r/ICLsurgery

So i had high myopia like left eye -11 and right eye -13.5 something with astigmatism 0.75 for the right eye none for the left eye and im 25 years old right now
Before the surgery i used to see some white colour flashes like lighting flash when i move my eyes rapidly
I talked to doctor before the procedure he said all good you can go for the surgery so i did and it’s been almost 2 years since i had the surgery
Im still seeing those flashes when i move my eyes so rapidly
My doc doesn’t wanted to correct 0.75 astigmatism to my right eye
He said it will be fine not correcting it
So i said all right for that
Now recently im having a issue with my eyes it’s like if im moving from dark room to bright area like sun exposure place im seeing pink colour flash here and there for a long period of time and also if it’s evening im seeing blue colour and purple colours in vision like im seeing something in a direction all of the sudden im seeing left side a blue colour thing when I concentrate on it I wont see it again and sometimes i see that blue thing when i close my eyes also like an blue colour dot or glare like that so i was worried about it went to check my retina and eye pressure and lens placement and oct my doc said everything is good but idk what it’s happening to me a lot anyone know any reason if you do please tell me.

I will do ICL soon , wondering how much time did it take your sight to adjust so you can drive like 3 hour trip at night normally ?

Ive been to a few ICL providers andthey ALL gave red flags. .

Im thinking of flying out of state to get my procedure... I do not want issues due to incorrect sizing of the ICL lens.

I feel Im being too cautious but it is a surgical procedure and I do not want sizing issues later on with the halos/glare/eye pressure.

Has anyone gone out of state for ICL?

I’m 36 and considering ICL. I brought it up at my last eye exam and the doctor said I only have about 4-5 years left before I’ll start losing close-up vision if I get it done. (She didn’t say it in a discouraging way, just setting expectations, and did help me set up a consultation.)

I’m extremely nearsighted, and I feel like going from needing thick glasses for everything including near vision as I do now, to needing thin glasses only for near work, is still a clear win, but I’m curious how others in the same situation felt. If you’ve started losing your close-up vision, how was the adjustment to needing reading glasses? How satisfied are you with your surgery?

The doctor also mentioned monovision as an option, which I will consider—if you opted for that, how happy are you with it?

For the last 1 year I've been considering refraction surgery and was suggested ICL properly by my optham November last year because even though my cornea fit the LASIK range, -8 was too high a number he'd safely recommend it for. Sounded amazing and he said based my last tests it seems doable.

A lot was happening- with my intermittent anxiety and what not- because of which I didn't want to commit to this expense and this big change honestly until I was mentally in a better place.

Come this year and I've got a reduced soft contact intolerance, glasses not giving great acuity and starbursts and what not. I finally went to the clinic to get it all checked and he said they can check the ICL eligibility in 15-20 mins and I can decide in the coming months whether I want to do it or not.

Turns out I have slight dry eye (long work screen use) but I am eligible for ICL if I want to get them! I was so worried that despite fantasising about it I might not even be eligible but this give me a tiny bit hope.

Just wanted to share it with you all after months of being in the grey area 🥹

oddly they didn't give me the test copies (maybe I have to pay for them?) and I don't really know the numbers. I will go to two other places for the same as well

My best friend almost got ICL, then something happened at the clinic that completely changed his mind…..

My best friend (male 31) had been wearing glasses for years and recently decided that he wanted to get rid of them permanently. We started looking into LASIK, and eventually went to a very well-known eye clinic in Delhi, one of those clinics that has a huge online presence, tons of YouTube videos, and doctors who regularly appear on major Indian podcasts.
Initially, everything seemed very professional.

The doctor examined him and told him that he wasn’t a suitable candidate for LASIK mainly because of his corneal thickness. Instead they recommended ICL

After watching all the videos and podcasts about ICL and hearing how life-changing it can be, my friend became convinced that ICL was the right option for him. The cost was around 2 lakh rupees.

They told him to come back the next day for detailed measurements.
There was one other thing that happened during the first visit. During the retinal examination, the retina specialist found a small retinal hole in his left eye and it’s not a serious thing. They told him that it wasn’t a major procedure and that it could be treated with a laser procedure (barrage laser) before proceeding with the ICL. The cost was only around 5–6k.

So the plan was basically:
Come back the next day.
Complete the ICL measurements.
Get the retinal laser done.
Pay 50% of the ICL cost.
Schedule the ICL surgery.

