Am I awake during LASIK?

Am I awake during LASIK? The short answer is, yes.  Many patients express concern about being awake during the procedure. Prior to surgery, each patient is given relaxant medication to help them prepare for surgery.  Patients are not asleep due to the one job they have to do during surgery, which is to look at a blinking red light during the laser treatment.  Even that task has been minimized with amazing tracking technology that locks on to the patient’s eye with four cameras and tracks their eye movement.  It is similar to a fighter jet’s targeting system.  The tracking technology makes sure the treatment is placed exactly in the correct position on the cornea.  Should a patient look too far off-axis beyond the tracking system’s range, the laser will stop within 1/50 of a second and then reacquire the patient on the tracking system and continue treatment where it left off. Patients frequently comment after the treatment about how the experience was much easier than they had anticipated and how interesting all of the lights and colors are that one experiences during the treatment.  We do everything possible to let each patient know exactly what is happening so there are no surprises.  If you would like additional information or would like to schedule a free consultation with one of our doctors in Sacramento or Roseville, please contact our LASIK department at 916-485-2020 or click here to email us.