Some people have hobbies like golfing or boating. I like to study eyes. I have spent over 10 years and thousands of hours studying eyes and treating dry eye disease. During that time, I have come up with 4 principles of managing dry eye disease that I want to share with you today.
1: Prevention
You have probably heard that an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. In regards to eye care this means you have to develop a few daily habits to keep your eyes functioning at their maximum ability. These are simple little things such as: cleaning your eyelids with a tea tree foam cleanser or using hypochlorous acid spray, using eye friendly makeup and removing it properly at night, or doing warm compresses a few days. The more consistent you are with these small daily habits, the better your eyes will be as you age.
2: Reducing Symptoms
Prevention will get you so far, but we have to remember that dry eye disease is a chronic condition that cannot be cured. No matter how diligent you are with preventative care, you are going to experience flare ups and days when nothing you try works. This is when you need to contact your eye care provider and weather the flare ups. We have in office therapies, such as deep lid cleaning or short term doses of steroids to calm the flare up and get you back to functioning at your maximum level of vision. The key is being proactive and seeking care before a flare up gets out of hand and sets you back in you management of the disease.
3: Restoring Function
Over time our eyes can lose their state of natural homeostasis, that is they are not functioning at an optimal level. This can be from a myriad of reason, but in order to optimize your vision, we need to restore that natural balanced state of your eyes. IPL and TearCare are my two favorite ways to get your eyes and eyelid glands to restore their natural, optimal function. Both therapies are drop free, natural ways to jump start your eye health and get back to a normal balanced state.
4: Maintain the Balanced State
The fourth principle is going to sound a lot like the first because it is basically the same thing. However, since we’ve restored what we once lost, we are not preventing dry eye disease, we are now maintaining the natural functioning of our eyes and eyelids. This is done with a simple daily routine of lid hygiene, warm compresses, and artificial tears. Most of the time we will have maintenance treatments of IPL and TearCare to keep all systems optimized.
There you have it, 10+ years and thousands of hours of research distilled into 4 easy principles for treating dry eye. If you or someone you know needs help with any one of these 4 principles, give our office a call or schedule an appointment here and we would be happy to offer some guidance.