The next day, we went back together.
He completed all the measurements and everything seemed to be going smoothly. We were then sent to the accounts department, where they told him to pay 50% of the ICL amount and then go to the retina department for the laser procedure.

But my friend said, “Let me get the retinal procedure done first. I’ll make the payment afterward.”
The accounts person agreed.

So we went to the retina department.
And this is where things got VERY interesting.
There was a patient (young guy in late 20s) sitting outside the retina doctor’s room. He was wearing dark glasses. We initially thought he too had ICL.
The door was open, and we could hear the conversation between him and the doctor from outside.

The patient was telling the doctor that he had undergone ICL in 2017.
He then explained that he had subsequently developed a cataract and eventually underwent cataract surgery in the same clinic last year.

Even after the cataract surgery, he was still having some visual problems. He also mentioned that he had been playing sports such as volleyball/basketball and had subsequently suffered an eye injury from a basketball, which had caused further problems.
I obviously don’t know his complete medical history, what type of ICL he had, why he developed cataract, or whether the sports injury had anything to do with his previous ICL. So I’m not claiming that ICL caused all of his problems.

But seeing someone who had undergone the procedure years earlier, then developed cataract requiring another surgery, and was still dealing with eye issues genuinely scared my friend.
He looked at me and basically said:
“Maybe this guy was sent here to save me.”
He immediately decided that he didn’t want to proceed.
He collected his reports and left the clinic with me.
He was still under the effects of the dilating drops at that point, but he didn’t care. He had completely changed his mind about elective eye surgery.

What do you guys think?
I’m not saying ICL is bad or that everyone who gets ICL will develop cataracts. I know many people have excellent outcomes with ICL.
But this experience made my friend realize that this isn’t simply:

“Get ICL → throw away your glasses → problem solved forever.”
It’s an intraocular procedure, and there are potential complications that need to be considered over a person’s entire lifetime including cataract, increased eye pressure, inflammation, lens-related complications, retinal issues, and the possibility of needing another procedure later.

My friend is now thinking:
“I don’t hate my glasses enough to take an intraocular surgical risk just for convenience.”
He’s perfectly happy to continue wearing glasses or contact lenses.
So I’m curious about people here who have had ICL 5, 10, 15+ years ago:
How has your vision been?
Have you developed cataracts?
Have you needed the ICL repositioned, removed, or replaced?
Any problems with eye pressure?
Would you still choose ICL today?
And if you had the choice between ICL and simply continuing with glasses, what would you choose?
Especially interested in long-term experiences rather than people who had ICL only 6–12 months ago.

I’m 24 with around −11 myopia and considering EVO ICL. I developed dry eye from MGD/ocular rosacea in August 2025. After IPL, gland expression, four weeks of Vevye/cyclosporine and doxycycline 50 mg, my TBUT has improved from 5 to around 15 seconds. I now use drops about 3–4 times daily and mainly notice symptoms after several hours on a laptop or in strong wind, though occasionally I can feel it during the day as well it’s now a 4/10 before it was easily 8/10.
Has anyone with similar pre-existing dry eye had EVO ICL? Did your dryness temporarily flare or become permanently worse, and how long did it take to return to baseline? Would you do it again?

Toric EVO ICL - one eye blurrier 3 days post-op

I had Toric EVO ICL 3 days ago. My left eye is basically 20/20, but my right is still slightly blurry at distance, although it has improved a lot.

One thing I'm overthinking: my first optometrist overcorrected my left-eye prescription (I had to point out the significant difference compared to my glasses prescription) so a second optometrist retested it and changed it. She didn't retest my right eye.

I asked about this after surgery and was told my right-eye prescription matched across the machine measurement, my old glasses and the original eye test, so there was no reason to retest it.

Could the right eye still have been slightly over/undercorrected, or is uneven vision between eyes completely normal only 3 days after Toric ICL?

It’s the fact my left eye is already perfect which is making me think my right eye is already “perfect” and this is the vision I’ll be left with from now on 😂

I feel a sandy gritty feeling in my right eye 1 week after surgery.
My doctor said it usually lasts 24-48 hours so I'm not sure why it still persists even 1 week after the surgery.

Should I be worried this will be a permanent thing that will require a touch up surgery to fix or should I assume this will still recover but just take longer?

Surgery got me 20/15 vision with some occasional halos so everything else is fine.

