Dry Eye Treatments

Treatment for dry eyes is dependent on the cause and severity of your dry eyes. Simple measures, such as using eyedrops and ointments and cleaning your eyelids regularly treats dry eyes in the vast majority of cases. Stopping contact lens wear also often improves any dry eye symptoms that you may be experiencing. More advanced cases of dry eyes may be treated with punctal plugs or surgery to correct your lid position and improve the dry eyes.

Dry eyes occurs when there is instability of the tear film on the surface of the eye. The tear firm on the surface of the eye is composed of water, mucus, and oils. A discrepancy in the composition between these three components can lead to an unstable tear film, which breaks up a lot more easily, resulting in the symptoms of dry eyes, which include pain, redness, soreness, and blurred vision. Causes of dry eyes can be multiple, including inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis and vasculitis. Eye lid conditions, such as blepharitis. And other simple reasons such as overuse of contact lenses. Treating these conditions would treat your dry eyes in most cases.

Blepharitis is an inflammatory condition of the eyelid. The eyelids have lots of little glands, which produce oil to moisturise the surface of the eye. In blepharitis, these glands can get blocked or narrowed, and therefore the oils cannot come out as smoothly as they’re meant to. They can collect along the edge of the eyelid, causing waxy and flaky substances. This can cause the eyes to get dry, giving sore, dry, gritty, painful eyes.

Blepharitis is a chronic condition, which cannot be cured, but this can be treated with simple measures. At home, you can use measures to clean your eyelids, using techniques such as lid hygiene and massage with eye bags or hot towels. If this is not enough, then you can employ more advanced techniques that we offer in clinic, such as BlephEx treatment and IPL therapy to control and treat your blepharitis.