Many people deal with dry eyes daily. But as uncomfortable as dry eyes are, they can become much more frustrating when accompanied by a headache. When your eyes are burning and your head is pounding, you might wonder if your dry eyes caused a headache.

Dry eyes and headaches share some similar causes, like underlying medical conditions or environmental factors. While one condition doesn't typically cause the other, they can often make symptoms worse for each other. 

What Is Dry Eye Disease?

Dry eye disease is a lot more common than most people think. It's believed that at least 30% of Canadians experience dry eyes at some point in their lives. But what is dry eye disease exactly?

Your eyes are covered by an extremely thin film of tears. These tears are spread evenly over the eye's surface every time you blink and are responsible for flushing away contaminating particles while hydrating the eye. They do all of this while providing a smooth and clear surface that allows light to pass through unobstructed.

This tear film is made of three layers:

• The mucus layer keeps the tears attached to the surface of the eye.
• The watery aqueous layer helps protect and nourish the eye.
• The oily outer layer prevents the tear from evaporating.

When your tear film is stable, it keeps the eye protected. However, what if it's unstable? An imbalance in the tear film, whether due to the quantity or quality of the tears, can lead to the tear evaporating too quickly. This leaves the eye unprotected, inflamed, and irritated. When this situation arises, it's called dry eye disease.

The Symptoms of Dry Eye Disease

When your tear film isn't balanced properly, you'll likely notice almost immediate inflammation. This often feels like something is burning in your eye, or someone has thrown a few grains of sand under your eyelid. This is one of the most obvious symptoms of dry eye disease, but other signs can include:

• Visible redness or a watery discharge
• Blurry vision
• Light sensitivity
• Overly watery eyes, where the eye floods itself with poor-quality tears

Overall, these symptoms can cause significant discomfort. It may be harder to focus on work, and enjoying your hobbies may cause you more irritation than pleasure. This becomes much more problematic when headaches are involved.

The Link Between Dry Eyes & Headaches

It's not unusual to experience dry eyes and headaches simultaneously. However, the extent of this relationship isn't fully understood. While people who experience chronic migraines are much more likely to develop dry eyes, this could be due to several potential reasons.

When your tear film is unstable, it doesn't provide as smooth a surface as when it's healthy. When light passes through, it can scatter, potentially affecting how it refracts as it enters the eye. This can make it more difficult for the brain to process what it's seeing, putting additional strain on your visual system and possibly leading to headaches.

On the other hand, dry eyes increase inflammation in the area around your eyes. This can put additional strain on surrounding areas—like the brain—which can also lead to a headache.

Regardless of the exact cause, there does remain a link between the two. Both dry eye disease and headaches have similar symptoms, like inflammation and light sensitivity. When one flares up, it could trigger the other, leading to the correlation.

However, a study performed in 2015 found that some patients who experienced both chronic migraines and chronic dry eye disease had a structural difference in their eyes. The nerves in the corneas of those who did not suffer from chronic migraines differed from those who did. 

While this link isn't fully understood, the results were simple—people with migraines are significantly more likely to develop dry eyes.

Can Your Optometrist Treat Dry Eye Disease?

There is good news, though. In most situations, your optometrist can treat your dry eyes and bring you lasting relief. Our team at River Heights Eye Care is here to help—but finding relief could be as simple as making some adjustments at home.

When looking for relief from dry eye disease, it helps to:

• Use prescription eye drops or ointments as recommended by your optometrist.
• Use warm compresses to stimulate the areas around the eye and promote healthy tear production.
• Use eye masks while sleeping to help keep your eyes lubricated.
• Follow a balanced diet, or take supplements to encourage healthy tear production.
• Avoid tobacco products, as they can inflame the eye.

It can also help to make environmental changes to reduce additional strain on your eyes. If you constantly use a fan, aim it away from your face to prevent drying out your eyes. It can also help to use a humidifier in rooms you spend a lot of time in.

Get Help for Your Dry Eyes

If you find you're dealing with dry eyes, visit River Heights Eye Care. Our team can perform a comprehensive eye exam to find the cause of your dry eyes and give you a proper recommendation for treatment. Don’t continue to suffer from dry eyes—book an appointment with us today!

