Dry Eye Treatment

Dry Eye Disease

Dry eye disease (DED) is very common and frequently misdiagnosed by health care professionals. We specialize in the detection and early treatment of DED. Also known as Dry Eye Syndrome (DES) and Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca(KCS). It is a multi-factoral disease of the tears and front surface of the eye.

What are the Signs and Symptoms of Dry Eye Disease?

• Itchy eyes
• Red eyes
• Foreign-body sensation
• Fluctuation vision
• Blurred vision
• Headache
• Excessive tearing
• Light sensitivity and glare
• Decreased wear time in contact lenses or inability to wear contacts

Someone with DED may experience all or some of these in one eye or both.

Dry Eye Syndrome Diagnosis

In many cases the symptoms themselves can give us a diagnosis but we also have multiple types of dry eye testing that may be performed when indicated, including:

• Dye testing
• Tear Film Osmolarity
• Tear Break-up time
• Imaging of the meibomian glands
• Ocular surface matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9)

Your symptoms may classified as mild, moderate , or severe

Dry Eye Treatment Options

For effective therapy, you must first understand what’s happening and a correct diagnosis must be made. The front surface of the eye is bathed in a very thin, very complex layer of tears to maintain its health and integrity. It is composed of an oily, a watery (or aqueous layer), and a mucus layer. Which layer is affected determines the correct dry eye treatment.

Our doctors will determine whether you have aqueous deficient dry eye or an evaporative dry eye condition. They are treated differently!

In aqueous deficient dry eye, there is a deficiency in the watery layer of the tear film, which could be indicative of an auto-immune process. It is important in these cases to have testing done to rule out these processes. If these tests are necessary, our doctors will have them performed.

The majority of patients we see have an evaporative dry eye, and in those cases, we have an exciting new dry eye treatment available. In evaporative dry eye, it is the quality of the tears that cause the problems vs the quantity.  Due to poor oil quality, the tear film is unstable and evaporates at a rate quicker than your blink rate. This results in inflammation that affects the structures on the front part of the eye and leads to the symptoms of DED

Lipiflow Treatment

Our Lipiscan and Lipiflow treatment system is a new dry eye treatment that is now available in our office that can allow us to properly diagnose DED at its earliest and most treatable stages. Effective early diagnosis and intervention is essential in preventing our patients from progressing from mild to moderate to severe DED and we are excited to be one of the few dry eye clinics to offer this Lipiflow treatment procedure.