#silk surgery

Before I got SILK done, I read every horror story I could find online. Half of them were vague, half of them sounded exaggerated, and none of them told me what I actually needed to know. So here's my honest answer, based on going through it myself at Shroff Eye Centre.

Is SILK actually safe?

Yes, for the right candidate. SILK is a flapless, bladeless laser procedure, which means there's no corneal flap involved like there is in LASIK. It works through a tiny incision instead, which makes recovery generally faster and reduces certain long-term risks. It's a well-established procedure done under numbing drops, with no injections and no hospitalization required.

But "safe" doesn't mean risk-free for everyone. Safety depends heavily on whether your eyes are actually suitable for it. That's why the evaluation before surgery matters more than the procedure itself.

What they check before saying yes

At Shroff, my evaluation covered corneal thickness, corneal mapping, tear film quality, pupil response, and a full retinal check. It took about 45 minutes. Certain basic requirements apply to any refractive procedure you need to be an adult with stable vision for at least a year, adequate corneal thickness, and no active corneal or retinal issues. Pregnancy, lactation, and certain autoimmune conditions can also affect eligibility, at least temporarily.

If any hospital confirms you're a candidate without going through this level of detail, that's a red flag, not reassurance.

The real risks and side effects

Dryness is the most common one. Almost everyone experiences some degree of dryness in the first few weeks. Mine lasted about two weeks and needed preservative-free drops multiple times a day. It settles, but it's not instant.

Temporary haze is normal in the first few days. My vision was foggy on day one, noticeably clearer by day three, and fully stable around the one-month mark.

Under-correction or slight residual power is possible, though uncommon with proper evaluation. This is exactly why the pre-surgery assessment matters so much — it's designed to minimise this risk from the start.

Light sensitivity in the first few days is common and temporary.

The scariest moment, which nobody warned me about, was a brief 10-second period during the procedure where vision goes completely blank as the laser works. It passes quickly, but it genuinely startled me because I wasn't expecting it.

What recovery actually looks like

Day 1 — hazy, light-sensitive, no screens. Day 3-4 — noticeably clearer, could use my phone briefly. Week 1 — dryness was the main issue, drops every hour. Week 2 — big improvement, dryness reduced significantly. Month 1 — fully stable, back to normal detail work.

Why the hospital and surgeon matter more than the procedure name

SILK requires specific equipment — a femtosecond laser platform capable of lenticular extraction and a surgeon experienced specifically with this technique, not just LASIK in general. At Shroff eye center, the refractive and cornea team includes multiple surgeons who work across LASIK, SILK, PRK and ICL, which meant the recommendation. I got was based on comparing all my options, not pushing one procedure by default. You can read more about how they assess candidates and the different refractive options on their refractive surgery page, which also explains where SILK fits compared to blade LASIK, blade-free LASIK, PRK, and ICL.

The honest verdict

SILK is safe when it's done on the right candidate, by a surgeon experienced in the procedure, after a thorough evaluation. It's not risk-free no surgery is but the real risks are manageable, temporary, and rare when the assessment process is taken seriously.

What nobody tells you is that the scary stories online are usually missing context. Either the person wasn't a good candidate to begin with, or the aftercare wasn't followed properly, or they're describing normal temporary side effects as if they were permanent complications.