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Dry Eye

Signs To Look For/Symptoms:

Symptoms of dry eye include:

  • Stinging or burning eyes
  • Scratchiness
  • Stringy mucus in or around the eyes
  • Excessive eye irritation from smoke or wind
  • Excess tearing
  • Discomfort when wearing contact lenses

Tear production is usually affected by age, although dry can occur at any age in both men and women. Women are particularly affected after menopause.

Risk Factors:

Dry eyes can also be associated with other problems, such as Sjogren’s syndrome.

Preventative Measures:

Dry eyes can also be caused by common medications, thus your doctor should know all the medications you are taking. In particular medications such as diuretics, beta-blockers, antihistamines, sleeping pills, medications for “nerves” and pain relievers have been known to cause dry eye.

Conserving your tears can also help prevent dry eyes. This can be done by temporarily or permanently closing channels where tears drain out of.

Things such as a humidifier and wrap around glasses can also help prevent dryness.

Sometimes eye dryness can be triggered by lack of sufficient vitamin A, in which case an ointment containing vitamin A can help dry eye.

Recommendations:

Eye drops may be able to treat dry eye.

A doctor can also measure tear production by doing the Schirmer tear test or by dropping fluorescein or rose Bengal solution into the eye to see the patterns of dryness.