Better Eye Comfort for Dry Eye
Dry eye can be a chronic problem, making everyday tasks challenging. Artificial tears or hydrating eye drops can offer short-term relief, but severe cases require clinical treatment.
We offer various dry eye solutions at Golden Vision Optometry, including IPL for our Dry Eye Spa experience. We also provide education about lifestyles and behaviors that can impact your eye health and tear production.
Book a dry eye consultation today to find better relief for dry eye.
What Is Dry Eye?
Eye dryness can temporarily occur because of environmental conditions or health problems. For example, dry eye can occur when wind blows in your eye or you experience poor sleep. However, dry eye is commonly a chronic problem requiring more than a few eye drops to resolve. Diagnosing the cause of dry eye is crucial to recommending treatment.
Dry eye occurs when your eyes lack quality tears or have drainage problems. Tears are essential for protecting and nourishing the cornea (front of the eye). The tear film has 3 layers:
- Inner mucus layer: keeps the tears fastened to the eye
- Watery middle layer: the thickest layer keeps the eye hydrated & cleans the eye
- Oily outer layer: prevents evaporation & keeps the eye surface smooth
People with dry eye can experience multiple symptoms, including the feeling of grittiness or something stuck in the eye. Dry eye can also cause excess watering if the eye tries to compensate for poor quality tears by increasing the quantity. Prolonged or advanced dry eye risks cornea damage and vision impairment.
Other common symptoms include:
- Blurry vision
- Burning or stinging
- Light sensitivity
- Redness
- Stringy mucus
The Symptoms & Signs
Symptoms are what you feel. Signs are what the doctor sees during examination.
People with dry eye can experience multiple symptoms, including the feeling of grittiness or something stuck in the eye. Dry eye can also cause excess watering if the eye tries to compensate for poor quality tears by increasing the quantity. Prolonged or advanced dry eye risks cornea damage and vision impairment.
Other common symptoms include:
- Blurry vision
- Burning or stinging
- Light sensitivity
- Fluctuating vision
- Redness
- Stringy mucus
Symptoms and signs do not always match. Oftentimes you are not very symptomatic at the beginning when a doctor starts noticing the signs. This stage is when the condition is most easily resolved. By the time you are uncomfortable and symptomatic, the condition is often more chronic and complicated to treat. At severe stages, the corneal sensitivity and oil glands may be so damaged that you do not feel pain but the eyes are constantly red, swollen, and dry, which can leave you at risk for eye infections.
What Causes Dry Eye?
Dry eye is chronic and multifactorial, meaning many different causes slowly add up to aggravate issues. However, some notable risk factors that lead to dry eye include:
- Age: As we age, our eyes produce fewer tears. People over 65 are more likely to experience dry eye symptoms.
- Environmental conditions: Exposure to smoke, wind, or dry climates, for example, leads to tear evaporation. Additionally, prolonged computer use can affect your blink rate, contributing to digital eye strain.
- Hormonal changes: Changes to hormones, such as during menopause or pregnancy, can affect tear production.
- Medical conditions: Health conditions can affect tear production and lead to ocular symptoms like dry eye. Many autoimmune disorders can also affect tear production. Additionally, eye health problems like blepharitis and meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) are common causes of dry eye.
- Medications: Some medications can reduce tear production, including antihistamines, decongestants, blood pressure medications, and antidepressants.
- Refractive eye surgeries: Dry eye can be a complication of eye surgeries, including LASIK.
At Golden Vision Optometry, we can assess your eye health and discuss your lifestyle to determine the potential causes of your dry eye. After developing a strategy, we can recommend dry eye solutions appropriate for your eye care.
We believe in individually tailored, comprehensive treatment for successful dry eye relief. Managing dry eye can include a combination of clinical treatments and ocular hygiene habits, from LipiFlow to screen breaks, and prescription medications to over-the-counter artificial tears. We offer our patients a Dry Eye Spa experience so you can get back to feeling comfortable with your eyes.
The Dry Eye Cycle
Dry eye is chronic and multifactorial, meaning there are many different causes that slowly add up to cause issues. Much like plaque and cavities with our teeth, if we do not do routine home cleaning and lifestyle adjustments, the condition will build up. Our goal at Golden Vision is to educate and empower you to have a stronger baseline ocular health to comfortably do any activity of daily living.
See Comfortably with Dry Eye Solutions
Ignoring dry eye can mean suffering with uncomfortable symptoms. You don’t need to live with dry eyes! Treating dry eye can help prevent permanent damage to tear glands and the cornea. At Golden Vision Optometry, our goal is to educate and empower you to see comfortably.
Book a dry eye consultation with Golden Vision Optometry so we can get started on your individualized dry eye solution. Text us today!
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