Why Are My Eyes So Dry and Itchy?
Struggling with dry, itchy eyes? Discover causes, professional testing, and effective treatments with Envision Eye Care, your trusted optometrist in Oakville. […]
Understanding & Treating Dry Eye Symptoms
That scratchy, gritty feeling in your eyes? It might be dry eye disease, a common condition caused by problems with your tears. We take a highly you-focused approach to dry eye treatment at Envision Eye Care and strive to understand all the nuances that may be influencing your symptoms.
For some people, their dry eyes feel gritty, sore, or tired, while others are light-sensitive or deal with watery eyes. Long days working at a screen can also worsen your symptoms.
Based on our findings in your dry eye workup, we may recommend a mix of at-home solutions such as medicated eye drops and soothing eye masks, or suggest the power of IPL or radiofrequency treatment to rebalance your tear film.
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What Exactly Is Dry Eye Disease?
Dry eye disease happens when your eyes don’t produce enough quality tears to properly lubricate, protect, and nourish the front surface of your eye.
Tears are more complex than just water; they’re a precise mixture of water, oils, and mucus. When your tear film is disrupted, it can lead to a range of uncomfortable symptoms, including:
- Scratchiness or grittiness
- Burning or stinging
- Redness
- Excessive tearing
- Blurred vision
- Eye fatigue
Some people with dry eye may experience few or no symptoms, even if they have signs of the condition, such as damaged meibomian glands.
Dry Eye Diagnosis: Understanding Your Unique Experience
We aim to deeply understand your symptoms, so we’ll typically start your dry eye exam with some standardized questions that provide us with a baseline understanding of what you’re living with.
From there, we’ll typically use a combination of the following specialized tests and technology to thoroughly assess your tear film and eye health:
- Meibography: We take pictures of your meibomian glands, the tiny oil-producing glands that line your eyelids. This allows us to assess their structure and function, which is crucial to understanding the severity of your dry eyes.
- Dyes/staining: This test uses special dyes to help us see the tear film and identify any damage to the surface of the eye. It can reveal dry spots, corneal abrasions, and other abnormalities.
- Subjective TBUT (tear break-up time): This test measures how quickly your tear film breaks down after you blink. A shorter tear break-up time indicates dry eye and an unstable tear film.
- Schirmer’s test: During this test of tear production, we’ll gently place small strips of filter paper under your eyelids to absorb tears and measure the amount of moisture on the paper.
These tests give us a baseline to understand where you’re at today and allow us to monitor the effectiveness of your treatment plan over time. By thoroughly examining your eyes and listening to your experiences, we can create a treatment plan tailored to your specific needs.
RF & IPL Dry Eye Treatment
If, like many of our patients, you’ve been living with dry eye for years, you already know that eye drops alone are often not enough. Thankfully, advancements in technology have led to some effective and noninvasive solutions.
Two of our favourite solutions for chronic dry eye patients are IPL and radiofrequency. Not only can they tackle the root cause of symptoms, but they also rejuvenate the skin around your eyes, smoothing fine lines and wrinkles and boosting collagen production.
Lumecca IPL for Dry Eye
Lumecca IPL (intense pulsed light) therapy is a treatment that targets the inflammation underlying meibomian gland dysfunction. IPL uses gentle pulses of light to heat and liquefy the thickened oils that are clogging the meibomian glands. This helps to restore proper gland function and improve tear film quality.
One of the benefits of Lumecca IPL is that it often requires fewer treatment sessions compared to other IPL devices. As a lovely side effect, Lumecca IPL can also reduce redness, fine lines, and other signs of aging around the eyes.
Forma-i RF for Dry Eye
Forma-i leverages radiofrequency energy to gently heat the deeper layers of the skin around the eyes. This heating effect can improve blood flow, reduce inflammation related to MGD, and stimulate collagen production.
Forma-i is designed for treating the delicate skin around the eyes and can treat styes and chalazia (bumps on your eyelids).
The same RF energy that addresses dry eye symptoms also works to enhance the skin around your eyes. By stimulating collagen and elastin production, it can smooth fine lines and wrinkles, firm up loose skin, and bring a healthy glow to your eye area.
First Line of Defence: At-Home Dry Eye Therapies
We always want to suggest the right treatments based on your symptoms and what will work for your life. Typically, we’ll start with one or more of the following remedies as our first choice for helping you feel better. Our trusted production recommendations are available in-clinic.
- Eye masks: Bruder masks provide soothing warmth to the eyelids, which can help to melt thickened oils and improve meibomian gland function.
- Eyelid sprays: Eyelid sprays help to cleanse the eyelids and reduce inflammation.
- Omega-3 supplements: Omega-3 fatty acids, like those found in PRN Omega, can support overall eye health and reduce dry eye symptoms.
- Eye drops: We offer a variety of preservative-free dry eye-specific eye drops, including Theoloz Duo, Hylo products, and Ocunox, to provide relief from dryness and irritation.
- Eyelid hygiene: Products like Blephaclean and HOCL eyelid cleansers can help to maintain healthy eyelids and prevent blepharitis, a condition that can contribute to dry eye.
- Meibomian gland expression: This in-office procedure involves manually expressing the meibomian glands to remove blockages and improve their function.
Caring for Your Eyes & Finding Relief in Oakville
At Envision Eye Care, we’re committed to providing comprehensive, patient-focused eye care.
If you’re experiencing dry eye symptoms, we encourage you to book an eye exam with us. Let us help you see clearly and live brighter.
Book Appointment
Our Services
Visit Us
Our Location
Find us at the corner of Old Bronte Road and Dundas.
Parking
There’s convenient street parking right out front of our clinic and a parkade around back.
Our Address
- 120-2525 Old Bronte Rd.
- Oakville, ON L6M 4J2
Contact Information
- Phone: 905-465-3937
- Email: info@envisioneye.ca
Hours of Operation
Monday:
11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Tuesday:
10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Wednesday:
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Thursday:
11:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Friday:
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Saturday:
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Sunday:
Closed
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