What is Dry Eye?

What is Dry Eye Disease?

Dry eye disease is when the tears that your body creates are not adequate for you to see clearly, comfortably, or both. This can be insufficient tear production, poor tear quality, or tear evaporation.

Common Symptoms of Dry Eye Disease

Common symptoms are fluctuating vision, sandy or gritty feeling eyes, watery eyes, unable to wear contacts for long periods of time, red eyes, burning or stinging eyes. You can have these symptoms all the time or just some times as dry eye does have flare ups. One eye may be more affected than the other and you can have any number of these symptoms.

What Causes Dry Eye?

There are many factors that go into the diagnosis of dry eye. It can be environmental or biological. Some common biological causes are age, medical conditions like diabetes or thyroid disease. Some environmental factors are dry air during cooler months, computer usage, forced air heat, and fans while you sleep. This is not an exhaustive list but the most common reasons. Talk to your eye doctor to see if any of these are affecting your eyes.

Is There Treatment?

Yes! There are many ways to treat dry eye. Dry Eye Disease is a chronic condition that often requires ongoing treatment. Everyone will need different treatment depending on what the cause of the dry eye is. Sometimes the treatment is artificial tears, supplements, or specific eye lid washes. If you have evaporative dry eye, which means the meibomian glands are not functioning correctly, we have a brand new treatment!

Dry Eye Treatments