Dry Eye Treatment

Dry, itchy, or burning eyes can significantly impact your daily life. At Sight To See Eyecare & Eyewear, we understand the challenges that come with dry eye syndrome, and we are here to provide customized treatment options to bring you relief. As a family-owned private practice, we prioritize personal care and advanced treatments to help you enjoy comfortable, healthy vision.

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. Dry eye has also become more prevalent with prolonged screen time and increased visual demand.

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.

  
  

Additional Dry Eye Treatments

When artificial tears are inadequate, there are several additional, more aggressive forms of dry eye treatment.

• Warm compresses– Your eyelids contain oil glands within them that secrete oil onto the surface of the eye. This helps to prevent evaporation of your natural tears. Eye masks that can be warmed up in the microwave can help melt down natural oils to increase distribution onto the surface of the eye.
  

• Antibiotics– If your eyelids are inflamed by bacteria, 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.

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

• Autologous blood serum drops – These specialized eye drops are made from your own blood, providing natural proteins and nutrients to nourish and heal your eyes. Autologous serum drops are particularly effective for severe or chronic dry eye cases.

  
  

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.

• Amniotic membrane therapy involves placing a thin layer of amniotic tissue on the eye to promote healing and reduce inflammation. This treatment is especially beneficial for patients with severe corneal damage from dry eye.

• Intense-Pulsed Therapy – This utilizes pulses of light to liquefy and release hardened oils that have clogged glands in the eyelids.

​​​​​​​Personalized Care You Can Trust

At Sight To See Eyecare & Eyewear, we take a thorough approach to diagnosing and treating dry eye syndrome. During your visit, our experienced optometrists will evaluate the root cause of your symptoms and recommend the most effective treatments for lasting relief.

Schedule Your Dry Eye Consultation Today

You don’t have to live with the discomfort of dry eyes. Contact Sight To See Eyecare & Eyewear to schedule a consultation. Together, we’ll find the best solution to help you see and feel your best.