Any remedy for dry eyes?

[TigerLilea]

I have dry eyes, also. My eye doc recommended cutting back on screen time, eye drops, and taking Omega 3 capsules three times per day.

 

[MNC]

Thanks a lot for your help and suggestions, now we have an arsenal of things to try.

Funny enough a very veteran eye doctor said that it's very easy to cure with ice inside a plastic bag over the eyes for an hour. I tried it, and didn't help. Just pain. Also tried with those masks but frozen. Nothing. Now I hear here that it should be the opposite, with heat... I'll try it first since it's for free...

Do you have Sojern Syndrome?

This summer I had veeeery extensive tests from a rheumatologist who discarded Sjöegren and anything else he could think of but CFS. I specifically went to him to check Sjoegren for the eyes and other symptoms, such as my hands dehydrating (getting wrinkles) after eating as if I had taken a hot bath...

Here in Madrid the Social Security is amazing and give you any test you may think of for free, even very expensive tests and treatments. But I also go to private doctors and tests from my private insurance and got tested lots of times through the years for everything. Everything is normal except for the tilt table test where I had a heart arrest and almost died.

I use PurGel drops. http://imedpharma.com/pharma/viscoadaptive-tears/

The reason I didn't recommend them even though I like them is because I'm not sure they're sold outside of Canada and they can only been purchased from Opthalmologists/Optometrists from what I understand.

I've never tried any other preservative free drops but the real key is preservative free. If you read what @Sasha wrote they said that their eyes got sore from using drops. When I was using Systane Ultra I realized after a few weeks that my eyes were significantly more dry and sore probably from a reaction to the preservative. I tried other non-preservative free eyedrops too and had a similar issue. I don't know if this is the case with Sasha or not.

The only problem with preservative free drops is they are 2-3x the money and a lot of them come in single serve which can be annoying (they do this because the lack of preservatives can produce Bacteria so the container has to be more isolated.)

The massages recommended by others in this thread are what my eye doctor told me to do. This is essentially what my ophthalmologist told me to do except instead of using the therapearl she said to do it in the shower for a few minutes after you've been in there for a bit and massage both the op and bottom. The reason as stated in the video is the heat helps to release the oil which is why the Therapearl worked so well for me.

I hope all of this helps and good luck!

Many thanks. But the active principle is what counts and I'll find it here too.

I used Hylo Forte drops, which are preservative-free.

Thanks!

 

[Forbin]

If you're staring at your computer a lot, something to check for is if a nearby air vent or fan is blowing air in your eyes and drying them out. It can happen in the summer with air-condition or in the winter with central heating.

I'm pretty sure that this led to my developing "giant papillary conjunctivitis" which is an inflammatory condition of the lining of the eye, often caused by mechanical friction with a dry contact lens.

My ophthalmologist pretty much just recommended using Thera Tears "every time you think of it." My condition eventually improved, but I had to go without contact lenses for quite some time.

You might also try getting a humidifier, if the air in your room is unusually dry.

If nothing else works, a doctor can insert little tiny plugs in your tear ducts to prevent your tears from draining, thus increasing the moisture in your eyes. Apparently this is pretty simple, but it wasn't high on my list of fun things to do, so I didn't try it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctal_plug

 

[Sasha]

I think that managing your computer time might be a surprisingly helpful first step! Of all the interventions that you might try, you might find it's the one that helps most (or the one that, without which, the others won't help as much as they might).

 

[SuzieSam]

@Forbin I had the punctal plugs done - totally painless, (and I'm very anxious about my eyes, total baby about messing with them). Was useless for me, but was worth a try.

My eye doc was convinced my level of dryness had to be Sjogrens Syndrome. Still can't believe it's not.

I ended up having salivary glands removed for biopsy, cos blood tests were inconclusive. Not recommended. Painful, lip still half numb 4 years later. No bloody Sjogrens anybloodyway!

 

[Shakota]

This might help: Systane brand eye ointment. You place a strip of it along your lower eyelashes before you go to bed. This helped me with constant dry eyes (due to aging, meds) and was recommended by my opthamologist. Good luck!

 

[LaurelW]

Has anybody used Restasis? I've been using it for several years, and it helped a lot, but not so much lately. There's a new drug, Xiidra as well. Haven't tried that one yet.