Dry Eyes - Know More About This Condition!

Hello,

This is Dr. Vinay Agrawal, I am a cornea and ocular surface specialist. Today we will try and talk about a problem which is affecting more and more of us with the changing lifestyle, increasing usage of computer screens, video units, mobile phones. A condition that is labeled as dry eye. Essentially this is a condition wherein the tear film in the eye is not able to do its normal job, leading to a condition of dryness and therefore patients usually would complain of either grittiness in the eye, foreign body in the eye, feeling of heaviness, pain, redness or a fluctuating vision. All of these or any of these symptoms can be a problem and can be a cause of dry eye, usually, precipitating factors would be, as I already mentioned, the whole lifestyle issues, in addition, certain diseases like arthritis, collagen vascular diseases can cause swelling or ocular surface inflammation and therefore a reduction in the amount of tear film that is produced in the eye both of these disease conditions though presenting similarly would require a very different approach in terms of management. So how do we diagnose or how do we understand that there is a problem? With the presence of all the history that I have mentioned previously, there are certain tests which an eye surgeon can perform in the clinic that will help the diagnosis and for the person to understand as to what kind of dry eye or what type of disease presentation is there in his given case. And according to that in her or his case, the concerned doctor can decide the kind of management that is required. Essentially we would breakdown the treatment into variety of things which is, for example, taking care of the meibomian glands or the lid glands which are present, which will take care of the outer tear film layer, or if there is a genuine loss of tear film, we can replace it with the help of artificial substitute like the tear substitutes that we have a variety of options and variety of drugs are now available. In a given case the suitability would be decided by the treating doctor.

In addition, the newer understanding of dry eye, have told us that inflammation or swelling inside the surface of the eye can be an important precipitating factor, therefore ocular surface inflammation management is becoming a more and more important tool in managing patients with dry eye. A variety of drug options are available right from corticosteroids to non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, each one of them has a role to be played depending on the severity of the disease and a given patient. So instead of doing any self-medication, it would be advisable that you approach a qualified eye doctor, who would be best placed to decide what would be the best treatment option as far as you are concerned. In addition to putting drops in the eyes and doing hot fermentations for lid diseases, there are other options which are existing for patients who have a more severe version. For example, there can be plugs which can be inserted in the area which helps in radiance of this tear film, thereby helping to retain a tear film for a longer period in the eye, and therefore helping a patient who has a reduction in the production to be more asymptomatic because more tear film is retained for a longer period in the eye. In addition, there have been a variety of other products that have been tried for example ocular inserts have been attempted though with limited success and there are a variety treatments which are now existing like for example the intense pulse light therapy photobiomodulation both of which work more on the lipids or lipids glands of this ocular surface or to be more precise the glands which are present in the lid margins, each one of these treatments is useful but we should understand that none of these treatments replaces others. All of these treatments are complementary and therefore taking an expert’s advice would be the right way to do and to understand as to what combination of therapy would be in your best interest. Thank you for your attention today and I hope we have cleared some of your doubts about dry eyes. If there are any further questions or if you have any doubts please feel free to contact me either on Lybrate.com I would be more than happy to answer any queries that may arise.

Thank You!