Dry Eye Treatment

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Dry Eye can have a major impact on your quality of life. You may find your eyes get tired faster or you have difficulty reading. Not to mention the discomfort of a burning sensation or blurry vision. Let’s take a look at dry eye treatments – from simple self-care to innovative prescriptions and therapies – to help you see clearly and comfortably.

What is Dry Eye?

Understanding dry eye will help you determine the best treatment option. Dry eye occurs when a person doesn't have enough quality tears to lubricate and nourish the eye. Tears reduce eye infections, wash away foreign matter, and keep the eye’s surface smooth and clear. People with dry eyes either do not produce enough tears or their tears are poor quality. It’s a common and often chronic problem, especially in older adults.

Preventive Self-Care

Before we delve into more serious dry eye treatment options, here are a few simple self-care options that can manage minor cases of dry eye.

• Blink regularly when reading or staring at a computer screen for a long time.

• Make sure there’s adequate humidity in the air at work and at home.

• Wear sunglasses outside to reduce sun and wind exposure. Wraparound glasses are best.

• Wear sleep goggles or mask at night to minimize air flow around eyes. 

• Take supplements with essential fatty acids as these may decrease dry eye symptoms.

• Drink 8 to 10 glasses of water each day to avoid dehydration.

• Find out if any of your prescriptions have dry eye as a side effect and if so, see if you can take an alternative.

• Use a hot compress and exercise proper lid hygiene by cleaning lashes daily.

Artificial Tears

For mild cases of dry eyes, the best option is over-the-counter eye drops. Here are a few tips for selecting the right one:

• Low viscosity – These artificial tears are watery. They often provide quick relief with little or no blurring of your vision, but their effect can be brief, and sometimes you must use these drops frequently to get adequate relief.

  • Systane 

• High viscosity – These are more gel-like and provide longer-lasting lubrication. However, these drops can cause significant blurring of your vision for several minutes. For this reason, high-viscosity artificial tears are recommended at bedtime.

  • Systane Complete (PF Artificial Tears)

  • Refresh and Refresh Celluvisn (PF Artificial Tears)

Prescription Dry Eye Treatments

There are several prescriptions that treat dry eye differently. Your eye doctor can advise the best option for your situation.

• Prescription Drops – Restasis/Cequa/Xidra- take 1 drop twice a day OR 1 drop 3-4 times a day. 

• Supplements– Found to promote dry eye comfort with a proprietary blend of GLA and Omega 3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA).

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• Serum Tears – Eye drops made out of a patients’ own blood. Serum is the somewhat clear fluid that remains after the cells and most of the proteins are removed from the blood. These drops have healing and nurturing properties beyond that of commercially available artificial tears. 

• Refresh PM Nighttime Ointment – Refresh PM- apply at night bed as it will blur vision.

• Stem Cell Treatment: An amniotic membrane is essentially a temporary corneal graft. The amniotic tissue, secured in a soft and flexible ring, is placed over the surface of the eye.

Dry Eye Procedures

• TearCare: Personalized open-eye procedure designed to target the underlying cause of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction. The SmartLids fit comfortably on the unique shape of your eyelids and apply intelligent, therapeutic heat to liquefy the stagnant oils in the Meibomian glands. This helps restore function back to your glands.
  
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You don’t have to suffer from the symptoms of dry eye. Talk to your optometrist about dry eye treatment options designed to address the underlying cause of your condition.