How long after a LASIK surgery can I use contact lenses?

Any laser refractive surgery, whether LASIK, PRK, or SMILE changes the corneal shape. Sometimes more, and sometimes less, depending on the amount of spectacle power that is to be corrected. There are a number of different types of contact lenses, but basically, you can differentiate them into soft versus hard/rigid, and corneal versus miniscleral/scleral. Any of these lenses can be safe to wear after laser refractive surgery, provided that they are properly fitted by a qualified optometrist/ophthalmologist.

In general, soft contact lenses are a lot more comfortable than rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses. They are also much easier to fit, and can give very good vision. Both soft and RGP lenses may be suitable for many people. But each has their potential pros and cons. For example, soft contact lenses maybe a little more drying to the eye than RGPs, and for people with very high spectacle powers, sometimes soft contact lenses may not allow such a long period of wear each day because of issues with oxygen transmission with thick lenses.