What are the Causes of Dry Eyes

By Julian Berson

Dry eye, as the name suggests, is an uncomfortable state of eyes, in which the eyes are restricted to dump tears. There's a special layer possessed by human eyes, known as tear film, which is responsible for generating tears. In the dry eye syndrome, this film is disabled to work reasonably to secrete the specified quantity of tears. The symptoms of dry eye include burning and itching sensation, discomfort in eyes, wrong vision, tear discharge while watching Television, stringing eye muscles and pain with contact lenses.

What Leads To Dry Eye

Dry eye is caused due to a number of factors related to age, place of living, job and activities carried out by the patient and plenty more. Some of the most significant causes of dry eye include:

- Old age, in which less oil is produced by body
- Polluted environment having excess of smoke particles
- Use of contact lenses
- A considerable number of diseases like Sjogren's Syndrome and osseous rheumatism
- Stressful working, especially on PC
- Dry heat and air conditioning units that soak away the tears from eye surface

Dry Eye Treatment - The Options Available

In case, you experience dry eye syndrome, you have to consult an optometrist to know about various dry eye treatment options available. First of all, it is imperative to diagnose the level of dry eye syndrome before beginning the dry eye treatment. For this reason, you will follow any one of the following tests:

1. Sparkle Test - In this test, pieces of paper are put on the lower eyelid to examine the amount of tears available in your eyes.

2. Tear Split Up Test - In this test, a solution is pored in the eye to grasp the process of tear secretion.

The most common dry eye treatment alternatives include:

- Drinking lots of water
- Avoid sitting straight in front of fan and air conditioner
- Avoid places having intense climatic conditions
- Blinking the eyes more often
- Wear wrap-around glasses to avoid heat and air
- Avoid smoking
- Scrub the eyelids with hot water and mild shampoo

The products that might provide help in dry eye treatment include:

- Punctal Plugs - These are made from collagen or silicon and block the drainage system of eyes to preserve tears in the eyes.
- Vitamin A medicines - As we know, Vitamin An is required for eyes, so most optometrists recommend Vitamin A medicines like BioTears for dry eye treatment.
- Artificial Tears Generators - There are a number of products around in market that may help the eyes to produce artificial drops. As an example, Autologous Platelet-rich Plasma eye drops are found to very effective in this direction.
- Restasis - This is the ophthalmic eye drop that helps to reduce the redness round the eye channels carrying mucin and lipids.
- Other products include flax seed oil, lubricating gels and antibiotics that are suggested by the optometrist.

With these prescribed medicines, one must focus upon sensible eating by consuming foods rich in Minerals and Vitamins. You can ask your local optometrist to get suggested on the food items to be consumed as one part of dry eye treatment.

About the Author:

Julian Berson is an award winning optician based in Leeds, offering the highest in personal service, eye care, designer glasses at affordable prices, along with providing a mobile optician visiting service for the old and the ones that can't simply get out of the house.To get some more information, visit our blog at www.eyevisionproblems.blogspot.com