Which eye drop is best depends on the situation. After LASIK, all patients are routinely given preservative free artificial tears such as Tears Naturale Free or Refresh Plus. Relatively liquid preparations such as these are usually used first as they feel comfortable and ‘refreshing’ when applied.
However, being very liquid and runny, if the dryness is more intense than usual a patient may feel they have to use these drops very often. This is because their effects may feel very temporary and the dry effects (including eye irritation and/or fluctuating vision) return in a very short while.
As such, slightly thicker eyedrops such as Opticlear, Systane Ultra or Optive Fusion may be used for those patients who have drier eyes than usual. The thicker eyedrops may feel a bit sticky but will last longer on the eye so that the drops don’t have to be instilled as often.
Gels such as Vidisic or Genteal gel can be used at night for patients whose dryness is most prominent in the middle of the night or first thing on waking in the morning.
Rarely, if an eye becomes unexpectedly extremely dry with diffuse dry spots over the cornea after LASIK, I have used serum (obtained from the patients’ own blood) and made it into an eyedrop that the patient can instil into the eyes. Serum eyedrops have various growth factors including nerve growth factor, vitamins and other molecules not present in regular artificial tears. In these severe cases, autologous serum eyedrops can often speed up healing of the corneal dry spots/erosions, so improving vision and comfort.
In most cases, artificial tear eyedrops should be used regularly for the first month. Thereafter, they can be used as necessary depending on how dry the eyes feel. If you are not sure about how long and how often the drops need to be used for, do ask your doctor as he/she will be best placed to answer your question after examining your eyes. As artificial tears have no side effects, and some patients also have pre-existing dry eyes, sometimes patients may also use them indefinitely.
