Dry Eye Syndrome

Symptoms

Do you ever get a gritty, burning, sandy feeling in your eyes? Does your vision fluctuate sometimes with blinking? Or does it ever feel like something got in your eyes? Or do your eyes water a lot? All these can be symptoms of dry eyes.. It sounds weird that watery eyes are a symptom of dry eyes, but if someone poked your eye then of course it would water and if the eyes get dry enough that they think they got poked, then it will reflexively water as well. Unfortunately those reflex tears are a different composition than the tears that naturally keep your eyes moist.

If you suffer from any of these symptoms, then feel free to book an eye exam and our doctors can do a dry eye work up to check its severity and recommend the best treatment for you.

Causes of Dry Eyes

Many medical conditions and medications can increase dryness of the eyes as well as age, hormonal changes, and history of having laser eye surgery or cataract surgery. Prolonged screen time is also increasing the prevalence of dry eyes among the younger generations too. Some people even sleep with their eyes slightly open which causes the exposed part of the eye to become incredibly dry overnight. Dry eyes are incredibly common and unfortunately there is no cure; there is only maintenance. 

Basic Treatment (we can all do this!)

Artificial tears: These lubrication drops are our first line of defence against dry eyes. The best way to use artificial tears is to use it regularly because it is easier to prevent dry eyes rather than chase after it. It is the same concept as most people are familiar with when it comes to using lotion to moisturize skin regularly rather than waiting for the skin to become dry and cracked before using lotion. Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize! Start with one drop a day and if that is not enough then don’t be afraid to use two drops a day and if that’s not enough then move up to three drops a day, so on and so forth. Everyone’s eyes are different. Some people have much drier eyes than others where they need to use drops every hour!

Warm compresses: In each of our upper and lower eyelids, we have 40 meibomian glands which give off an oil to help keep the eyes moist. Very often, these oils become stuck and more like a butter consistency. To treat this is very simple. Take a towel and wet it with some warm to hot water without having it too hot that it hurts yourself. Put it on your eyelids with your eyes closed for a good 10-15 minutes, but make sure it stays warm to hot because it is the heat over time that will “melt the butter” and help get the oils out. A much easier method is to use a heat pack which would maintain the heat longer. This is actually a good habit for everyone to do at least once a week because if the meibomian glands are stuck for a long time, then they can die off and disappear forever. This is actually happening to the younger generation too such as people in their 20’s and 30’s because it is the blinking mechanism when the two eyelids touch that pushes out these oils and many people are on their devices all day every day which causes them to subconsciously blink less.

Omega 3’s: Taking the fish oil supplements rich in omega 3’s is good for the general health and the heart, but also good in combating dry eyes. Look on the labels for the omega 3 supplements that contain a higher amount of EPA and DHA which is absorbed and used more readily by the body.

Lid scrubs: Over our lifetime, a biofilm of bacteria can form at our eyelid margins. The bacteria can cause inflammation of the eyelids which increases dryness of the eyes. The bacteria can also form toxins that irritate the eyes and occasionally cleaning the base of our eyelashes with lid scrubs or diluted baby shampoo can help combat the bacteria and inflammation. A recently discovered parasitic mite called demodex is also often found living at the base of the lashes and killing these mites with special tea tree lid wipes can sometimes offer additional relief from dry eyes.

Blinking: It may sound obvious and silly, but don’t forget to blink! It is human nature that we blink only ⅓ as often as we normally do when we are focused on a task such as using our phone, using a computer, watching TV, reading a book, or driving a car. We just tend to stare! If you’re not consciously thinking about blinking while performing any of these tasks then you’re probably not blinking very much which will cause the eyes to dry out more often. A blinking exercise that can help especially after a warm compress is to open and close your eyes tightly doing several hard blinks in a row for 15 seconds to help push out the oils from the meibomian glands.

Staying hydrated: If your body is dehydrated then it will conserve water by not producing as many tears!

Advanced treatment

Sometimes doing even all of the basic treatment is not enough to provide relief for some people with very dry eyes. In these situations, our doctors can discuss options for the next step of more advanced treatments for dry eyes such as: topical steroid drops, Restasis, Xiidra, punctal plugs, BlephEx, radio frequency technology, hydration goggles, or scleral lenses.