Went for a consult with a very well respected and reviewed surgeon who does thousands of ICL. He says he never does the endothelial cell count and it’s not important. He and all his colleagues agree. He found that only his Asian patients asked about this.

From Reddit, people seem to think this is really important. Anyone have any insight about the discrepancy?

Hey everyone,

I’m about 2.25 months out from my IPCL surgery and wanted to see if anyone has experienced something similar or has any insights.

Lately for the past 2 weeks, I’ve been dealing with a persistent foreign body sensation/grittyness in my right eye. I recently (on the very first day when the symptoms emerged but I ignored them and did not reveal it to the Doctor as it was only a routine checkup and I thought to ignore them) went for a check-up and got my stats:

Vault: 750 microns

IOP: 20 mmHg (which is actually my exact pre-op baseline pressure, so it hasn't changed).

Current medication: Lubracating eye drops having stabilized Oxychloro Complex 0.005% as preservative

While the internal measurements look stable and safe, I’ve noticed a few surface issues cropping up:

1.Some localized redness at the left side of the right the eye.

2. Two extremely tiny bumps under my lower eyelid.

Because of the 750µ vault, I was initially worried about the lens interacting with things, but since my pressure is fine and the lens sits behind the iris, it feels more like a surface issue. Could those tiny bumps (maybe blocked oil glands?) be causing this constant sandy, gritty feeling and broken blood vessels at the left side of the right eye? (I have no itching or other symptoms.)

Has anyone dealt with such issues a couple of months after phakic ICL surgery? What helped you clear it up?

Tomorrow will be two weeks since I had my ICL surgery 👁️👁️, and every so often I feel like I've got phantom glasses on. It's the weirdest thing, because after so many years of wearing glasses, I'm seeing so clearly without wearing glasses or contact lenses. A few times when I've gone to the bathroom to put my drops in, a few times I found myself reflexively reaching for my face to take my glasses off due to muscle memory, and then I caught myself and realized I'm not wearing glasses! 🤓😃

Has this happened to any of you? 😅

Anyone recommend any doctors in South FL?

Hello everyone.

I had ICL TORIC lenses implanted at the end of February this year and it has been one of the toughest periods of my life.

Almost a month after the surgery (which went fantastic), I was in a situation where I had to walk for around 10 minutes to home at night. The halos of the lights were extremely aggressive and I walked looking down with my hand over my eyes, and still, those light effects triggered some nerves in me that went from my right eye, through neck and to my chest. The feeling was similar to the one when you hit a nerve on your elbow.

Since then, I have been very fearful. I can feel that my eyes are less sensitive now, but the cause of the unfortunate event described above is still the same. The number of halos is overwhelming, I even see them on a reflection off of a sink. In addition to halos, I also see straight light beams from light sources that aren't even in my eyesight.

I am afraid of working out (I feel like doing anything that causes higher pressure in my head could lead to a problem), the uncomfortableness of being outdoors at night is keeping me from socialising. I will keep the detailed mental part to myself, but long story short, it's not good.

I also have in mind that it's summer right now. In a few months, nights will last more than 16 hours a day. I plan to move to a bigger city for educational and potentially business purposes, and I am honestly flabbergasted that something that was supposed to make my life easier (and that was SO expensive) is playing a negative factor in this and every other decision which I will have to make in future.

I am not sure what kind of reply I'm expecting to get here, but the fact that I'm contemplating going back to -13 myopia and -3 astigmatism on both eyes is f***ing insane. I see some people online talking about how it was hard for them to drive and it took them a year or two to get used to it, but I legitimately can't even drive. Everyone is talking about the halos not leaving but your brain just adapting, and I'm not sure I'm down for that.

If you guys can share some experiences similar to this one, or have any specific information, or if you are just able to gaslight me into believing it will all be good, please feel free to do so.

I wish you all good health and happy summer holidays. 🫡

Hello guys, this is my first post in this subreddit, and I hope you can help me.

I have been training MMA for about two years now. Last Christmas, I had eye surgery to correct my severe nearsightedness (-8.00 diopters). Since laser surgery was not an option for me due to my astigmatism, I had an EVO ICL (Implantable Collamer Lens) implanted instead.

I haven't done any striking or sparring for the past nine months. I have only been doing grappling to avoid any potential injuries to my eyes.

My doctor told me that doing MMA with an EVO ICL is not a good idea, as a direct, hard impact to the eye could potentially injure the eye or cause the lens to rotate or become displaced. In that case, the lens might need to be repositioned or even removed.I'm curious if he is too defensive in the topic because he said even jumping or movements like playing Tennis are not good for the eye.

