DRY EYE Clinic

What is dry eye?

Dry eye is a multifactorial disease which is caused by a lack of quality or quantity of tears to hydrate the ocular surface. There are many underlying causes of dry eye, including hormone changes, autoimmune disease, inflamed eyelid glands or allergic eye disease. Environmental factors, such as wind, pollution and prolonged screen time also have an effect. Dry eye can feel like strained or tired eyes, a gritty or burning sensation, and sometimes causes fluctuating vision and light sensitivity.

How is dry eye assessed?

Your optometrist will conduct a thorough assessment to better understand your dry eye and tailor a treatment plan that is best for you. Assessments include using ocular stains which highlight areas of dry cells on the surface of the eye, measuring the quantity of years and assessing the health of the meibomian glands using meibography, as well as discussing general health and environmental factors. From there, the optometrist can workout the most likely driving forces and how to best manage them.

What treatment options are there?

·         Lubricating eye drops  

·         Hot compress and lid massage

·         Eyelid hygiene

·         Medicated eye drops

·         Omega 3 supplements

·         IPL treatment

·         Blink training

·         Punctal plugs

How does IPL treatment improve dry eye?

IPL is a drop-free treatment for evaporative dry eye therapy. The IPL machine uses a broad spectrum of light which is then filtered and selected to match your skin type. The light energy can penetrate the skin around the eyelashes to heat up meibomian glands (glands that produce oils to support tears on the eye). Heating these glands results in improved oil production and secretion, which results in better quality tear film, resulting in improved symptoms of dry eye. IPL has been scientifically tested and proved for dry eye therapy. A single course of treatment requires less than 20 minutes, and depending on the severity of evaporative dry eye will determine if further repeat treatments are required. At Eyetech, we use the Lumenis M22 IPL machine.

IPL is indicated to treat the following ocular conditions:

  • Ocular rosacea

  • Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD)

  • Blepharitis

  • Lid styes