Dry eyes can be uncomfortable, affect your quality of life and lead to permanent vision impairment. Because multiple ocular and medical factors are involved, a comprehensive eye examination with your ophthalmologist is recommended to discuss dry eye disease and treatment options. Patients have vastly different therapeutic responses, so be patient and tenacious. Keep in mind that treating dry eye is a process. Even though there is no cure, there can be a solution.
Mild Dry Eye Treatments
With mild dry eye, artificial tear drops can supplement reduced tear production and help treat symptoms. Nutritional supplements such as flaxseed or fish oil capsules may also be beneficial for dry eye disease.
Chronic Dry Eye Disease Treatments
For patients with chronic symptoms due to dry eye disease, over-the-counter treatments are often not enough. RESTASIS™, XIIDRA™, and CEQUATM are three FDA-approved prescription eye drops for dry eye and are valuable treatment options for this condition. RESTASIS™ and CEQUATM combat dry eye disease by helping the eyes produce healthier and more abundant tears. XIIDRA™ is approved to treat the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease.
Other prescription eye drops can also be used to treat the inflammation component of dry eye disease. For some patients, a tiny plug is inserted into a tear drain opening in the lid, which can keep tears on the eye’s surface by slowing the drainage rate from the eye. This procedure is called punctal occlusion.
The most recent treatment soon to be available at ESA for dry eye disease, True Tear®, is an FDA-approved nasal neurostimulation device that can be an alternative to treatment with artificial eye drops.
There are also office-based devices available that use heat and pressure or intense pulsed light to treat inflamed and clogged eyelid oil glands and improve tear quality.
By Michael Boehm, M.D.
Dr. Boehm is a board-certified ophthalmologist at Eye Surgeons Associates with a fellowship in cornea and external diseases with a special interest in dry eye. He practices at our Bettendorf and Rock Island offices. Eye Surgeons is an Accredited Dry Eye Center.
The material contained in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider.