What Is Dry Eye Syndrome? (DES)
Tears are an essential part of keeping your eyes well-hydrated and comfortable. Dry eye syndrome, or DES, usually happens because either not enough tears are being created by the eye, or the tears being produced don’t have the right components to keep your eyes properly hydrated. This can leave your eyes feeling dry, red, itchy, gritty, and uncomfortable.
Our Dry Eye Experts in McDonough, GA Have You Covered!
Without proper treatment, DES can get worse over time. In extreme cases, it can even cause scarring on the eye and vision loss. Though there’s no cure for the condition, the McDonough eye care team at Elevated Eyecare has the experience and know-how to find the root of your symptoms and address your dry eye syndrome with the latest treatments and technology.
What Causes Dry Eyes?
There are a number of factors that contribute to having dry eye syndrome. Most of the time this happens because of a blockage in the meibomian glands, located at the inner edge of the eyelids.
The meibomain glands are responsible for producing oil that prevents your tears from evaporating too quickly. When these glands are blocked (a condition known as meibomian gland dysfunction), oil doesn’t flow properly, leading to your tears evaporating before they can properly hydrate your eye.
Though this condition causes as many as 80% of all cases of dry eye, there are many other factors that can cause it as well. These include:
Gender – There is a very strong connection between hormonal changes and dry eye symptoms. This means women are a lot more likely to experience dry eye symptoms than men due to the effects of fluctuating hormones during pregnancy, while taking birth control, and during menopause.
Age – If you’re nearing 50 years old, or are already past it, you may be at higher risk of experiencing symptoms of DES.
Environment – If you live in a particularly windy or dry environment, you may experience more rapid evaporation of your tears, leading to dry eye symptoms. If you or your kids are out and about on windy or dry days, wearing sunglasses or keeping eye drops handy may help minimize symptoms.
Medication – Medications that may have drying effects on your eyes include decongestants, antidepressants and blood pressure medicines.
Auto-immune disorders – Conditions such as Sjogren’s disease and arthritis may cause you to experience dry eye symptoms.
How Do I Know If I Have Dry Eye Syndrome?
Dry eye syndrome can cause a number of very uncomfortable symptoms. These include:
- Overly dry-feeling eyes, no matter how much you blink or use eye drops
- Eye fatigue
- Oversensitivity to light
- Very watery eyes
- A constant "foreign object" feeling in your eye
- Eye redness and irritation
- Mucus around the eyelashes
Many of these symptoms get worse as the day goes on. These symptoms can make daily life severely uncomfortable, and can make activities such as reading, driving, or writing much harder.
Think you have dry eye syndrome? Get to the root of your eye discomfort by contacting us today.
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Lasting & Effective Dry Eye Treatment
At Elevated Eyecare, we're proud to offer the most advanced techniques and technology available today for the diagnosis and treatment of dry eye syndrome. Below are some of the most popular and effective treatment options available at our McDonough dry eye clinic:
Tempsure Envi is a revolutionary procedure that uses a specialized wand to deliver directed radio frequencies to naturally encourage cellular collagen growth in the skin surrounding the eyes. More collagen in this area helps improve your blink reflex, better lubricating your eyes and expressing oil more efficiently from the meibomian glands.
Low Light Level Therapy (LLLT) is an additional method our eye care team can use to encourage growth of collagen around the eyes. Rather than radio waves, different levels of light are used. Treatment is painless, with some patients even reporting a comfortable warm feeling around the eyes during treatment.
Blephex is used to treat blepharitis, a condition in which bacteria and other microbes build up at the base of your eyelashes and cause dry eye symptoms, such as itchiness and inflammation. Women who wear false eyelashes or makeup around their eyes are particularly prone to this condition. Blephex uses a special rotating cleaning tool to painlessly and efficiently deep-clean the eyelash line, top and bottom.
LipiFlow is specially designed to treat issues with meibomian gland dysfunction. Using a special tool, your eye doctor will apply mild heating to the clogged meibomian glands, loosening the oil within, and allowing it to flow more freely. This will lead to a healthier tear film that takes longer to evaporate, hydrating the eye more effectively.
If you or a loved one is suffering from dry eye symptoms, speak to our McDonough eye care team today about these and other possible treatments.
Learn More about Dry Eye Syndrome | FAQ
Book a Dry Eye Appointment With Us
Our McDonough eye doctors are proud to offer dry eye expertise above and beyond what you’ll find in most other eye care clinics. We have the experience and know-how to make sure that we get to the bottom of your dry eye symptoms quickly, and identify the right treatment to help you see more clearly and comfortably than ever before.
If you think you or someone in your family is suffering from dry eye syndrome, come visit our dry eye experts, or give us a call at 770-790-4145 to see how we can help.