The post Can Dry Eyes Cause Headaches? first appeared on River Heights Eye Care.

Dry eyes can be irritating and uncomfortable to deal with. You may assume you need your optometrist's help with this condition, but this isn’t always true. Did you know you can manage dry eye with a bowl, washcloth, and water?

You can use a warm compress by soaking a washcloth in warm water to help relieve dry eye symptoms and improve tear production. 

What Is Dry Eye?

Dry eye is a condition where your tears cannot effectively lubricate your eyes, leading to irritation. Many people assume that dry or tired eyes are expected after a long day, and while it can happen from time to time, consistent dryness is concerning. Dry eyes are more than an annoyance—they can affect your quality of life. 

You can experience several symptoms if you have dry eye, including: 

• Eyes that sting or burn
• Light sensitivity
• Red eyes
• Gritty eyes
• Blurry vision
• Eye fatigue
• Watery eyes
• Trouble wearing contact lenses
• Stringy mucus in or around the eyes

What Causes Dry Eye?

Dry eye often occurs because of problems with your tear film, which includes 3 layers (mucus, water, and oil) that work together to keep your eyes clean and hydrated. When issues arise in the tear film, like decreased tear production or increased tear evaporation, it can lead to dry eyes.

Decreased Tear Production

Decreased tear production occurs when your body can’t produce enough tears to lubricate your eyes. There can be several reasons this happens, including: 

• Aging
• Medical conditions
• Medication use
• Desensitized corneal nerves

Increased Tear Evaporation

Increased tear evaporation happens when your tears dry out too quickly. A common cause of this issue is meibomian gland dysfunction, a condition where the meibomian glands become clogged which can prevent proper oil flow to the tear film. 

Some possible causes of increased tear evaporation include: 

• Meibomian gland dysfunction
• Eyelid problems
• Eye allergies
• Vitamin A deficiency
• Preservatives in eye drops
• Infrequent blinking

How Can Warm Compresses Help with Dry Eye?

Warm compresses can help dry eyes by providing moisture and heat. These compresses can help you produce more tears, unclog the meibomian glands, and relieve pain and swelling. 

Research shows that heating devices like warm compresses on the eyes can help relieve dry eye symptoms. 

Are Warm Compresses Safe to Use?

Being safe with your eyes is always a good idea, so you may wonder if warm compresses can damage them. 

While compresses can have many benefits, it’s important to keep the washcloth at an ideal temperature. It’s essential that your compress is warm, not hot. A washcloth that’s too hot can injure the skin around your eyes. 

How to Use a Warm Compress to Manage Dry Eye

You don’t need to visit your eye doctor for a warm compress. They’re available at your home if you have the right supplies. You can make a warm compress in a few simple steps. 

Use a clean bowl, washcloth, and warm water to complete the following steps: 

• Fill a bowl with warm water (ensure your skin can handle the heat)
• Dunk a washcloth into the bowl until it’s completely soaked
• Take the washcloth out of the bowl and wring out the excess water
• Fold the washcloth so it fits comfortably across your eyes

Give yourself around 5 to 10 minutes to relax with your warm compress. Lie back and completely cover your closed eyes with the compress. You can use a warm compress as many times as necessary during the day—just know that frequent use may dry out the skin around your eyes. 

Other Dry Eye Treatments

Warm compresses aren’t the only dry eye treatment available. Your optometrist at River Heights Eye Care has many tools to help relieve your symptoms, including at-home and in-office treatments. 

Some potential treatments they may recommend include: 

• Prescription eye drops: Prescription eye drops from your eye doctor can help stimulate tear production or relieve inflammation.
• Dietary changes: Dietary changes can benefit your eye health and help relieve dry eye symptoms. 
• Environmental changes: Your environment can affect your eyes, leading to dryness. Changing your lifestyle and improving your environment can help your symptoms. 
• Artificial tears: Artificial tears are eye drops that simulate real tears. They’re available over the counter and can help temporarily relieve dry eyes. 

