During dry eye awareness month, knowing the means of alleviating symptoms of the common condition is important to improving quality of life. Karen Fernandez, MD, an ophthalmologist at the Storm Eye Institute at the Medical University of South Carolina, discussed how dry eye can present itself and went over at-home remedies for some of its worst symptoms.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity; captions are auto-generated.
Transcript
What is dry eye and how does it affect the eye?
Dry eye is a very, very common condition that we see in practice. It’s when your eyes don’t produce enough tears, or, if you do produce tears, they’re often poor-quality tears, and the quality of the tears is important because poor-quality tears evaporate very quickly and leave your eye very quickly. As a result, then the eyes aren’t lubricated the way they should be, which often leads to a lot of discomfort, a lot of symptoms, inflammation, and can even result in damage to the surface of the eye.
What symptoms can patients and doctors look out for to diagnose dry eye?
It can vary a lot. Patients come in often with varying degrees of very vague symptoms. But the most common symptoms include stinging, burning, just feeling very raw [or] dry in their eyes. A lot of times, patients say they feel gritty or sandy, or feeling like there’s something in their eyes that they can’t rinse off or that they can’t get out. It can even cause a lot of blurriness to a patient’s vision and soreness and eye fatigue. Especially after using your eyes for quite a while, like after reading or working with your eyes, then your eyes get very, very tired, and that could be a symptom of dry eye. Some patients even, ironically enough, can complain of tearing and watery eyes. This is when your eyes then compensate for that loss of lubrication and tend to produce more tears in response to that dryness.
What are some ways that patients can address their dry eye outside of treatment?
I think in dry eye, most especially in younger patients, lifestyle changes can often help. Environmental changes; protecting your eyes at all times if you’re someone who’s very prone to dryness. You want to wear something over your eyes when you’re out and about and it’s a windy day. Allergies can often mimic dry eye or can even cause dry eye. It’s something to be aware about. Simple habits [like] drinking a lot of water, limiting your screen time, taking lots of breaks when you feel like your eyes are getting tired while you’re working at a computer, and over-the-counter eye drops are very, very accessible. You can just get one of those drops and hydrate your eyes, just similar to drinking water, because it’s really not harmful to your eyes. It actually would benefit you in the long run, even if you have mild symptoms. Lots of changes within your work life as well as everyday life can make a huge difference.
