Dry Eyes: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment Options

Symptoms of Dry Eyes

The most obvious symptom of dry eyes is that your eyes feel dry, which can cause uncomfortable itching and redness. Other symptoms include increased sensitivity to light and blurred vision. You may also experience a gritty sensation or a sensation like sand in the eye. In addition, dry eyes can cause issues with contact lenses, stringy mucus in the eye, and tired eyes early in the day.

Surprisingly, if excess tears run down your cheeks, this may also be a sign of dry eyes. This is your body’s attempt to compensate for dryness, but it does not solve the problem because this surplus of tears lacks the mucus, oil, proteins, and antibodies of normal tears. These “emergency” tears temporarily wet the dry eyes, but they do not provide important nutrients or properly lubricate them.

Causes of Dry Eyes

On the most basic level, improper tear flow causes dry eyes, but other circumstances can exacerbate or bring about this condition. Dry eyes can be brought about by:

• The aging process. As you age, your eye glands and ducts experience wear and tear. Most people over 65 years old suffer from dry eyes.
• Menopause. Hormonal changes affect your ocular glands. Estrogen production is linked to tear flow, so as a woman’s estrogen levels decrease, she can experience symptoms of dry eyes.
• Certain medications. Drugs like antihistamines (commonly used to treat allergies) and birth control pills list dry eyes as a side effect.
• Sjögren’s syndrome, a disease in which the body mistakenly attacks glands that produce saliva and tears.
• Rheumatoid arthritis, due to excess inflammation.
• Collagen Vascular Diseases, which attack healthy tissue, including that of the eyes.
• Problems with ocular structure. If your eyelids do not close properly, this can affect tear flow and worsen dryness due to air exposure.

Treatment for Dry Eyes

Our doctors, especially Dr. Howard S. Kornstein, who has specialty training in cornea and external eye disease, offer a variety of treatment options for patients with dry eyes. These include:

• Utilizing the Lipiflow system
• Prescription eye drops that mimic the composition of natural tears. This is the most common treatment for dry eyes. There are many brands, so our doctors can help you determine the type and dosage that best works for you.
• Oral medications that work within your body to help your glands produce more tears.
• Topical treatments applied to the eye to help it generate tears.
• Punctual plugs. These temporary plugs block the ducts that drain tears out of the eye, keeping them better moisturized. We place them non-surgically and they dissolve over time.