Don’t Live with Dry Eyes

Dry eyes don’t need to be a life-long sentence. You can improve your symptoms with at-home remedies or help from your eye doctor at River Heights Eye Care. They’re here to help you enjoy clear, comfortable vision. 

Contact River Heights Eye Care if you experience dry eye symptoms. 

The post How to Use a Warm Compress to Manage Dry Eye first appeared on River Heights Eye Care.

When your eyes don’t get the proper amount of moisture they need, it can result in dry eye disease. Dry eyes can be a chronic issue and may affect anyone in your family. The first step to finding relief is visiting your optometrist for a comprehensive eye exam to get to the bottom of your symptoms. 

Traditional contacts can be tough to wear with dry eyes. Your eye doctor can help manage your dry eyes with specialty contacts like scleral lenses to help you find relief.

Let’s take a closer look at how dry eye disease develops, how scleral lenses work, and how your optometrist can help.

Understanding Dry Eye

Dry eye disease can develop when your eyes aren’t producing enough tears, or your tears are evaporating too quickly. 

Your tear film consists of 3 layers:

• The oily outer layer
• The watery middle layer
• The inner mucus layer

Dry eyes can be caused by an inability of the tear film to lubricate your eyes effectively. An interruption to your tear production process can cause inflammation and result in meibomian gland dysfunction. When this happens, the small glands in your eyelids that produce the oily layer of tears become clogged and cause instability in the tear film. 

What Causes Dry Eye?

Dry eye disease is becoming more prevalent, and that's due in large part to a variety of risk factors that include: 

• The natural aging process
• Increased digital screen time, leading to digital eye strain
• Allergies
• Ill-fitting contact lenses
• Laser eye surgery
• Diseases like diabetes, thyroid disease, and others

Your environment can also play a role, especially in a colder climate like Alberta. It’s important to look out for the symptoms of dry eye disease, which can include:

• A stinging, gritty, or scratchy feeling in your eyes
• Watery eyes
• Blurry vision
• Sensitivity to light

The good news is, your optometrist can help you find solutions to manage dry eyes and get relief. 

How Scleral Lenses Can Help

Scleral contact lenses are a specialty type of rigid gas permeable contact lens that sits on the sclera (the white of your eyes), unlike traditional contact lenses that rest directly on the cornea. Scleral lenses can be an excellent option for patients who may not be able to wear contacts due to issues such as dry eye, keratoconus, and hard-to-fit eyes.

Scleral lenses vault over the cornea and allow for more space, providing extra breathability by creating a fluid reservoir between the lens and the eye to keep your eyes hydrated. Due to the size of scleral lenses, the extra coverage can do wonders for your eye comfort while also allowing oxygen to reach your eyes.

There are different types of scleral contact lenses:

• Corneo-scleral lenses and semi-scleral lenses—these lenses are much larger than traditional gas permeable lenses and rest between the cornea and the sclera.
• Mini-scleral lenses—these lenses vault over the corneal surface and rest on the anterior sclera.
• Full-scleral lenses—these lenses are the largest type and provide the most amount of space between the back surface of the lens and cornea.

Visiting Your Optometrist for a Fitting

Scleral contact lenses can be an excellent option to help with managing dry eye disease, but you’ll need to visit your optometrist for a comprehensive contact lens fitting to get a safe and comfortable fit.

Your eye doctor can conduct a thorough contact lens exam to determine what specialty lenses are best for your vision situation. The fitting process involves discussing hygiene and proper insertion methods. 

A trial period will also be necessary to ensure your new contact lenses fit comfortably. When the trial period is over, your optometrist can discuss your experience with you in detail to ensure you’re satisfied with your new lenses.

Innovative Solutions to Manage Dry Eyes

Dry eyes can be challenging to manage, and finding relief may be the first thing on your mind when dealing with the disease. With the dry Alberta climate playing a significant role, it’s important to schedule consistent eye exams with your optometrist to keep your eyes healthy.

Contact our team at River Heights Eye Care to schedule an appointment and see if scleral contact lenses can help you manage dry eyes.

The post Scleral Lenses for Dry Eye: How They Can Help first appeared on River Heights Eye Care.

