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For many people, their days start and end with the all-too-familiar grittiness caused by chronic dry eye. Symptoms typically include stinging, burning, blurred vision, and excessive watery discharge. When these symptoms arise, many turn to over-the-counter eye drops for their dry eye, which promise instant relief and lasting lubrication. Unfortunately, within hours, the dryness returns and the cycle continues.
While eye drops can play a role in eye care, they are often misunderstood. Eye drops are merely a temporary fix for a much deeper issue. If you find yourself reaching for your eye drops every few hours, it’s a clear sign that the drops are not solving the problem. Fortunately, there are alternative treatment methods that can provide lasting relief. Let’s explore why over-the-counter eye drops can’t solve dry eye in any meaningful, long-term way.
Dry Eye Syndrome Causes
The most common misconception about dry eye is that the eyes lack moisture. However, chronic dry eye can stem from a range of issues. First, we must understand the tear film, which is made up of water, lipids, and mucous. The watery layer of tears provides hydration to the eye; the lipid or oily layer prevents rapid evaporation of the water layer; and the mucous layer helps the tears adhere to the eye. Each layer is vital for a healthy tear film.
When any of the layers are compromised, you can experience dry eye syndrome. Your dry eye may be caused by a lipid deficiency, which typically happens when the meibomian glands in your eyes don’t produce enough oil. With insufficient oil, tears evaporate too quickly (a condition called evaporative dry eye). There are many possible reasons for meibomian gland dysfunction, including hormonal fluctuations, blepharitis, and autoimmune diseases.
On the other hand, you may be experiencing a condition called aqueous-deficient dry eye, which happens when the lacrimal glands (tear-producing glands) don’t generate an adequate watery layer. Aqueous-deficient dry eye is what most people imagine when they think about the cause of their dry eye. In some cases, dry eye can result from dysfunction of the lacrimal and meibomian glands, leading to a severely compromised tear film and acute discomfort.
Why Doesn’t Hydration Correct Dry Eye?
If you are a long-time sufferer of dry eye syndrome, you need to know why eye drops don’t always work for dry eye. The main reason is that over-the-counter drops only replenish the watery layer temporarily. They do not help you produce more tears, and do not prevent the evaporation of your tears. Without proper treatment, your tear film will not stabilize.
Another reason your eye drops may not be providing the relief you need is the ingredients used to keep the solution sterile. Many eye drop brands use preservatives to prevent growth of micro-organisms in the bottle and extend the product’s shelf life. Unfortunately, preservatives can be incredibly harsh on already compromised, highly sensitive ocular surface. We always recommend preservative free formulations for artificial tears.
Do Dry Eye Sufferers Need Professional Intervention?
Treating chronic dry eye syndrome requires a shift from temporarily adding moisture to restoring function. Because of underlying issues, treating the symptoms of dry eye will never be sufficient. Dry eye is most often caused by an inflammatory condition or mechanical failure of the eyelid glands, so we need to identify the underlying cause for patients to determine the reason for their tear film instability.
If you have been trying a variety of at-home remedies but you still have dry eye, further evaluation and treatment is the best way to experience lasting relief. Eyecare practitioners use specialized diagnostic tools to assess the quality of your tears, the rate of tear evaporation, and the health of your glands. We can see details that are impossible to detect without professional evaluation and imaging technology. Once we identify the cause, we can create a treatment plan.
There are several treatments highly effective for long-term relief of dry eye, including prescription drops, intense pulsed light therapy, thermal pulsation treatments, radiofrequency, eyelid hygiene, and scleral contact lenses. Unlike over-the-counter drops, specialty treatments are designed to treat the underlying cause of inflammation to help stabilize the tear film.
Expert Eye Care for Dry Eye Patients
While artificial tears alone are largely ineffective, patients with dry eye do have other avenues. Eye drops are merely the first step. Reach out to the Miami Contact Lens Institute to discuss your dry eye Miami with one of our eye care practitioners. We have spent years testing the best chronic dry eye treatment options and know which delivers the best results.
