Can LASIK Improve Your Night Vision?
If you have difficulty seeing at night, you might wonder if LASIK can correct your night vision. While LASIK corrective eye surgery can improve your night vision after your eyes have healed, there is a chance that you might experience temporary worsening of your night vision post-procedure. Let’s take a look at how LASIK can improve your night vision long-term, and how long to expect impacts on your night vision after your corrective eye surgery.
Does LASIK Affect Night Vision?
LASIK corrective eye surgery can affect your night vision in a few different ways. It’s important to understand the distinction between the short-term effects of healing after surgery from the long-term vision correction. In both cases, there will be changes in your night vision as your eyes heal from LASIK.
While your eyes heal immediately following corrective eye surgery, you may experience temporarily weakened night vision. However, there’s no need for alarm — temporarily diminished vision is very common with corrective eye surgery, and it begins to resolve
itself with time.
When it comes to long-term impact, LASIK can alter your night vision for the better. In fact, for most patients, LASIK can offer long-term improvement in your ability to see in the dark and at night. You can expect your night vision to progress as your eyes continue to heal post-surgery.
Night Vision and LASIK: What Night Vision Problems Can LASIK Improve?
Many people find they have the most difficulty seeing at night or in dim light. People who struggle with night vision might experience:
- Halos around lit objects at night, like street lights
- Difficulty seeing in glaring conditions, such as bright headlights on the road
- Ghosting, or seeing a double image, where one image appears stronger than the other
Visual obstacles like these can make driving at night difficult and operating in the dark stressful.
How Does LASIK Remedy Night Vision Problems?
Difficulty seeing well at night can be profoundly frustrating, and can even become a safety concern when it comes to driving. As a result, one of the more common questions from patients concerned about night vision and LASIK is, “does LASIK help with night vision?”
Thankfully, LASIK can help improve night vision problems for many patients. In fact, studies conducted by the FDA showed that the majority of patients who receive LASIK do experience a reduction in night vision problems like haloes, glare, and ghosting. If you find that night vision problems are causing difficulties for you, talk to your eye doctor. Explain what kind of night vision problems you experience so that they can help correct them.
Do keep in mind that after LASIK, you may experience a temporary increase in these night vision problems. However, in most cases, they do dissipate as your cornea heals. Let’s take a closer look at what to expect when it comes to night vision and LASIK, and how you should be prepared until your eyes are fully healed.
Night Vision and LASIK Immediately After Your Surgery
How does LASIK affect night vision following surgery and how long should you expect effects to last? While LASIK corrective eye surgery can be used to improve night vision in the long run, the short-term effects of the surgery can cause temporary worsening of your night vision.
Because a flap is created in the cornea during LASIK surgery, there will be some temporary impacts on your vision, both during the day and at night, before the cornea heals. However, as the cornea continues to heal with time, these impacts will continue to improve, too. You’ll notice that, just as your daytime vision improves, so will your night vision. Keep in mind that your night vision may take a little longer to fully improve.
How Long Is Night Vision Altered After LASIK Surgery?
The majority of patients find that this altered night vision resolves within the first week after the surgery. However, some diminished night vision can last up to several weeks after LASIK while your cornea heals.
Thankfully, these vision problems should improve over time and rarely persist after the cornea is fully healed. You may experience temporary:
- Halos
- Glare
- Starbursts
- Difficulty seeing in low or dim light
Most patients will notice more and more improvement in their night vision over time until they achieve full vision correction. So, if you’re wondering, “Does LASIK affect night vision?” the answer is that it can, but temporarily, and these issues should improve with time and healing
Plan Ahead for Temporarily Altered Night Vision After LASIK
Until your cornea is healed and your doctor has given you the official go-ahead, you may need to refrain from driving. Plan ahead to use public transportation or schedule rides until your doctor says it’s safe for you to drive.
Your doctor will monitor your healing at your follow-up appointments and tell you when it’s safe for you to drive at night. Make sure you tell your doctor about any increases in night vision problems or any new symptoms. Though these should improve over time, your eye doctor will want to monitor your progress.
Does LASIK Help With Night Vision
While your night vision may be temporarily altered in the short-term, does LASIK help with night vision in the long-term? In most cases, yes.
Night vision improvement was far less remarkable through older versions of LASIK that utilized blades. However, the newer bladeless laser corrective eye surgery offers a much more dramatic change. Bladeless LASIK better allows eye doctors to address a variety of different vision problems, including problems with night vision.
With a bladeless, wavefront mapping procedure, your LASIK corrective eye surgery will be customized to you and your vision needs. This highly precise technology allows your eye doctor to use a special sensor to accurately measure and locate any eye imperfections or anomalies. Because of this, your procedure can be personalized to your unique eyes.
Studies conducted by the FDA found that visual symptoms at night were significantly reduced for the majority of LASIK patients across the board. The number of patients reporting bothersome symptoms before the surgery was significantly higher before having LASIK than after the surgery. This indicates that LASIK does indeed improve night vision in the majority of patients.
If you are in need of improved night vision, talk to your eye doctor to find out if LASIK corrective eye surgery is the right choice for you.
How Dello Russo Laser Vision Can Help Correct Your Night Vision
The World Class LASIK Surgeons at Dello Russo Laser Vision have more than 30 years of LASIK corrective eye surgery experience. In fact, Dello Russo Laser Vision’s founding doctor, Dr. Joseph Dello Russo, was instrumental in introducing laser corrective eye surgery in the 1990s. The doctors at Dello Russo Laser Vision remain at the cutting edge of ophthalmological techniques and technology, ensuring you receive exceptional, modernized care for you and your eyes.
At Dello Russo Laser Vision, your eye surgery will be meticulously planned and executed just for you. This offers excellent vision results and a lower risk of adverse effects. Unless your poor night vision is a result of cataracts, a vitamin A deficiency, or another disqualifying reason, LASIK can help improve your night vision by correcting your vision overall. Your vision is as important to us as it is to you, and we work hard to help improve your eyesight in the least invasive ways possible.
Our doctors are experts in the field, and they’re dedicated to ensuring you are a good candidate for LASIK before scheduling your corrective eye surgery. During your free consultation, your doctor can assess whether LASIK surgery is a good match for your vision needs or a solution to the problems you’ve addressed. If LASIK is not a good fit for you, your doctor can also offer alternatives.
If you’re wondering, “Does LASIK help with night vision and can it help me?” we invite you to contact us to make your appointment at Dello Russo Laser Vision today. We look forward to helping you improve your night vision as soon as possible.
