Dry Eye Center- Corpus Christi

I Have Dry eyes, What Does That Mean?

Dry eye disease happens when you don't have enough quality tears to moisturize and nourish the eyes. Your tears are responsible for maintaining a healthy surface and providing clear vision. Your tears are made up of three parts: a mucin layer, an aqueous (water) layer, and an oily layer. Any imbalance among these three layers often leads to dry eyes whether you have symptoms at first or not.

What Causes My Dry Eyes?

  • As previously mentioned, it is caused by having a poor quality of tears and the three layers are out of balance. Whether that be a lack of tears all together or a lack of oil that moisturizes the tears. This imbalance is often caused by the combination of inflammation and any one of these factors:

    - Age
    - Gender
    - Medications
    - Environment
    - Eye surgeries
    - Medical conditions 
    - Nutrition and hydration
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What Are All The Symptoms?

Dry eye disease can vary widely in symptoms. In early stages, patient experience no symptoms at all or symptoms they don't associate with being dry such as:

  • Blurry vision
  • Redness
  • Watery eyes (tearing)

In later stages, patients can expect any of these symptoms:

  • Grittiness
  • Irritation
  • Scratchiness
  • Burning & stinging
  • Foreign body sensation
  • Light sensitivity
  • Tired eyes

How Is Dry  Eye Disease Diagnosed?

Usually dry eyes can be diagnosed during your annual eye examinations. However, some patients come in specifically because of dry eyes. So how do we do it? Most of all, we evaluate both the quantity and quality of your tears. 

  • We go over your history and note your symptoms, health factors, medications, or environmental factors that can be contributing to dry eyes.
  • We examine the eyelids, lashes, cornea, and blink dynamics.
  • Last we measure the quality and quantity of your tears
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What Are My Options?

Historically, the treatment options were a countless list of trial and error of different eye drops. But today we narrow it down to two options:

1. Dry Eye Therapy in-office

  • I.P.L. and L.L.L.T. treatment.
  • Prescription eye drops (Miebo, Xiidra, Restasis).
  • In severe cases: Punctal Plugs and Amniotic Membrane.

2. Home remedies

  • Daily warm compresses using a heating eye mask.
  • Use recommended artificial tears when necessary.
  • Scrub your eyelids daily with a cleanser.
  • Adjust your lifestyle.
    • Taking breaks from digital devices every 20 minutes and blink often.
    • Increase the humidity in the air at work and home.
    • Wear sunglasses outdoors.
    • Drink plenty of water (8-10 glasses each day).
    • Add a source of omega-3 into your diet, either with food or supplements.
    • Move AC/heaters from blowing directly into your face.

What Works Best?

Your doctor will decide which is best depending on your specific eyes. However, the treatment we universally have seen the most success with is our IPL and LLLT treatment. This is because of two things. First, patients who prefer to try home remedies usually give up after two weeks due to not having the time or because of old habits. Second, IPL and LLLT treatment is different from all other treatments because it targets the SOURCE of dry eyes, rather than treating the symptoms. Therefore it is more effective long term. 

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Schedule your Dry Eye Evaluation with us at your convenience and let's start your journey to the end of dry eyes. Your eyes deserve the best!

We'll see you at your convenience, not ours. 7 days a week