July is National Dry Eye Awareness Month

“Dry eyes” doesn’t begin to describe the condition for most of my patients. It can present as intermittent blur, a “tired eye” feeling, discomfort around the eyes, stinging and burning. Rarely, a patient of mine might know their eyes are dry. The causes are many, but most commonly eye dryness begins with our environment, with screen use being a top culprit. But Why?

It turns out that when we use screens, the extra light and attention they engage causes our blink reflex to diminish greatly. Regular blinks refresh the tears on our eye surface as well as replenish the very thin oil layer from the Meibomian Glands that line our eyelids. Added to this, inflammation is common on our eye surface and eyelids due to micro-organisms and allergens. Together, we have a recipe for unhappy eyes.

Most of my patients will get a recommendation for an eye mask such as the Bruder Mask that can heat the eye surface and help encourage better flow of oil into our tears, thus reducing evaporation. Artificial tears, though ubiquitous, are basically a bandaid and last for a very short time.

We are proud to now offer a new in office dry eye therapy, NuLids, which involves the comfortable cleansing of biofilm from your lids and lashes and stimulation of your meibomian glands. This brings about a long-lasting improvement in tear film and eye comfort at an affordable cost.