When you take a look at your surroundings, you find it difficult to appreciate the beauty around you when your eyes feel itchy or gritty. Or, when you work, you need to focus on the task at hand. Yet focusing seems impossible if your eyes burn.
These symptoms may indicate that you suffer from a condition commonly known as dry eye. Below, we’ll discuss this condition so you can understand what it is and how it impacts your vision. Read on to learn how dry eye affects you and what you can do about it.
What Is Dry Eye?
Dry eye refers to a condition where a person doesn’t produce enough tears to lubricate his or her eyes. Your tears allow your eyes to stay healthy and, believe it or not, they also allow you to have clearer vision.
When you blink your eyes, small amounts of tears spread from your tear ducts across your eyes’ front surface. As the moisture travels around your eyes, it lubricates your eyes, washes away foreign objects (like dust), reduces your risk for eye infections, and keeps your eyes smooth.
If you suffer from dry eye, your eyes may feel gritty, irritated, or scratchy. You may also feel like your eyes burn or like something is stuck in your eyes. Other symptoms of dry eye include blurred vision and excess watering of the eyes. If your dry eye is severe, it could damage your eyes and cause more serious vision problems.
What Causes Dry Eye?
Several causes contribute to dry eye. However, the two most common causes include the insufficient production of tears to keep eyes moist or the production of poor quality tears.
Insufficient Tears
Your eyes contain several glands to produce tears. Various factors could cause you to produce an insufficient amount of tears.
As you age, your eyes will become drier as a natural part of getting older. Additionally, women are more likely to develop dry eye as they experience hormone changes from using oral contraceptives, becoming pregnant, or going through menopause.
Medications like decongestants, antihistamines, antidepressants, and blood pressure medications can all lower your eyes’ regular tear production. If you suffer from conditions like diabetes, hypothyroidism, or rheumatoid arthritis, you are also at higher risk for developing dry eye.
However, the most common factor for insufficient tear production is the environment you’re in. For example, if you live in a dry, windy climate, these conditions increase how quickly your tears evaporate. Additionally, if you stare at electronic screens for too long, you don’t blink as often. This infrequent blinking also lets your tears evaporate more quickly. As a result, you’ll develop dry eye.
Poor Quality Tears
To effectively lubricate your eyes, your tears have three different layers. The outer layer is made up of oil that prevents the middle water layer from evaporating too quickly. The inner layer is made up of mucus that spreads the watery layer evenly across your eyes.
Sometimes, deficiencies in these layers causes you to produce poor quality tears. For example, if the oily layer isn’t thick enough, the watery layer could evaporate too quickly and your eyes won’t become moist. If the watery layer doesn’t contain enough water, your eyes won’t receive enough lubricant. And if the mucus layer is too thin, it can’t effectively spread your tears across your eyes.
How Is Dry Eye Treated?
Before your eye doctor can treat you for dry eyes, he or she must perform a comprehensive eye exam. During this exam, your optometrist or ophthalmologist will evaluate the quality of your tears as well as how many you produce.
Once you’ve been diagnosed with dry eye, your eye doctor will treat the condition with artificial tears. He or she may also have you take a medication that increases your natural tear production. Other forms of treatment include changing your current medications, adjusting any environmental factors you can control (like staring at a computer screen), and treating medical conditions that cause dry eye.
Can Dry Eye Be Prevented?
Like many other conditions, dry eye can be prevented. To avoid developing dry eye, wear sunglasses when you go outside. Sunglasses protect your eyes from the sun and wind so your tears don’t evaporate as quickly. Additionally, you should keep your home and office relatively humid and blink regularly if you stare at electronic screens. For more tips, talk with your eye doctor.
Take note of the symptoms of dry eye listed above. If you experience any of these symptoms, visit your eye doctor to see what lifestyle changes or medications can treat your dry eye. Also, use the preventative tips we’ve mentioned to reduce your risk for developing dry eye in the future.
If you have any questions about dry eye or want to know more about this condition, speak with your optometrist or ophthalmologist as soon as possible.