Find Comfort for Dry Eye Disease
Do you feel the urge to rub your eyes frequently because of an itch? This aside, do you also experience such symptoms?
- teary or watery eyes
- burning sensation
- blurry or decreased vision
- redness
- eye sensitivity to smoke, wind, or light
- feeling certain irritation in the eye, like sand
- eye fatigue after a short time reading
- stringy discharge in the eye
Causes of Dry Eye
Our eyes produce tears which is a composition of oil, water, and mucus, to prevent dry eye. Oil smoothens the tears’ surface, the middle layer of water and salt cleanse the eyes and wash away particles and irritants while mucus allows tears to spread evenly over eyes. All the above symptoms suggest that you may be living with Dry Eye Disease, typically due to dysfunction in our tear production mechanism.
Type of Dry Eyes
Dry eye can occur in 2 ways – evaporative where the tear film is deficient due to evaporation and Aqueous tear deficiency whereby tear glands produce less tears.
Other reasons linked to dry eyes include:
- lack of vitamin A
- autoimmune diseases (Sjogren’s syndrome, lupus, scleroderma or rheumatoid arthritis)
- radiation treatment
- diabetes
- certain medications
- use of contact lens
- activities that need high visual concentration like computer or screen usage can slow down blinking rate, leading to dry eyes
Diagnosing Dry Eyes
Dry eye is an irritation to your lifestyle, and quality of life. If left untreated, Dry Eye can potentially deteriorate one’s eyesight and in some extreme cases, result in blindness. Tests include:
Fluorescein eye stain using orange dye and a blue light to detect any dry spots on the eye surface with tear break up time (TBUT) determined by measuring the interval between application of fluorescein and appearance of first dry spot after a blink.
Slit lamp is comprised of a microscope and light for the doctor to view the eye in 3D on the inside, back of the eye and around the eye to detect corneal abnormality or damage.
Schirmer test determines if adequate tears are produced to keep eyes healthy by placing a piece of filter paper inside the lower eyelid. The eyes are closed for 5 minutes and the amount of moisture of filter paper is later checked for adequate tears production.
Tear check machine that conducts 9 types of assessment which provides a thorough analysis of dry eye.
Dry Eye Remedy
We take a 3-step approach and it would require patience and consistency as treatment can take up to 1 month to show a difference.
Relief: using artificial eye tears to lubricate and hydrate the eyes to help protect natural tears from evaporating.
Cleanse: using pre-moistened Lid Wipes to remove debris and eye makeup and a undergo Exfoliation Treatment to treat blepharitis (an inflammation of the eyelids resulting in dandruff-like scales forming on the eyelashes). Cleaning will allow more of your own tears to be produced.
Stimulate: using Intense Pulsed Light (IPL), light pulses are applied to stimulate the Meibomian glands to secrete oil and keep the water component of tears from evaporating. Omega-3 supplement is also proven to help improve dry eyes caused by blepharitis or Meibomian Gland Dysfunction.
* this type of treatment will depend on the true cause of dry eyes. Consult your eye doctor for a comprehensive diagnosis before deciding on the treatment.