We know that with an increase in the usage of digital devices, a common complaint is dry eyes related to digital eye strain. But you can also experience dry eyes and irritation from wearing contact lenses. 

Dry eyes can be detected and diagnosed during a routine eye exam. An early diagnosis is crucial to protecting your vision and eye health. Read on to learn more about dry eyes, contact lens-related dry eyes, treatment options, and what contact lenses to wear for dry eyes. 

All About Dry Eyes

Dry eyes, also known as dry eye disease (DED) or dry eye syndrome (DES), is a condition caused by the lack of lubrication in the eye. Either you produce poor quality tears or insufficient tears, affecting your eye comfort and ocular health. 

The tear film should comprise water, mucous, and oil to keep the eyes moist and prevent your tears from evaporating. When there is an imbalance, you can experience dry eye symptoms. 

Symptoms associated with dry eyes include:

• Burning
• Eye pain, strain, & irritation
• Redness
• Blurry vision
• Grittiness
• Watery eyes
• Light sensitivity

There are several causes of dry eyes:

• Age
• Certain medications 
• Systemic Conditions
• Hormones
• Allergies
• Environmental factors
• Eye surgery
• Prolonged screen usage
• Long-term contact lens wear

Contact Lens-Related Dry Eyes

Contact lens discomfort (CLD) from dry eyes is the most common reason for contact lens wearer dropout. So what is contact lens-related dry eyes?

In eyes with healthy tear production, the contact lens sits over the tear film on the cornea (the clear dome on the front of the eye). Lack of tears or poor-quality tears affects this tear film and can lead to increased friction between the contact lens and the eye’s surface, causing discomfort. 

Contact lenses need to absorb tears to remain soft and maintain their shape. When the eyes lack stable, high-quality tears, contacts become less flexible and can cause irritation. Tears keep your eyes healthy and comfortable, so dry eye symptoms often worsen throughout the day because of the eye’s inability to stay hydrated.

Contact lenses can also cause discomfort and dry eyes because of:

• Design
• Material
• Hygiene routine
• Length of time worn

Treatment for Dry Eyes

There’s no cure for dry eyes, but there are treatment options that can help you manage symptoms. Dry eye therapy can include the following:

• Artificial tears
• Medicated eye drops and ointments
• Warm compresses
• Eye masks
• Nutrition and diet adjustments
• Environmental changes

Contact Lenses for Dry Eyes

You may consider giving up your contact lenses because of dry eyes. But before you do that, here are some ways to achieve comfortable, clear vision with contact lenses:

Lens Material

Lens technology has come a long way, with a range of contact lenses available to suit almost everyone. Soft and hard contact lens materials can offer extreme breathability, allowing more oxygen to reach the cornea. Soft hydrogel contact lenses can keep your eyes comfortable longer.  

Daily disposable contacts are also extremely comfortable. Along with convenience, daily contacts help prevent protein buildup, resulting in more comfort without irritation and dryness.

Water Content

High water content in contact lenses can actually dry out your eyes. While they provide adequate moisture at the onset, they absorb more of the tear film. Your eye doctor can determine what lenses can work best for you. 

Lens Size

Most contact lenses sit on the cornea. Scleral contact lenses are specialty contacts that cover the sclera, the whites of the eye. These lenses can work well for people with dry eyes because they create a tear reservoir. 

Lens Solution

If the problem is not with your contacts, it can be your lens solution. Using lens solution with preservatives can irritate or dry your eyes. 

Always use the recommended solution for your contact lenses, or speak to your eye doctor about choosing a different type or brand. 

Measures to Avoid Dry Eyes with Contact Lenses

Here are some steps you can take to help avoid dry eyes when you wear contact lenses:

• Have a contact lens exam and fitting with an optometrist to ensure you try the best lens style and fit for your unique eye needs.
• Only wear high-quality lenses prescribed by your eye doctor.
• Avoid wearing your contact lenses longer than the recommended time.
• Maintain a thorough contact lens hygiene routine based on your contact lens type. 

Dry Eye Relief

If you experience dry eye symptoms, don't be so quick to ditch your contact lenses. The River Heights Eye Care team is here to listen to your concerns and provide a treatment plan. Book an appointment today and get ready to say goodbye to dry eyes.

