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LASIK Undercorrected Dominant Eye and Overcorrected the Other?

42 years old, had LASIK 6 weeks ago for myopia. Non-dominant eye was slightly overcorrected, about ~+0.25, the dominant eye is slightly undercorrected, ~-0.25. I have noticed when I work on the computer I can read fine, but when I look up at a distant object my dominant eye is extremely blurry, non-dominant eye has fine vision. Blurriness goes away after 5-10 minutes, but eye feels strained. I can still read small print fine. The dominant eye has been really dry since surgery. Cause of this?

Doctor Answers 2

Dryness and difficulty reading

Dryness is common following LASIK surgery.  It commonly lasts for 3 months and then generally returns to a level similar to before LASIK surgery.  Some patients feel it is actually better following LASIK (particularly if they wore contact lenses a lot).  Others feel there eyes are still dry (particularly if they had high prescriptions prior to LASIK).  Dryness can cause eye strain.

The dryness can be caused by a number of factors: the new shape to the cornea, the healing process of the cornea, irregularity in the tear film, etc.  Many of these will improve with time as the eye adjusts to its new shape and heals from the surgery. 

People in their 40's who have LASIK often feel like they can not read as well as they did with  glasses.  This is more common in people with very high prescriptions as well who chose to have LASIK.  Glasses actually help a little with seeing up close because the glasses are further away from the eyes.  The person would have needed reading glasses soon enough anyways but LASIK sometimes hastens the need for reading glasses.

Prolonged use of a computer or reading up close can also lock your vision into seeing up close, making your distance vision less clear.  To avoid this, use reading glasses when you know you will be viewing something up close for long periods of time.  It can also be helpful to take breaks.  Every 20 minutes take a couple minutes to look at objects far away.  Perhaps step away from the computer and do something that you can look farther away for. 


San Francisco Ophthalmologist

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Accommodative Spasm, Not Caused by LASIK

This sounds like accommodative spasm.  It is not caused by LASIK but people who formerly took off their glasses to read and wore them for distance sometimes only discover that they have it after refractive surgery. The most common treatment is reading glasses to relax the eyes during close work.  Your surgeon can test you for this and write you a prescription for reading glasses if you need them.

Michael K. Tracy, MD
San Diego Ophthalmologist
5.0 out of 5 stars 1 review
