While dry eye isn’t a serious condition, it can have a major impact on your quality of life. You may find your eyes get tired faster or you have difficulty reading. Not to mention the discomfort of a burning sensation or blurry vision. Let’s take a look at dry eye treatments – from simple self-care to innovative prescriptions and therapies – to help you see clearly and comfortably.
 

What is Dry Eye?

Understanding dry eye will help you determine the best treatment option. Dry eye occurs when a person doesn't have enough quality tears to lubricate and nourish the eye. Tears reduce eye infections, wash away foreign matter, and keep the eye’s surface smooth and clear. People with dry eyes either do not produce enough tears or their tears are poor quality. It’s a common and often chronic problem, especially in older adults.
 

Preventive Self-Care

Before we delve into more serious dry eye treatment options, here are a few simple self-care options that can manage minor cases of dry eye.

• Blink regularly when reading or staring at a computer screen for a long time.

• Make sure there’s adequate humidity in the air at work and at home.

• Wear sunglasses outside to reduce sun and wind exposure. Wraparound glasses are best.

• Take supplements with essential fatty acids as these may decrease dry eye symptoms.

• Drink 8 to 10 glasses of water each day to avoid dehydration.

• Find out if any of your prescriptions have dry eye as a side effect and if so, see if you can take an alternative.
   

Artificial Tears

For mild cases of dry eyes, the best option is over-the-counter eye drops. Here are a few tips for selecting the right one:

• Low viscosity – These artificial tears are watery. They often provide quick relief with little or no blurring of your vision, but their effect can be brief, and sometimes you must use these drops frequently to get adequate relief.

• High viscosity – These are more gel-like and provide longer-lasting lubrication. However, these drops can cause significant blurring of your vision for several minutes. For this reason, high-viscosity artificial tears are recommended at bedtime.
   

Prescription Dry Eye Treatments

There are several prescriptions that treat dry eye differently. Your eye doctor can advise the best option for your situation.

• Contact Lenses – There are specialty contact lenses that deliver moisture to the surface of the eye. They’re called scleral lenses or bandage lenses.

• Antibiotics– If your eyelids are inflamed, this can prevent oil glands from secreting oil into your tears. Your doctor may recommend antibiotics to reduce inflammation.

• Anti-inflammatory drugs – These are eye drops to control inflammation on the surface of your eyes (cornea) using the immune-suppressing medication cyclosporine (Restasis) or corticosteroids.

• Tear-stimulating drugs – Available as gel or eye drops, and recently FDA- approved nasal spray, these help to increase tear production.

• Autologous blood serum drops – For serious dry eye that’s not responding to other treatment, these eyedrops are made with a sample of your blood. It’s processed to remove the red blood cells and then mixed with a salt solution.

• Regenereyes - The natural biologic ophthalmic solution that consists of proteins, cytokines, and growth factors helps to reduce inflammation, lubricate and protect, and aids in healing and regeneration of corneal tissue. For more information visit https://www.regenereyes.com
   

Dry Eye Procedures

• Punctal Plugs – Tear ducts can be plugged with tiny silicone plugs to reduce tear loss. By partially or completely closing your tear ducts, it can keep your tears from leaving your eye too quickly.

• Thermal Pulsation/ Localized Heat Therapy - This treatment helps to unblock oil glands in the eyelids to treat and manage evaporative dry eyes due to meibomian gland dysfunction. 
   

  • TearCare: The TearCare System applies localized heat therapy to treat evaporative dry eye disease due to meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) in adult patients. When used in conjunction with manual expression of the meibomian glands, it can help to reduce and relieve symptoms of dry eye.
     

• Intense-Pulse Light (IPL) Therapy – OptiLight is a light-based treatment that uses precise, intense broad spectrum light to address signs of dry eye disease due to meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). MGD is the most common cause of dry eye disease, accounting for about 86% of cases. The treatment addresses inflammation, which is one of the key underlying factors in MGD. To find out more visit, https://treatmydryeye.com  or click here.

• Lid Debridement - Zest (Zocular Eyelid System Treatment) works by gently exfoliating the eyelids to restore the natural state of the eyelids. By cleaning the eyelid margins which opens up the meibomian gland, it helps release oils into the eye that are required for a healthy tear film and reduce symptoms of dry eye. For more information visit https://www.zocular.com

• Radio Frequency Treatment - Tempsure Envi by Cynosure uses a handheld applicator to apply radiofrequency energy to heat up the inner layer of the skin around the eye in order to help relieve the root of dry eye symptoms while also stimulating collagen production for tighter, healthier-looking skin - great for reducing crow's feet!  For more information, click here.

You don’t have to suffer from the symptoms of dry eye. Talk to your optometrist about dry eye treatment options designed to address the underlying cause of your condition.