The post Do Contact Lenses Dry Your Eyes first appeared on River Heights Eye Care.

If you’re suffering from dry eyes, it can be hard to determine the cause of your symptoms, especially during the springtime. With pollen, pet dander, and more allergens in the air, what’s causing your red and watery eyes? Learning the difference between dry eyes and allergies can help you know when to seek help from your optometrist. 

Continue reading to learn more about dry eyes and allergies, including how you can tell which condition you’re experiencing. 

What Is Dry Eye Disease? 

Dry eye disease is a common and often chronic condition that affects nearly 30% of Canadians. Your tears help lubricate your eyes each time you blink, but complications can arise when there is instability within your tear film. Your tear film has 3 layers (oil, water, mucus) that work together to keep the eye’s surface moist and protected. 

You may develop several uncomfortable symptoms when something is wrong with the tear film.

Dry Eye Disease Symptoms 

Dry eye disease can cause several irritating symptoms to develop. While these symptoms don’t have long-term effects, they can affect your quality of life. Common signs of dry eye disease include: 

• Eyes that burn
• Pain or discomfort
• Eye redness
• Watery eyes
• Stringy mucus around the eyes
• Eye fatigue
• Difficulty focusing on tasks
• Blurry vision
• A gritty feeling in the eyes

Dry eye symptoms can feel like a part of everyday life, but this condition can cause significant discomfort. 

What Causes Dry Eyes? 

Dry eye disease is a multifactorial condition, meaning there can be many reasons you experience dry and irritated eyes. In general, issues within the tear film cause your eyes to become dry. These issues typically occur due to decreased tear production, increased evaporation, or both. 

Decreased Tear Production

Dry eyes can occur when your body cannot produce enough tears to lubricate your eyes. Tear production tends to slow down with age, but other factors can affect this production. Other possible causes of decreased tear production include: 

• Certain medical conditions
• Certain medications
• Desensitized corneal nerves

Increased Tear Evaporation

Increased tear evaporation occurs when your tears dry too quickly, leaving the eye's surface unprotected. This faster evaporation typically happens when the glands that produce oil for your tear film experience problems. These glands, your meibomian glands, can become blocked or clogged, leading to dry eyes. 

Causes of increased tear evaporation include: 

• Meibomian gland dysfunction
• Infrequent blinking
• Eyelid problems such as entropion & ectropion 
• Eye allergies
• Preservatives in topical eye drops
• Wind, smoke, or dry air
• Vitamin A deficiency

Dry eye disease and allergies have several overlapping symptoms, so it’s no surprise if someone misinterprets dry eyes for allergies (or vice versa). 

How Allergies Affect Your Eyes

Allergies can lead to dry eyes, known as allergic conjunctivitis. This irritation occurs when allergens make direct contact with the eyes. The risk of allergens may be seasonal or year-round, depending on what you’re allergic to. 

Some potential triggers for allergic conjunctivitis include: 

• Pet dander
• Pollen from trees, grasses, or weeds
• Diesel exhaust
• Dust mites
• Cigarette smoke
• Mould
• Perfume

You can develop several irritating symptoms when exposed to these allergy triggers. These symptoms include red, watery, burning, itchy, or puffy eyes.

Are You Experiencing Dry Eyes or Allergies? 

If you’re suffering from dry eyes, it can be difficult to know whether it’s because of dry eye disease or allergies. With the many similarities these conditions have, it’s unlikely you can determine the cause of your irritation on your own. Visiting your optometrist is the best way to diagnose the cause of your dry eyes. 

Remember Your Symptoms

To help your eye doctor diagnose your condition more quickly, document your symptoms. While dry eyes and allergies have many similar symptoms, they have specific differences. 

Several allergy symptoms are not present in dry eye disease, such as: 

• Itchiness
• Eyelid swelling
• Under-eye circles

Keeping an eye on which symptoms you’re experiencing can help your optometrist more easily diagnose the cause of your dry eyes. The treatments they recommend will vary depending on the cause of your irritation. 

