Help for Your Dry Eyes

The condition known as “dry eye” is a common medical problem, one in which your eyes don’t contain enough tears to stay moist and healthy. It’s also a condition that often turns chronic, especially as you age. 

In healthy eyes, glands in and around the eyelids produce tears. Every time you blink, both your upper and lower lids spread those tears across the cornea, the front surface of the eye. Tears serve to:

• Lubricate the eyes
• Wash away debris and pathogens
• Keep vision clear

Any excess tears flow into ducts in the inner corners of your eyelids. The ducts drain into the back of your nose.

Dry eye is more than a nuisance. Left untreated, it can cause problems like eye infections, damage to the eye’s surface, and blurred vision.

At Omphroy Eye Care in Aiea, Hawaii, ophthalmologist Dr. Luis Omphroy and our staff know how uncomfortable the constant irritation of dry eye can be and how dangerous. That’s why we offer state-of-the-art treatments to relieve it.

What triggers dry eye?

Dry eye most often occurs due to an imbalance between tear production and duct drainage. People with dry eyes may produce too few tears or their tears may be of an inferior quality. The leading culprits for inadequate tears are:

• Age
• Problems with the secretion glands
• Some medical conditions, including thyroid problems, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis
• Medication side effects that decrease tear production
• Environmental conditions like wind and dry air

Tears contain three layers: oil, water, and mucus, all of which protect and nourish the cornea. If any one of the layers becomes damaged, your tears may be too watery, not spread evenly over the cornea, or evaporate too quickly. The result is dry eye.

Symptoms of dry eye

Dry eye comes with an array of symptoms, including:

• Burning or stinging sensation
• Bloodshot eyes
• Scratchy or gritty feeling
• Discharge
• Watery eyes
• Blurred vision

It may seem strange that watery eyes are a symptom of dry eye, but it’s actually quite common. The eye is attempting to lubricate itself in the absence of enough or good-quality tears. But the tears it’s able to produce come only from the watery layer, with the oil and mucus layers missing.

Help for your dry eye

If you have chronic dry eye, come in and see us at Omphroy Eye Care. We can evaluate your condition, determine what’s causing it, and treat it effectively.

At-home dry eye care

Until your appointment at Omphroy Eye Care, you may get relief at home by:

• Using over-the-counter gels, ointments, and drops
• Substituting medications for those that don’t cause dry eye
• Avoiding smoking and secondhand smoke
• Limiting screen time
• Wearing wraparound sunglasses to protect your eyes from wind, sun, and dirt
• Use a warm, damp compress to soothe your eyes
• Applying light pressure to stimulate tears
• Switching from contacts to glasses to ease discomfort

Medical dry eye care

If your chronic dry eye has developed to the point that at-home remedies don’t relieve your symptoms, we can recommend a number of medical treatments.

For mild cases, we may recommend prescription lubricating eyedrops or eyelid scrapers to  reduce the burning and scratchiness. 

We use two options for long-term relief. In the first, we implant removable plugs made of silicone or gel into your tear ducts, preventing drainage from your eyes. In the second, we surgically close the tear ducts to achieve the same end, but it’s not reversible.

At Omphroy Eye Care, we also offer innovative treatments such as intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy and amniotic membrane grafts. You can discuss all your options at your consultation.

If you’re suffering from burning, itching, dry eyes, you don’t need to suffer any longer. Call our office today to schedule a consultation with Dr. Omphroy.