Dry Eyes - The Facts, the Causes and the Treatments

By Julian Berson

Dry eye, as the name suggests, is a discomforting state of eyes, in which the eyes are limited to lose tears. There's a special layer possessed by human eyes, known as tear film, which is responsible for creating tears. In the dry eye syndrome, this film is disabled to work reasonably to secrete the required amount of tears. The indicators of dry eye include itching and burning sensation, discomfort in eyes, improper vision, tear secretion while watching TV, stringing eye muscles and discomfort with contact lenses.

What Leads To Dry Eye

Dry eye is caused due to a number of factors related to age, place of living, job and activities carried out by the patient and many more. Some of the most significant factors behind dry eye include:

- Old age, in which less oil is produced by body
- Polluted environment having excess of smoke particles
- Use of contact lenses
- Several diseases like Sjogren's Syndrome and arthritis
- Nerve-wrangling working, especially on computer
- Dry heat and aircon systems that soak away the tears from eye surface

Dry Eye Treatment - The Options Available

In case, you experience dry eye syndrome, you have to consult an optometrist to know about varied dry eye treatment options available. First off, it's important to diagnose the level of dry eye syndrome before starting the dry eye treatment. For this purpose, you'll follow any one of the following tests:

1. Sparkle Test - In this test, pieces of paper are put on the lower eyelid to examine the quantity of tears available in your eyes.

2. Tear Split Up Test - In this test, a solution is pored in the eye to understand the process of tear emission.

The most common dry eye treatment alternatives include:

- Drinking a lot of water
- Avoid sitting straight in front of fan and air conditioner
- Avoid places having extreme weather conditions
- Blinking the eyes more often
- Wear wrap-around glasses to avoid heat and air
- Avoid smoking
- Scrub the eyelids with luke-warm water and mild shampoo

The products that might provide assistance in dry eye treatment include:

- Punctal Plugs - These are made up of collagen or silicon and block the drainage system of eyes to preserve tears in the eyes.
- Vitamin A medicines - As we all know, Vitamin An is mandatory for eyes, thus most optometrists advocate Vitamin A medicines like BioTears for dry eye treatment.
- Artificial Tears Generators - There are a bunch of products available in market that help the eyes to produce synthetic drops. As an example, Autologous Platelet-rich Plasma eye drops are found to very effective in this direction.
- Restasis - This is the ophthalmic eye drop that helps to reduce the redness round the eye channels carrying mucin and lipids.
- Other products include flax seed oil, lubricating gels and antibiotics that are suggested by the optometrist.

Together with these prescribed medicines, one must focus upon healthy eating by consuming foods loaded in Minerals and Vitamins. You can consult your local optometrist to get advised on the food items to be consumed as one part of dry eye treatment.

About the Author:

Julian Berson is a prize winning optician based in Leeds, offering the highest in personal service, eye care, designer glasses at cost-effective prices, together with providing a mobile optician visiting service for the aged and the ones that can't simply get out of the house.For some more info, drop by our site at www.julianberson.co.uk