Dry Eye & Allergy Treatments

Relieving the symptoms of dry eye disease and allergies requires different methods. Your allergy symptoms typically resolve with time once you remove yourself from the allergen and avoid repeated exposure. Other treatments may include cold compresses, artificial tears, and antihistamines. 

Dry eyes can be more complicated. The most effective treatment depends on your unique needs. Several treatment options can help relieve your symptoms, including: 

• Medicated eye drops & ointments
• Artificial tears
• Compresses
• Eye masks
• Nutrition & diet adjustments
• Environmental changes 

Your optometrist will recommend the treatments they feel are most effective for your dry eye situation. 

Don’t Live With Dry Eyes

No matter the cause of your dry eyes, you don’t deserve to live with this discomfort. You can improve your quality of life with help from your optometrist. They can recommend effective treatments after completing a comprehensive eye exam. 

Book an appointment if you’re experiencing symptoms of dry eye disease or allergies. 

The post Are you Experiencing Dry Eye or Allergies? first appeared on River Heights Eye Care.

Dry eye is one of the most common ocular conditions today. The scratchy, gritty, or stinging feeling can make your day-to-day quite uncomfortable. 

According to a survey from the Alberta Association of Optometrists, 3 out of 5 Albertans who experience dry eye symptoms do nothing to treat it. Talking with your optometrist to see if adding omega-3s to your diet is right for you can help keep your dry eye symptoms in check.

How Do Your Tears Work & Why Are They Important?

Tears wash away dirt and debris to protect your eyes from germs and infections. When you blink, a tear film covers your eye to keep the surface smooth and clear. 

The tear film is made up of 3 layers:

1. An oily layer - responsible for making the tear surface smooth and keeps the tears from drying up too quickly.
2. A watery layer - makes up most of what you see as tears and washes away the particles that don’t belong in your eyes.
3. A mucous layer - helps to spread the watery layer over the surface of the eye to keep it moist. Without this layer, tears would not stick.

If one or more of these layers are affected, you can experience dry eyes. 

What is Dry Eye?

There are two main causes of dry eye. Either your eyes aren’t making enough tears or your tears are drying up too quickly.

A gland in the corner of your eye called the lacrimal gland is responsible for making your tears. When your lacrimal gland does not make enough tears you can experience dry eyes. 

Causes of this include:

• Aging eyes
• Medical conditions such as diabetes, lupus, Sjogren’s syndrome, and thyroid disorders
• Side effects from medication
• Laser vision correction
• Inflammation

If your tears are drying up too quickly there could be a problem with the makeup of your tears. The meibomian gland creates an oil that prevents the tear film from evaporating. If it gets clogged, you can experience the symptoms of dry eye. This is known as Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD).

Other reasons your tears are drying up could be:

• Environmental factors like smoke, wind, or dry air
• Low blinking activities such as staring at a screen or reading
• Eyelid problems
• Thyroid issues causing the surface of your eye to get bigger

Where Does Omega-3 Come Into Play?

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential fats that the body can’t produce itself. Your body instead must get it from external food sources. Foods high in omega-3s include fish, nuts (especially walnuts), flax seeds, and leafy vegetables. Omega-3s are also available in pill form.

Studies show when your body breaks down omega-3 fatty acids, it can lead to the suppression of inflammation. Inflammation of the eyelids or the eye’s surface can worsen other dry eye symptoms. By adding omega-3s to your diet, symptoms can improve.

Increasing dietary lipid (fat) intake with omega-3s can also improve the function of the meibomian gland. This influences the oily layer of your tears and is important to ensure your tears don’t dry up too quickly. Your eye doctor may recommend adding omega-3 fatty acids to your diet as a therapeutic option for MGD. 

Find the Solution Right for You

Adding more fish, nuts, and leafy vegetables to your diet can increase your overall eye health. If you think Omega-3s could help treat your dry eyes, visit your local trusted eye care professional at River Heights Eye Care to discuss a dry eye solution that is right for you. 

The post How Omega-3 Helps Treat Dry Eye first appeared on River Heights Eye Care.

