What is Dry Eye?
Dry eye occurs when you produce fewer or poorer quality tears and are unable to maintain normal eye lubrication.
What are the Symptoms?
- Dryness
- Burning, stingy or itchy
- gritty feeling/foreign body sensations
- blurred vision
- tired eyes
- red eyes
- excessive tearing
- sensitivity to light
- contact lens discomfort
What are the Causes?
Dry eye can be caused by a variety of everyday factors including:
- Aging
- Blepharitis (inflammation of the eyelids)
- Dry Environment/Pollution
- Computer Use-insufficient blinking
- Hormonal Changes
- Lasik Surgery
- Preservatives
- Alcohol
- certain Diseases and Medications-your Optometrist can advise you of any known links between your medication and dry eye.
How is Dry Eye Diagnosed?
Mountain Eye Care is happy to offer Dry Eye Assessments that include MYAH imaging. This non-invasive testing will provide the tear break up time, tear meniscus height, blink analysis, fluorescein imaging and video acquisition of anterior corneal aberrations between blinks. This information is then used to determine the best course of treatment for each individual patient and monitor progress.
How is Dry Eye treated?
Dry eye treatment can consist of a number of options depending on the severity of the condition. Your Dry Eye Assessment will allow the Doctor to tailor your treatment to your individual condition. The following products can be conveniently purchased on our webstore [Click an item to order online]:
Blephaclean/Blephagel-These products effectively help treat symptoms of blepharitis (eyelid inflammation) which is commonly associated with dry eye disease and meibomian gland dysfunction.
PRN Omega Essentials-Provides a cleaned and absorbable form of omega-3’s in a great tasting lemon/lime flavored liquid. PRN is the only brand Physician recommended with published scientific evidence for Dry Eye symptom relief.
iLUX Treatments-Instead of momentarily soothing the symptoms of dry eye the iLUX treatment provides significant lasting relief. The treatment applies light-based heat to the eyelid, melting the trapped oils within the glands. Compressions can then be used to express oils out of the glands. Patients describe the treatment as a “warm eye massage” and our patients find it provides them relief for up to 6-8 months.
Dry Eye- IPL Treatment
Dry Eye Disease (DED) is one of the most common conditions seen by eye care professionals. In fact, 86% of Dry Eye Cases are caused by MGD (meibomian Gland Dysfunction).
The disease has a significant impact on the quality of life, with symptoms such as gritty/sandy sensation, burning, itching, pain, pressure, intermittent blurred vision, or even watery eyes.
Optima IPL is a revolutionary treatment that effectively breaks this vicious cycle of dry eye by addressing the inflammatory process behind it.
IPL alleviates abnormal blood vessel formation that leaves your eyelids looking chronically red and swollen. IPL also addresses blepharitis and demodex mites which could also exacerbate MGD and Dry Eye signs and symptoms.
IPL stands for “Intended Pulsed Light” and works by targeting the pigment on the surface of the skin and blood vessels below the surface. By addressing inflammation of both the skin and blood vessels, we can effectively reduce redness, swelling, and inflammation of the meibomian glands, therefore allowing them to properly function and thus stabilizing the patients tear film.
Amniotic Membrane Therapy (AMT)
Amniotic Membrane Therapy (AMT) is a natural treatment derived from the placenta and is a remarkable tool in the world of Dry Eye Care. These tissues act like an ocular stem cell and can actually help regrow damaged corneal nerve bundles. These tissues are also packed with healing proteins and growth factors that act like a super powered band-aid to help your eyes recover from various conditions.
Complicated eye drop regimens requiring multiple classes of eye medications for weeks, perhaps months, can be costly and uncomfortable, providing only minimal improvements in some cases. AMT is one treatment that provides multiple benefits simultaneously, essentially jump starting the healing process, allowing significant improvements to. be made in a relatively short time.
AMT is a safe, effective, natural and comfortable way to address a complicated, and severe corneal related issue.
