I had lasik done about 4 years ago and for the last two months I notice that the vision on my left eye is getting worst. I went to my eye doctor and he gave me some drops. He said that it could just be dry eyes. I find that odd, why would dry eyes make my vision worst? Also, I do hot yoga, do you think that that can make my eyes dry? Hot yoga is yoga done for an hour and a half in a room temperature of 100+, thanks for any information

Dry eye will absolutely cause poor vision.

The tear film is a final layer of the cornea, responsible for a smoothing effect as well as lubrication. Think of the tear layer as wax on your car. It is smoother, slicker, and glossy.

If the dry eye is untreated, damage to the epithelial cells may occur. The epithelial cells are the outermost cells of the cornea, with the smallest being about 5 microns thick. A LASIK surgeon will remove about 12 microns of corneal tissue for every 1.00 diopter of myopia (nearsighted) correction, so if you were to damage even one layer of the smallest epithelial cells with dry eye, then you could effect more than 0.40 diopter of refractive error. That is more than enough to cause poor vision.

We have a detailed article about dry eye at http://www.complicatedeyes.org/dry_eye_treatment.htm

Glenn Hagele
Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance
http://www.USAeyes.org
http://www.ComplicatedEyes.org

I am not a doctor.

I'm 7 weeks out from Lasik, prior I was a -10 w/ significant astigmatisms. Post Lasik I have been suffering from dry eye's and am using a combination of Flax seed oil, Refresh tears & Gel.

With regards to my vision, I can manage without glasses but it should be better. My Doctor said my vision will get better as my dry eyes improve. He went on to say I had a dry patch on my problem eye and gave me a antibiotic/steroid topical for night time use.

My question is; what can I do to insure I do no damage to the epithelial cells? And can I make the jump and say if the epithelial cells are damaged then I will always have dry eyes?
My Doc went on to say to check back in 3 month. Does this sound like a reasonable course of action, within the norm guidelines? I ask because there's not another doc. around my town to whom I might ask a second opinion.