Is LASIK permanent?
The change LASIK makes to the cornea is permanent, but the eye continues to change with age, so vision later in life can differ from the vision you have in the months after surgery.
- Subject
- Vision correction
- Topic
- LASIK
- Kind of question
- Is it safe…
- Procedures
- LASIK
- Last reviewed
- 22 September 2026
In more detail
The tissue removed during treatment does not regrow, so the reshaping itself does not reverse. What changes is everything around it: the natural lens inside the eye stiffens with age, and a small drift in prescription over years is a normal finding.
This is why people who had laser surgery in their thirties may still need reading glasses in their forties and fifties, and why some prescriptions can shift enough to be worth correcting again.
Related guides
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Where this answer sits
It is one of 483 answers in the vision and eye health knowledge base, filed under Vision correction & laser eye surgery in LASIK . 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.
- Procedure LASIK
- Procedure Femto LASIK
- Comparison LASIK vs SMILE
- Comparison LASIK vs PRK
- Place LASIK in Dubai
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.
- Laser In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK)
The equivalent clinical reference chapter for LASIK, used so that comparisons describe both procedures symmetrically.
Used for How LASIK creates and manages a corneal flap; LASIK complication categories.
Link checked 22 September 2026