Effective Treatment for Dry Eye Syndrome

 The Santa Clarita Valley is hot and dry place!  The lack of humidity causes many to suffer from dry eye syndrome, even unknowingly.
The symptoms of dry eye syndrome commonly include the fluctuating vision, chronic redness, a sandy or gritty sensation, excess mucous discharge and surprisingly, excess tearing.  Many sufferers note that their vision gets blurry and improves with blinking.  It is also common to note blurry vision when working on the computer for a long stretch of time.  It is helpful to have a basic understanding of what tears are made of.  The watery component to tears is mainly produced by the lacrimal gland which is located on the upper outer area of the eye socket.  These glands are affected by inflammatory conditions such as Sjogren’s syndrome which causes these glands to produce less fluid.  There is a mucous component to tears which is produced by “Goblet” cells which are scattered through the conjunctiva over the white part of the eye.  The third main component is oil produced by Meibomian glands located across the upper and lower eyelids and which empty out across the eyelid margin.  A deficit in any of these three main components can lead to dry eye symptoms.
There are a variety of dry eye treatments that are aimed at a particular component of the tear film.  Sometimes increasing one component is enough to offset a deficit in a different component and sometimes only improving the particular deficiency will provide relief.  Every person is different and what works for one will not necessarily work for another.  The idea is to provide the most relief with the least amount of effort and expense.  If the occasional use of a lubricant drop is not giving you enough relief, a thorough evaluation is needed to see if you have dry eye syndrome and customize a treatment for you.
At Helm Vision Group we have treatment options that are uniquely available and very effective such as IPL treatment for dry eye syndrome.
For more information, please call 661-259-3937.