Since I don't want to compete and only do MMA for fun (technique training and light/technical sparring), I'm wondering if anyone here has experience training MMA or other combat sports with an EVO ICL.

Has anyone had an EVO ICL and continued doing striking or sparring? How did it go, and did you take any specific precautions?

Hi All, I want to start by thanking each of you for your contributions to this subreddit. Your questions, comments, and advice is what makes this platform so special.

I am planning to get EVO-ICL surgery in a couple weeks, and my spouse has a conflict for the surgery time that she cannot get out of. For myriad reasons I do not want to delay the surgery date/time. This means that I would need to take a taxi to the procedure alone and then have my spouse pick me up ~4 hours later (after I do the post-surgery pressure test).

My question to y'all is if anybody has any anecdotes of why my spouse (or a very trusted friend) should really be present before, during, and immediately after the surgery. Are there any last-minute decisions or changes that need to be discussed between the surgeon and a trusted individual (especially when I am looped-out on the pre-surgical Xanax), or is the entire preparation & procedure "boring" (in the best sense of the word)? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. thank you in advance!

power:

Right eye- spherical -5.5 with 1.02 astigmatis, on left it was -5.25 with 0.46 astigmatism

I had my icl implanted in right eye on monday(3 aug 2026) and in left eye the following day.

vision in right eye was blurry for 1 day, but could see everything clearly next day, and from wednesday it has been crystal clear

Left eye got lens implanted on Tuesday (4 august 2026) not so blurry vision on day of icl, 80% vision returned same day, but now it is all stagnant, can’t read text(close or far off), like the edges aren’t clear, some very thin text isn’t clear even for both eye until i close my left eye(cover it) and rely just on right one. It has been same and no improvement at all.

Doctor is like 8 hours drive away he checked on my the next day, didn’t check vision one by one but both eye and said i am 6/6 and vision will improve, also did 2 tests before discharging me off. Its 550 km drive can’t just go for every issue will wait till next tuesday and call him.

only concern is their is stagnancy no inprovement(right eye doesn’t have any improvement) left eye is also same.

Am i judging too early i have started working from 2 days, 5-6 hours of screentime and vision is hazy

So my background, prescription of -18, astigmatism of -4.75.

Had my first London Vision Clinic consultation and they said from initial scans I look suitable for ICL.

I wear (and have worn for most of my life) contact lenses and glasses. I am usually good at weighing up pros and cons but I still can't quite figure out whether it's 'worth' the risk for me. My family all have similar but worse prescriptions, this includes older siblings and a parent, with none of them having any other eye health issues. For reference, I'm 30.

I struggle to understand (because there's so few cases of my prescription I can find online) if there's additional risk to the procedure due to my prescription, and if I should take the success stories I see with a pinch of salt since mine isn't the same. I don't want to be in a situation where the odds are quite likely that I will still need glasses in the future, where currently I am getting by fine.

I'd love to hear some insight from anyone to try and help me get closer to a decision I can be comfortable with, it's hard to trust the positivity of the clinic towards the surgery given I know they of course want your business.

Hello, all! I've been having trouble getting an appointment to see someone about this for many reasons, such as the surgeon who put in my lens no longer works there and they apparently don't have anyone else, so since I haven't been able to see a professional to ask, I was hoping maybe someone on Reddit had this surgery and could answer.

So, I only got the surgery on my left eye. I was supposed to get the right one done too, but the lens had to be specially made and isn't expected to arrive until sometime in September (which I didn't know when I got the first one). Anyway, it's been almost three weeks since I got the first surgery, and I'm a bit concerned. If I tilt my head up and look down, everything is clear. But if I tilt my head forward and look straight, things get blurry and light stretches. Is that normal? Did you experience that? I'm really hoping that's just something that will fix itself in time and not a sign that they messed up the lens placement. Which, considering the trouble I've been having getting a doctor to see me, having no idea when the second surgery will be done, or who is doing it, or getting any communication from the clinic, I'm very concerned they messed it up.

Aside from that, I've also found that anything closer than about ten inches from my face is also very blurry. Like I have to hold things at a distance to be able to read them. Is that also normal? Did anyone else have these experiences or am I right to be concerned?

If it matters, the eye that got the implant was -13.75 sphere, -4.5 cylinder, 155 Axis.