What happens if you blink during Laser Eye Surgery?

You do it anything from 5 to 15 times a minute, every minute, every waking hour of the day. That’s 30,000 times, 99.9 percent of which happen without you being aware of it.

It’s amazing really: we get on with our day while our bodies do all the blinking for us. Sliding those wafer thin folds of skin up and down whenever we need a little moisture or antibacterial protection from irritants or require a barrier against oncoming objects or some other assistance in seeing better in the given conditions and environment.

And did I mention it all happens without our knowledge? Well, that is until it comes to sitting in that chair, when there’s a mountain of technology and an expert surgeon focusing solely on you and your eyeballs. All of a sudden, for the first time in your life, the only thing you want to do is blink.

But you don’t. And not because you’ve diverted every ounce of willpower to preventing those little lids from closing; not even because there’s a gentle metal instrument holding them open (although there is). The reason you keep those eyelids open and stay staring straight ahead like some steely-eyed serial killer, is that there’s actually no real urge to do otherwise and blink.

You see, during Laser Eye Surgery, you feel like their eyelids are doing their job as usual. This is because the surgeon takes over the roll of blinking, applying anaesthetic drops regularly to numb the cornea.

The drops also serve another purpose: to help you relax and block any discomfort or sensation of pain, however slight they may be. This is why patients who’ve had Laser Eye Surgery report feeling nothing other than a slight bit of pressure when the suction cup is applied.

All this goes to say, not only will you be unable to blink during Laser Eye Surgery and your eyelids incapable of accidentally interfering with the procedure, after the first few seconds pass, the thought won’t even cross your mind. But that doesn’t mean your eyes won’t move during surgery — that they certainly will.

Professor Dan Reinstein explains how looking away, blinking, coughing or sneezing during the procedure doesn’t affect the results of Laser Eye Surgery.

It’s inevitable your eyes will move during the procedure. For this reason most lasers used in clinics today are equipped with eye-tracking technology. These sophisticated systems ensure that, when your eye moves during the procedure, the laser pulses are placed only where they should be.

Eye tracking works by photographing the eye as many as 1000 times a second and simultaneously analysing the images to determine its position. If it is not in exactly the right place for the treatment, the laser waits or adjusts to compensate for the movement.

Just as eye drops and a lid spectrum mean blinking cannot disrupt Laser Eye Surgery, eye-tracking technology prevents coughing, sneezing, or jumping from affecting the results of the procedure.

Try as you might, it’s pretty much impossible to do anything that will disrupt Laser Eye Surgery. And anyway, the whole thing will be over before you even get the chance to try.

Read more to discover why Laser Eye Surgery is one of the safest procedures on the planet or contact us today to book your consultation.