Dry Eye Treatment

Dry Eye 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.
 

Envision Treatment

Envision is the in-office gold standard for treating the most common cause of dry eye disease and has revolutionized facial rejuvenation. To learn more about our state-of-the-art in-office treatments for dry eye and Meibomian gland disease, please click here.
 

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

Artificial tear eyedrops are often the first choice for people suffering from dry eye symptoms as these are readily available over-the-counter. They are designed to supplement your natural tears to temporarily improve symptoms. However, they do not address the underlying cause of poor tear quality or function. As such, these do not provide long-term relief. Artificial tear drops are best suited for people with very mild symptoms that occur infrequently, or in conjunction with other treatments prescribed by your doctor. While there is a very wide array of products available, they fall into these general categories:

• Low viscosity – These artificial tears have a consistency and thickness similar to natural tears. 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. Most over-the-counter artificial tear products are low-viscosity.

• High viscosity – These are more gel-like and provide longer-lasting lubrication. However, these drops may cause significant blurring of your vision for a minute or longer. For this reason, high-viscosity artificial tears are often recommended at bedtime. These products often use “gel drops” in the description. Examples are Optase Intense and Refresh Gel Drops.

• Emulsion – This type of artificial tear is designed for people with Meibomian gland disease (MGD), which is the most common underlying cause of dry eye. This condition causes the tear layer on the surface of the eye to be unstable and evaporate prematurely. Emulsion drops have an oil component to supplement inadequate oils in the tear layer. Examples are Optase MGD, Systane Complete, and Retaine.

• Preservative-Free – These drops have no chemical preservatives which can cause further irritation. In the past, these were only available in unit-dose vials; now, they are also available in special multi-dose bottles. Preservative-free artificial tear drops are strongly preferred over preserved options, especially if used on a regular basis.

Prescription Dry Eye Treatments

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

• Anti-inflammatory drugs – These are eye drops to control inflammation on the surface of your eyes (cornea) and protect the delicate tear-producing glands from damage. Examples are Restasis, Xiidra, Cequa, and Vevye. In addition, corticosteroid drops may be used for short periods to control inflammation.

• Miebo – This prescription drop is a preservative-free treatment for Meibomian gland disease and helps alleviate tear evaporation issues.

• 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 and bacterial overgrowth.

• Amniotic membranes – For more severe dry eye disease or conditions that are not responding to other treatments, special bandages made from amniotic membranes may be used. These are placed on the eye or under a contact lens for a period of a few days to help heal the surface of the eye.

• Tear-stimulating drugs – Available as pills, gel or eye drops, cholinergic medications (pilocarpine, cevimeline) help to increase tear production. Another newer treatment is Tyrvaya, a unique nasal spray that stimulates natural tear production.

• Autologous serum drops – For more severe dry eye that is not responding to other treatments, special compounded eyedrops  made from the serum in your blood may be prescribed. These drops contain healing factors, antibodies and cytokines that cannot be duplicated artificially.

• Contact Lenses – When the surface of the cornea is compromised, special contact lenses called bandage lenses may be used to protect the surface and promote healing. For long-term protection from dryness, custom lenses called scleral lenses are designed to vault over the cornea to create a moisture chamber underneath.  These lenses keep the eye surface hydrated all day and often provide superior vision.
   

Dry Eye Procedures

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

• LipiFlow Thermal Pulsation – This treatment helps to unblock oil glands. Placed over your eye, the device delivers a gentle, warm massage to the upper and lower eyelids over about 15 minutes.

• Lumecca Intense-Pulsed Light Therapy – This utilizes pulses of light to liquefy and release hardened oils that have clogged glands in the eyelids, as well as causing changes in the eyelid and facial skin that reduce inflammation.

• Forma Radio Frequency Thermal Therapy - This procedure utilized bipolar radio frequency (RF) energy to heat the Meibomian glands in the eyelid from the inside. This helps to unclog blocked glands and rejuvenate the tissues by stimulating collagen and elastin production.

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.