GYMEA DRY EYE CLINIC
WHAT CAN WE DO?
A focus on Dry Eye Disease
Did you know that numerous factors could be influencing your experience of dry eye disease? Conditions like Sjogren's syndrome can lead to both dry mouth and severe dry eye. If you have Rosacea, you're at a higher risk of developing Dry Eye Disease. Additionally, environmental elements like prolonged computer use, wearing contact lenses, exposure to pollution, low humidity, windy conditions, and certain medications are all potential risk factors for Dry Eye disease.
Dry Eye can be frustrating but there is help!
Diagnosis, classify and grade
We can diagnose Dry eye by firstly screening you for symptoms with standardised questionnaires. We will also assess your ‘tear break up time’ for tear film stability; lastly we will need to assess the front surfaces of your eyes for signs of physical dryness and damage.
The next step is to classify and grade the type of Dry eye disease you have, traditionally we used to think there were only Aqueous deficient dry eye (i.e. not enough production of tears) or Evaporative dry eye (i.e. tears evaporating too quickly), but now we understand it is quite possible for both types to be present along a spectrum.
We will also look for collarettes and crusting for signs of demodex mite infestation.
Aqueous deficient Dry Eye
We can recommend a few treatments below for aqueous deficient Dry eye, keep in mind in most cases people often have mixed dry eye and we may need to tailor your treatment depending on your diagnosis and severity.
For predominantly Aqueous deficient dry eye we can provide:
Artificial tears – we can recommend a range of different preservative free eye drops to best suit you.
Moisture chamber spectacles and humidifiers, this will create a moist local environment for your eyes to seal in moisture and prevent evaporation, as well as keeping away the wind, pollen, dust and pollutants in the air.
Evaporative dry eye
Evaporative dry eye is much more common than Aqueous deficient dry eye, we offer a variety of treatments to combat eyelid disease such as in cases of Blepharitis and Meibomian Gland Dysfunction:
Lid debridement – this is done with a small tool in office to improve the function of your Meibomian glands and relieve dry eye symptoms.
BlephEx® treatment – this is another in office procedure that removes excess bacteria, biofilm, bacterial waste and crusting along the lid margins and between eyelashes in only a few minutes.
In office heat mask eye warmer – this provides heat compress above body temperature to melt any solidified meibum in your meibomian glands.
Meibomian gland expression – this can also be done in office or at home with your fingers or tools to manually express your blocked meibomian glands.
Anti-inflammatory therapy
Oftentimes we find eyes that are very inflamed, red and angry require more than just heat packs and over the counter eye drops.
Prescription eye drops and medication play a very active role in managing inflammation. This may involve steroids, antibiotics and even cyclosporins.
We are able to prescribe the appropriate anti-inflammatory eye drops for acute cases of red eyes, sore eyes and dry eyes after a comprehensive examination.
Dietary modifications
The ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 is also extremely important for reducing inflammation in Dry eye, particularly if you have signs of eyelid disease such as Blepharitis and Meibomian Gland Dysfunction.
Dryeye Forte tablets – these omega 3 supplements that you can take orally for improving symptoms and signs of dry eye. Omega 3 is known to reduce inflammation and work to alter the consistency of your tear secretions for a much more stable and consistent tear quality.