How long will I need lubricant drops after surgery?
Many people use them regularly for the first weeks and then occasionally for months, and a minority use them long term. The pattern depends on your ocular surface before surgery as much as on the surgery itself.
- Subject
- Surgery journey
- Topic
- Recovery & aftercare
- Kind of question
- How long…
- Last reviewed
- 22 September 2026
What this answer depends on
- Whether you had dry-eye signs before treatment
- Which procedure you had
- The humidity and air conditioning where you work
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Where this answer sits
It is one of 483 answers in the vision and eye health knowledge base, filed under The surgery journey in Recovery & aftercare . The subject page carries the answers either side of it, and the hub is searchable.
Subjects this question touches
The pages that answer the subject behind the question, rather than the question itself.
- Condition Dry eye
This information is for educational purposes and does not replace an examination by a qualified eye-care professional.
General answers cannot tell you what is happening in your own eyes. Only an examination by a qualified ophthalmologist can do that.
Sources & further reading
We prefer primary sources. Where a claim comes from a manufacturer, a single study or a regulator, it is labelled as such below.
- Dry Eye after Small Incision Lenticule Extraction (SMILE) versus Femtosecond Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis: A Meta-Analysis
A meta-analysis pooling several studies on dry eye after SMILE compared with femtosecond LASIK. It also documents where the included studies disagreed.
Used for The dry-eye discussion on the comparison and risks pages; Explaining that the evidence base is mixed rather than unanimous.
Link checked 22 September 2026
- Post-LASIK dry eye disease: A comprehensive review of the current literature
A review of dry eye after LASIK, including the mechanisms involved and how other procedures compare in the published literature.
Used for Balanced comparison of dry-eye risk between procedures.
Link checked 22 September 2026