Dry eye syndrome is now a very common disorder worldwide and affects many from all age groups. I call it the silent pandemic which has potential of causing eye strain, discomfort, sandy gritty sensation, burning eyes which hampers your daily life and in more severe cases constant redness, watering and blurring of vision. As it is not really sight threatening people tend to ignore it or treat it with over the counter lubricant which may not work in all cases and most of these drops has temporary soothing effect.
Lets understand this better.
Let’s start by explaining what keeps the eye moist and keeps dryness at bay. So all our eyes have a natural lubricant called the tear film . This is very thin layer that lubricates the eye , helps easy movement of lids and aids in keeping vision sharp. Tear film is made of three layers aqueous (water) the actual natural lubricant which is sandwiched between mucin layer which forms the base and hold the aqueous layer in position and the outer layer lipid layer that prevents evaporation of natural lubricant. This lipid layer is produced by glands called meibomian glands and its deficiency is major cause of dryness. Dysfunction of meibomian glands is caused by excessive screen use , lack of sleep, age, hormonal changes , local low grade infection and few other factors . This dysfunction leads to improper or deficient secretion of meibum and leads to dry eyes.
As per present available data almost 20-30 percent of people suffer from dry eyes. Of these majority have evaporative dry eye which is related to meibomian gland disorder.
Dry eye treatment traditionally was treated with artificial lubricants. However these are palliative treatment and have very short term effect.
However there is curative option a technological solution to dry eye available now with long term results where the dryness resolves and there is no dependence on drops.
This technological solution is called Intense Regulated pulse light therapy
This is simple non invasive OPD procedure which needs no recovery time and reduces your dependence on eye drops. Its most natural way to resolve dry eye treatment as its stimulates natural tear film component secretion . Majority of patients have dramatic improvement and they love the fact that they are off treatment.
