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.