Chances are you’ve experienced the irritation of dry eyes—after all, 90% of Albertans have reported feeling the symptoms. Burning eyes. Redness. Blurred vision. Dry eye disease can leave you with sore eyes and compromised vision.

Just because dry eye disease is common doesn't mean it's normal and doesn't mean you have to put up with it. At River Heights Eye Care, we have a selection of remedies designed to ease your eyes.

One popular dry eye therapy? Masks. Read on to understand the ins and outs of dry eye disease and how masks can help bring you comfort.

The 4-1-1 on Dry Eye: What It Is, How It Feels, & How It Happens

Dry eye disease is caused by a lack of moisture and lubrication on your eyes. Normally these would be provided by your tears. However, if something has disrupted either the quantity or quality of the tears you produce, you'll likely start to feeling dry eye symptoms.

Dry eyes can interfere with your day-to-day, wreaking havoc with frustrating symptoms such as:

• Pain
• Burning
• A gritty sensation as if something were in your eye
• Overly watery eyes
• Redness 
• Blurred vision

Equally as frustrating is the fact that dry eye disease has so many different causes. Dry eye can be exacerbated by:

• Computer use
• Contact lenses 
• Aging
• Environmental factors
• Smoking 
• Laser eye surgery
• Health conditions 
• Medications
• Allergies

Luckily, there are ways to address dry eye. Let’s look a little closer at the direct cause of most of these symptoms: interference with your tears.

Breaking Down Your Tears

Tears are an important part of how our eyes function. They coat our eyes to keep them moist and clean, and make blinking easy and smooth. 

Did you know your body produces different types of tears that all have different compositions? There are 3 distinct types of tears: 

• Emotional tears: What we commonly refer to as tears. Their name says it all—these are the tears we cry when we’re sad, angry, upset, or delighted. Scientists suggest that emotional tears have additional hormones & proteins not found in other tear types. 
• Reflex tears: Your onion tears. Reflex tears are a reaction that protects our body from stimuli like chemicals, fumes, & the bug that flew into your eye while you were biking. They can also come hand-in-hand with eating spicy food, coughing too hard, or vomiting. Reflex tears clean & flush our eyes.
• Basal tears: Your everyday workhorse tears. They keep our eyes well lubricated & nourished, & are released in small quantities all the time.  

Basal tears are often directly affected by dry eye disease. These complex tears can be broken down into 3 layers:

• The inner mucous layer that keeps your tears on your eye
• The watery middle layer that keeps your eye clean & moist
• The outer oily layer that stops evaporation & makes blinking smooth

The outer oily layer is produced in the meibomian glands. We feel the symptoms of dry eye disease when this layer gets disrupted, often due to a meibomian gland problem.

When Meibomian Glands Get Dysfunctional

Meibomian glands are small, oil-producing glands that line the very edge of the eyelid. Occasionally they can get plugged, often by a buildup of oil. This is called meibomian gland dysfunction.

Meibomian gland dysfunction is a major contributor to dry eye disease. If the oil being produced is poor quality, or there's not enough of it, it leaves your eyes vulnerable to tear evaporation, dry patches, and irritation. 

Find Relief In Masks

When you think of an eye mask, you probably imagine someone reclined on a cushion at a spa taking time to pamper themselves. But we have good news: masking your eyes may help address dry eye symptoms (even those classic cucumber slices may have mild hydrating benefits.)

So how do eye masks help ease the symptoms of dry eye disease?  It depends on the type of mask. Wearing a warm mask over the eyes can help gently melt and loosen any solidified oil in the glands. This can lead to better tear production and reduce discomfort from dry eyes.

Cooling eye masks may help with dry eyes, too. This type of mask can ease discomfort associated with allergies and digital eye strain, both of which can contribute to dry eye symptoms.

Overnight or sleep masks may also help work against dry eye by protecting your eyes from the environment around you as you sleep.

Dry Eye Therapies from Your Trusted Neighbourhood Optometrist

You don’t have to take on dry eye disease on your own. If you’re suffering from eye irritation, come in to River Heights Eye Care. We offer masks, as well as other therapies for managing dry eye. 

The post How Eye Masks Can Help With Dry Eyes first appeared on River Heights Eye Care.