Dry Eye Treatment in Medicine Hat

Dry Eyes

Among the most common and most annoying eye conditions is dry eyes. For some people, having dry eyes is an inconvenient nuisance, for others, it can be debilitating. 

Because of where we live in Southern Alberta, the vast majority of our population has some form of dry eyes. Unfortunately, most people try to manage their dry eye disease with things that they have heard work with others, such as over-the-counter dry eye drops, hoping to get the same results. Additionally, the marketing world has also recognized the prevalence of dry eye disease, so they are captivating audiences with commercials and advertising that is designed to entice and convince the average consumer that their dry eye problems can be solved with one simple product. Gratefully, sometimes those advertised products indeed work, but many times they do not. 

The truth is, not all dry eye disease is the same. As such, each person’s dry eye disease needs to be assessed by an optometrist, who will be able to determine the type of dry eye disease, and can create a management strategy catered to that person’s specific needs.

If Not All Dry Eye Disease Is the Same, What Types of Dry Eye Disease Are There?

This topic is an ever-changing  field of research, and classifications of types and subtypes of dry eyes change about every decade. The complexity of dry eye is so immense that, believe it or not, it is hard for even experts to come to an agreement on what types and subtypes of dry eye exist. If you really want a true idea of just how complex things are, and if you want your head to spin a bit, you can take a look at the diagrams and descriptions that have been published by these major research groups in recent years: DEWS II, ADES.

In short, there are so many types and subtypes of dry eyes that it is nearly impossible for us to try to simplify things in a short paragraph like this. Just know that if you have dry eye symptoms, the type and cause of your dry eyes may be extremely different from the type and cause of your friend, neighbour, family member, or coworker. 

It is important to have your dry eye looked at by one of our optometrists, who will be able to adequately determine the reasons behind your dry eye.

What Causes Dry Eye?

There are almost too many things to list here, but here are a few:

• Certain medications (too many to list)
• Certain recreational drugs
• Medical conditions (too many to list)
• Contact lens wear
• Sunlight exposure
• Deficiencies in the function of your eyelids
  
  • Meibomian gland dysfunction 
  • Incomplete blink 
  • Lid wyper epitheliopathy 
  • Anterior blepharitis 
  • Posterior blepharitis 
    And the list goes on…..
• The environment 
• Long term computer use
• Certain types of eye surgeries like LASIK and PRK
• Some kinds of eye injuries 
• Age (the older we get, the more dry our eyes generally feel)
• Gender (the hormones of females make them more likely to experience certain types of dry eyes than males)

Of course, most people have more than one cause for their dry eye, so things can get quite complicated sometimes. It’s rarely just one thing for people.