before a swim, gets old fast. LASIK might be the procedure that changes that for good. It’s the most common vision correction request we hear from patients across the Bay Area. At San Francisco Eye Institute, we start every consultation with a full evaluation. That’s how you know whether LASIK is the right fit before you commit to it.
Book Online Vision Correction QuizWhat is LASIK?
LASIK stands for laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis. In plain terms, a laser reshapes the cornea while it stays in place in your eye. That reshaping corrects refractive errors, the umbrella term for nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, so light focuses correctly on the retina.
Refractive errors show up differently depending on which one you have. Nearsightedness blurs objects that are far away. Farsightedness blurs objects that are close up. Astigmatism blurs vision at any distance because the cornea is shaped more like a football than a basketball. LASIK reshapes the cornea to correct whichever of these is affecting your eyes.
LASIK has been available in the United States since the FDA approved it in 1998. Surgeons perform hundreds of thousands of procedures here every year.
How Does LASIK Work?
LASIK uses two lasers in sequence. The first, a femtosecond laser, creates a thin, hinged flap in the surface of the cornea. Your surgeon folds that flap back, and a second laser, called an excimer laser, reshapes the corneal tissue underneath based on measurements taken from your eyes. The flap is then laid back into position, where it seals naturally without stitches.
Am I a Good Candidate for LASIK?
The baseline requirements are straightforward. Per candidacy criteria from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), candidates should meet the following:
- At least 18 years old, ideally past 21 once vision has stopped shifting
- A prescription that has held steady for about a year
- Corneas thick enough and healthy enough to reshape
- Realistic expectations about what the procedure can deliver
The most important question is who should not have LASIK—and that’s where a thorough, personalized evaluation makes all the difference. The FDA’s contraindication list flags several conditions that make refractive surgery a poor idea:
- Corneas that are too thin
- Keratoconus
- Significant dry eye
- Large pupils under dim light
- Autoimmune conditions or medications that interfere with healing
- A prescription that changed in the past year
- Regular participation in contact sports
- Pregnancy and breastfeeding are also reasons to wait.
An in-person evaluation is essential to confirm whether LASIK is right for you. A LASIK evaluation at our practice includes corneal topography to map the surface shape and thickness measurements across the cornea. It also includes a tear film assessment and a dilated exam. Contact lenses temporarily change corneal shape, so you will switch to glasses beforehand for a period that depends on your lens type.
If you want a sense of where you stand before booking, take our candidacy quiz. It is a screening tool rather than a diagnosis, but it is a reasonable starting point.
Take the Candidacy Quiz
What If I Am Not a Candidate for LASIK?
Not every patient is a match for LASIK, but that does not mean vision correction is off the table.
The EVO ICL™ is the procedure we recommend most often for patients who aren’t LASIK candidates. Rather than removing corneal tissue, it places a thin biocompatible lens inside the eye. The cornea is not permanently altered, and the lens can be removed, which makes it attractive for higher prescriptions and for corneas too thin for laser treatment.
PRK uses the same excimer laser as LASIK to reshape the cornea, without creating a corneal flap. That suits thinner corneas, corneal scarring, or eyes at risk from flap displacement. Recovery is longer and less comfortable in the first few days, but the visual endpoint is comparable.
For patients past roughly 45, refractive lens exchange can correct distance vision while also addressing age-related changes in near vision that LASIK alone cannot.
And if dry eye is an obstacle, treating it first sometimes changes the approach taken for vision correction.
What Happens During the LASIK Procedure?
On the day of your procedure, we’ll apply numbing drops to keep you comfortable. You will recline in a treatment chair. A small device holds your eyelids open, so you do not have to worry about blinking. Both eyes are usually treated in the same visit, and the laser portion itself takes seconds per eye. Afterward, you will wear a protective shield, and you will need someone to drive you home.
Expect blurred, hazy vision for the first several hours and a gritty, watery sensation as the numbing wears off. Most patients sleep through part of that first afternoon. You will wear a protective shield while sleeping for a few nights and use lubricating drops on a schedule.
Vision typically sharpens noticeably within 24 to 48 hours. Fine-tuning continues for several weeks as the cornea settles, so it’s normal for your vision to shift slightly during the first month.
Dryness is the most common complaint during recovery, and it has a specific cause. Creating the flap divides corneal nerves that help regulate tear production, and those nerves need time to regenerate. These symptoms typically resolve within about a month, with a small number of patients reporting symptoms beyond a year. Patients with pre-existing dry eye may require additional treatment and longer-term management following laser vision correction.
That is exactly why tear film is evaluated before surgery rather than after.
What Results Can I Expect From LASIK?
Most patients see well enough to drive, work, and go about their day without glasses or contacts. In one FDA-sponsored study, 98 percent of patients said they were satisfied with their results. Vision keeps sharpening over the following weeks as your eyes settle into the change. For many patients, that means waking up and seeing clearly without reaching for anything first.
