Dry Eye Disease (DED)
This condition may also be known as Ocular Surface Disease (OSD). Many people, whether they are aware of it or not, suffer from dry eyes. Dry eye syndrome (DES) is one of the most common yet most under diagnosed conditions affecting the health of the eye. The complex nature of dry eye can begin as young as 10 or 11 years old and continues throughout a patient’s life.
Dry eye syndrome causes more than just discomfort; it can result in permanent damage to the cornea, vision loss, and other problems. It can also be a symptom of an underlying medical condition. For these reasons and more, we take dry eye very seriously and you should too.
Types of Dry Eye Syndrome
Tears are comprised of 3 layers: lipid (oil), water and mucus. The composition of these components is what helps to protect and nourish the surface of our eyes. The lipid or oil layer prevents the evaporation of the water layer. The mucus layer helps spread the tears evenly over the eye surface. When these layers are not functioning properly, the tears can either evaporate too rapidly or they do not reach the entire eye surface, which will then case the symptoms of dry eyes.
There are two predominant forms of dry eye, aqueous and evaporative.
Aqueous Dry Eye
Aqueous dry eye is characterized by tear deficiency. It occurs when the lacrimal, or water producing glands don’t produce enough of the watery component of tears. Patients with aqueous dry eye are normally good candidates for Restasis®.
Evaporative Dry Eye
Evaporative dry eye affects 85% of dry eye patients. It is caused by Meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), which creates a deficiency in the oil layer of the tear film. These glands make the lipid or oily part of tears that slows evaporation and keeps the tears stable. This can be the beginning of other dry eye disease problems including damage to the cornea and sight-related issues.
Diagnosing Dry Eye Syndrome
Dry eye symptoms can be very subtle, patients often go under diagnosed or under treated. At Center For Sight, we utilize a multi-faceted approach to diagnosing dry eye syndrome. We combine patient self-assessment, physician administered testing and state-of-the art diagnostic technology to determine the cause, severity and best treatment protocol for each patient’s dry eye condition. Your diagnostic process may include:
- SPEED™ Dry Eye Questionnaire
- Osmolarity Testing (Tear Lab)
- Lipid Layer Testing (Lipid View)
- Blinking Pattern Evaluations (LipiView)
- In-Office testing for Sjogren’s syndrome, if indicated
- InflammaDry® Testing
Dry Eye Treatment
Dry Eye is more than an inconvenience. Dry Eye is a disease.
Many people suffer for years from the discomfort and pain of Dry Eye Disease Most try various products to manage their disease, and while many of the Over-The-Counter products can provide relief, it is just temporary symptom relief.
Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD) is a leading cause of Dry Eye Disease.1 Dry Eye Disease is rarely due to a lack of the watery part of your tears. 86% of dry eye patients have MGD.2
What is Meibomian Gland Disfunction (MGD)?
Meibomian Gland Dysfunction is a progressive disease of the ocular surface. Long term, failure to treat MGD can lead to chronic discomfort and degradation of vision, significantly impacting quality of life.3
Healthy Meibomian glands that line your upper and lower eyelids secrete oil with every blink. Your Meibomian glands produce the oily part of the tear film needed to protect the surface of your eye by preventing the evaporation of the watery part of your tears. When this function is not working well, your eyes may feel dry. Keeping the function and structure of your Meibomian glands healthy before you become symptomatic is key, as MGD progresses over time.
What causes MGD?
MGD is caused by anatomical changes in the Meibomian glands If left untreated, MGD can become progressively worse over time.
Conditions that can contribute to MGD:
Dry Eyes? Don’t just treat your symptoms
Treat the Cause and MOVE FORWARD with MGD treatment with TearScience® LipiFlow®
For patients with MGD, TearScience® LipiFlow® significantly improves gland secretions and ocular surface symptoms including dry eye and less frequent or blurry vision.4
- The treatment is non-invasive procedure performed in the comfort of your doctor’s office, only takes 12 minutes and can have long-lasting results5
- After initial anesthetic drops, no drugs required for TearScience® LipiFlow® treatment6
- Long-lasting results—many can see the continued benefit up to 12 months6
- 400,000 treatments worldwide—and growing7
Just 1 treatment increases mean gland secretion 3-fold and reduces more than 50% dry eye symptoms.8
Treatment also increased patient comfortable contact lens wear time by approximately 4 hours on average per day.9
TearScience® LipiFlow® treatment prior to cataract surgery improves mean dry eye symptoms and vision-related function scores post-surgery.10
Choose TearScience® LipiFlow®.
Because Eye Health Starts at the Surface.
Important facts regarding Dry Eye
Facts
- 23 million suffers live in the U.S.
- $3.8 billion is spent annually on treatment
- Dry eye affects 30% of individuals over 50
- Dry eye increases with the use of computers and mobile devices
Symptoms
- Excessive tearing or discharge
- Sensitivity to light
- Dryness
- Gritty feeling or foreign body sensation
- Burning, stinging or itching
- Redness
- Intermittent vision disturbance
- Eye fatigue