Say Goodbye to Dry Eye With These Helpful Tips
Virtually everyone experiences dry eyes from time to time, often from being overtired or exposed to an arid environment. Your body tends to reset itself overnight or when removed from dry conditions.
However, dry eye disease is more persistent and recurs often. It’s increasingly common in this age of digital monitors on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
You can see the ophthalmologists at IC Laser Eye Care if dry eye interferes with daily living, but in the meantime here are some tips to help you avoid the discomfort dry eyes can cause.
Signs and symptoms of dry eye
Both eyes usually experience symptoms simultaneously when you have dry eye. The most common signs of dry eye include:
- Eye fatigue
- Scratchy, irritated sensations
- Stinging or burning sensations
- Watery eyes in response to eye irritation
- Red eyes
- Feeling as though you have something in your eyes
- Light sensitivity
- Blurry vision
- Nighttime driving becomes difficult
- Contact lenses are uncomfortable
- Mucus buildup in and around your eyes
You may experience one symptom or a combination of several.
Reasons for dry eye
Rather than a single substance, your tears have three components that work together in balance. When the proportions go out of balance, dry eye can result.
This balance changes for a wide range of reasons, including:
- Getting older
- Declining tear production due to disease or medication side effects
- Increased evaporation
- Allergies
- Environmental conditions
In many cases, you can improve conditions contributing to dry eye, minimizing your symptoms and their distraction.
Tips to ease dry eye
Depending on the frequency and severity of your symptoms, simple changes to your life may make a big difference, putting off medical care to a later date. Try these tips to see if they work for you.
Reduce your screen time
Long hours spent on computers, smartphones, and other devices could slow your natural blink rate. Blink completeness may also be an issue, leading to an interruption in the natural replenishment of eyeball lubrication. In addition, slower blinking contributes to tear evaporation.
Reducing screen time isn’t always possible, but you can take breaks every 20 minutes to refocus and blink deliberately and fully.
Boost your tears
Using artificial teardrops helps to restore balance and supplement low tear production. These aren’t eye drops for redness, but rather specially formulated sterile solutions to lubricate and protect. Check with us if you’re unsure which product is best for you.
Watch your environment
Avoiding dry eyes may be as simple as pointing a dash vent away from you while driving or adding a humidifier to your bedroom or other living space. Deflectors for forced air furnace vents may also spare you some direct contact.
If you suffer from allergies, plan your time outside during hayfever season if that’s a dry eye trigger for you.
Increase omega-3 fatty acids
Adding fish, fish oil supplements, flax and hemp seeds, pecans, and walnuts can boost your omega-3 dietary intake, which is clinically shown to protect against dry eye. Choosing quality fats lowers your risk of developing dry eye, so enjoying salmon poached in olive oil is a delicious way to treat your eyes.
When home care no longer offers sufficient relief for your dry eye, contact us for medical options that offer next-level treatments. You can book an eye exam at any of our three locations in Bensalem and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Hamilton, New Jersey, by calling or using the online tool to schedule. There’s a solution for dry eye. Find yours today.