What Are the Risks and Side Effects of LASIK?
LASIK is a low-risk procedure, but it is not a no-risk procedure. Honest numbers are more useful than reassurance.
The FDA-sponsored PROWL studies followed patients with validated questionnaires before and after surgery. At three months, 43 to 46 percent reported at least one new visual symptom, most commonly glare, halos, starbursts, or double images. In the same studies, dissatisfaction with the surgery itself ran between 1 and 2 percent. For most patients, these symptoms are mild and improve with time.
Losing meaningful sharpness is rare. The same large outcomes review found a loss of two or more lines of best-corrected vision in 0.61 percent of eyes.
Corneal ectasia, a progressive weakening and bulging of the cornea, is the complication surgeons screen hardest to prevent. With modern topographic and tomographic screening, one large series reported ectasia in 0.033 percent of eyes. That is well below the rates reported in the early years of the procedure. That improvement came almost entirely from better patient selection. In other words, the evaluation itself is the safety measure.
Why Choose San Francisco Eye Institute for LASIK?
A practice that only performs LASIK has one answer to give. At San Francisco Eye Institute, we perform LASIK, PRK, EVO ICL, and refractive lens exchange. We also treat corneal conditions like keratoconus and dry eye, so we understand the full picture when we evaluate your eyes. When we recommend a different procedure, that recommendation costs us nothing to make.
That range matters in practice. We do not send a patient with early corneal irregularity elsewhere for cross-linking. We treat a patient’s dryness as its own problem when it is the real barrier. And we tell a straightforward LASIK candidate so without a detour.
Dr. Margaret Liu, our founder and CEO, is a board-certified ophthalmologist. She completed a fellowship in cornea, external disease, and refractive surgery at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University. She has performed vision correction surgery for more than 15 years, and she has been named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor every year since 2019.
Across more than 1,000 Google reviews, we’ve maintained a 4.9-star average. That reflects the same care we bring to every consultation, from your first evaluation through your results.
LASIK FAQs
How much does LASIK cost in San Francisco?
LASIK is priced per eye, and the total depends on your prescription and the technology used. The fee is quoted at consultation once your measurements are known. Financing and flexible spending account funds can both be applied.
Does insurance cover LASIK?
Generally no. LASIK is elective, so most medical and vision plans do not cover it. Some employer vision plans offer a negotiated discount, and pre-tax FSA or HSA dollars can usually be applied, which lowers the real cost.
How long does the appointment take?
Plan on roughly 90 minutes on surgery day, though the laser treatment itself takes about 15 minutes for both eyes. The rest covers preparation, final measurements, and a short recovery period.
Is LASIK painful?
No. Numbing drops keep you comfortable during the procedure itself. Afterward, you may feel some mild irritation for a few hours.
When can I go back to work and exercise?
Most patients return to desk work the next day, though screens feel tiring at first, so frequent breaks and lubricating drops help. Light exercise usually resumes within a few days. Swimming, hot tubs, and contact sports wait longer, and your surgeon sets those dates based on how your flap is healing.
Is LASIK permanent, and will I still need reading glasses?
The corneal reshaping is permanent, but your eyes keep aging. LASIK does not prevent presbyopia, the stiffening of the lens inside the eye that makes near focus difficult from around age 40. It also does not prevent cataracts. Neither is caused by LASIK, and both remain treatable afterward. Monovision LASIK, which corrects one eye for distance and one for near, can delay reading glasses and is worth trialing in contacts first.
Ready to Schedule Your LASIK Consultation?
Book OnlineThe only way to know whether LASIK is right for your eyes is to have them measured. Your consultation with us includes corneal mapping, thickness measurement, tear film evaluation, and a full eye health exam. It ends with a straight answer about which vision correction procedure fits you.
Schedule your LASIK consultation in San Francisco by calling our office or booking online.
SourcesSandoval HP, Donnenfeld ED, Kohnen T, Lindstrom RL, Potvin R, Tremblay DM, Solomon KD. Modern laser in situ keratomileusis outcomes. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2016;42(8):1224–1234. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27531300/
American Academy of Ophthalmology. LASIK — Laser Eye Surgery. https://www.aao.org/eye-health/treatments/lasik
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. When is LASIK not for me? https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/lasik/when-lasik-not-me
Toda I. Dry Eye After LASIK. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2018;59(14):DES109–DES115. https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2717220
Eydelman M, Hilmantel G, Tarver ME, Hofmeister EM, May J, Hammel K, Hays RD, Ferris F. Symptoms and Satisfaction of Patients in the PROWL Studies. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2017;135(1):13–22. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27893066/
Ambrósio R. Post-LASIK Ectasia: Twenty Years of a Conundrum. Semin Ophthalmol. 2019;34(2):66–68. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08820538.2019.1569075
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The doctors at San Francisco Eye Institute have either authored or reviewed and approved this content.
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