When can I go swimming after a laser eye treatment?
Within twenty four hours after the intervention, you may use your tablet or smartphone, read and watch TV, as long as you regularly use the prescribed hydrating eye drops. You were told that you should keep your eyes moist after the laser eye surgery.
Even flying is possible within twenty four hours, but in the airplane you should also use the eye drops regularly. For long distance flights, our specialists will often recommend to use a special gel. Thus, it is important to always keep the soothing drops at hand and to provide your eyes with extra tear liquid.
But, when my eyes need so much moisture after a laser eye surgery, would a refreshing dive into a swimming pool or in the sea not be a real pleasure for my eyes? Well, unfortunately not.
Where hydrating eye drops have a special composition to keep your eyes moist, to avoid symptoms of dry eyes such as itch and irritation and to protect them against injuries and infections, other liquids could have the opposite effect.
Especially in public or private swimming pools, there are a lot of factors that could damage your eyes.
If you just had laser eye surgery, your eyes are much more sensitive than usual and even tap water could lead, in theory, to infections during the first couple of days. This is one of the reasons why it is recommended during the first twenty four hours after the intervention, to make sure that no water from the shower gets into the eyes or even to take a bath rather than a shower. Therefore, swimming or going to a sauna or whirlpool are definitely not a good idea.
Regarding sports in general, after just a couple of days you can take up all activities that have no influence on your eyes, such as training with weights, cycling on an exercise bike or running on a treadmill. However, you cannot pick up swimming yet.
After one week, you can try out some more sports and you’re allowed to practise racket sports, such as squash, tennis and badminton, preferably with an eye protection. Even football, sailing and mountain biking are allowed.
We recommend not to start swimming before two weeks after a PRK/Lasek or LASIK, especially because of the danger of an infection when the eyes are in contact with warm standing water. In the case of ReLEx smile, the wound at the eye surface is much smaller than with the other techniques, so one can take on swimming without problems after about one week.
For both professional and recreational swimmers, this will be the moment they’ve been waiting for for so long: finally back into their normal habitat and having a clear view on the underwater world.
Do you have any questions about laser eye surgery? You can ask your questions through our contact page. To speak to one of our laser eye surgery specialists over the phone, you can call us at +32 16 58 59 58.
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