WHAT IS DRY EYE SYN­DROME?

Dry eye syn­drome or dry eyes oc­cur when eyes are un­able to ef­fi­cient­ly pro­duce nat­ur­al tears. Tears play im­por­tant roles in en­sur­ing healthy eyes. An ad­e­quate and con­sis­tent lay­er of tears on the sur­face of the eye is vi­tal to keep your eyes healthy, com­fort­able and see­ing well. Tears keep the eye’s sur­face moist and wash away dust, de­bris and mi­croor­gan­isms that could dam­age the cornea and lead to an eye in­fec­tion.

WHAT ARE THE SYMP­TOMS OF DRY EYES?

For­eign Body Sen­sa­tion—the feel­ing that grit or that some­thing is “in” your eye

Burn­ing sen­sa­tion

Itchy eyes

Aching sen­sa­tions

Heavy eyes

Fa­tigued eyes

Sore eyes

Dry­ness sen­sa­tion

Red eyes

Pho­to­pho­bia (light sen­si­tiv­i­ty)

Blurred vi­sion

Wa­tery eyes—dry­ness on the eye’s sur­face some­times will over-stim­u­late pro­duc­tion of the wa­tery com­po­nent of your tears as a pro­tec­tive mech­a­nism.

WHAT FAC­TORS IN­CREASE THE RISK OF DRY EYES?

Age—Al­though dry eye syn­drome can oc­cur at any age, it be­comes in­creas­ing­ly more com­mon lat­er in life, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter age 50

Pro­longed com­put­er us­age

In­door en­vi­ron­ment—Air con­di­tion­ing and ceil­ing fans can de­crease in­door hu­mid­i­ty and/or has­ten tear evap­o­ra­tion

Out­door en­vi­ron­ment—Arid cli­mates and dry or windy con­di­tions.

Fre­quent air trav­el—The air in the cab­ins of air­planes is ex­treme­ly dry

Smok­ing

Oth­er Health Con­di­tions—Cer­tain sys­temic dis­eases such as di­a­betes, thy­roid-as­so­ci­at­ed dis­eases, lu­pus, rheuma­toid arthri­tis and Sjo­gren’s syn­drome

Med­ica­tions—Many pre­scrip­tion and non-pre­scrip­tion med­i­cines in­clud­ing an­ti­his­t­a­mines, an­ti­de­pres­sants, cer­tain blood pres­sure med­ica­tions and birth con­trol pills

Eye­lid prob­lems—In­com­plete clo­sure of the eye­lids when blink­ing or sleep­ing

HOW ARE DRY EYES TREAT­ED?

De­pend­ing on the cause and sever­i­ty of your con­di­tion, there are sev­er­al op­tions avail­able for treat­ing dry eyes. With most cas­es, dry eyes can be man­aged suc­cess­ful­ly, usu­al­ly re­sult­ing in no­tice­ably greater eye com­fort, few­er dry eye symp­toms, and some­times sharp­er vi­sion.

Your doc­tor might rec­om­mend lu­bri­cat­ing eye drops or oint­ments and sug­gest lifestyle changes that may help to de­crease the fac­tors that con­tribute to dry eyes. Some com­mon changes in­clude:

Ap­ply­ing dai­ly warm com­press­es to the eyes

En­vi­ron­men­tal changes such as adding a hu­mid­i­fi­er to your room or home

Con­sum­ing suf­fi­cient flu­ids, for ex­am­ple, drink­ing at least eight glass­es of wa­ter dai­ly

In­clud­ing fish, soy, and omega-3 fat­ty acids in your di­et

Blink­ing more of­ten, es­pe­cial­ly when us­ing an elec­tron­ic de­vice

It is im­por­tant to vis­it your eye doc­tor to learn how to treat your spe­cif­ic con­di­tion. For more in­for­ma­tion on car­ing for your eyes, you can vis­it Trinidad Eye Hos­pi­tal’s web­site at www.trinidadeye­hos­pi­tal.org.

Sub­mit­ted by Dr Ron­nie Bho­la