Best solution for dry eyes

The best solution for dry eyes

Many people have experienced the symptom of “Dry Eyes”: a burning, itching, or the feeling of having “sand in the eyes”. It is also widely known that eye drops can ease these symptoms. But what should you do, if those problems do not go away or if they even get worse? Of course, you could always go to your eye specialist and get stronger eye drops, but is there a long-lasting solution that treats the underlying cause and not just the symptoms?

First and foremost, it’s important to understand the medical reasons why eyes feel dry and itchy. The cause is usually not a lack of tear fluid (8%), it is more often the evaporation of the tear fluid (78%).

The most common causes for Dry Eyes:

• Working in front of a computer screen

• Environmental factors

• Lack of humidity in the room, especially in winter

• Currents of air in a car, airplane, office space, …

• Wearing contacts

• Medication that affects the mucous membranes

• Infection of the eye lid

• Hormonal changes, especially during menopause

• Various health conditions, such as Sjögren’s syndrome

• Eye operations (eg. Lasik, cataract surgery)

The most common symptoms for Dry Eyes:

• A feeling as if there’s sand in your eye(s)

• Itching, burning, red eyes

• Fatigue and tearing of the eye (as strange as that might sound…)

• Impaired vision

• Painful eye(s)

• Sense of pressure on the eye(s)

• Glued eyelids

• Light sensitivity

• Problems with contacts

• Problems with eye make-up

The diagnosis of Dry Eyes:

• Diagnoses are done by eye specialists, some of whom specialise in dryness of the eyes. I know of a few such specialists in Finland, but none in Switzerland yet.

• As shown in the picture below, dryness isn’t so much about the lack of eye fluid (8%), but rather the evaporation of the same (78%). The fat glands on the eye lids (called Meibon glands) can become blocked and therefore the eye fluid can evaporate faster and more easily. As a consequence of that the tear fluid film can thin, thus leaving the eye more vulnerable to infections.

Treatments:

• To treat these symptoms various eye drops and creams may be used.

• As a new alternative there are eye sprays, which are applied onto the closed eye lid. They too focus on treating the symptoms.

• In very severe cases, the eye specialist may also physically unblock the lid glands. There are also other eye lid operations that can take place.

• It is often recommended to have those Meibom glands opened without surgery. For the first time this should be done by an eye specialist. But those glands will unfortunately not stay open for long, so treatment must be continued at home.

Treatment at home:

1. Warm up the glands

2. Open the blocked glands

3. Cleaning

4. Lubrication