Dry eye syndrome or dry eyes represents one of the main reasons for visiting an ophthalmologist, especially lately, when we have all been forced to stay more at home, excessively using computers or phones.
Dry Eyes or Sandy Feeling in Eyes
To have healthy eyes and avoid the dry eye effect, it's important that they are protected by tears. They have the role of removing dust, irritating factors, allergens or microorganisms that can produce inflammations and infections.
In situations where the quantity or quality of tears decreases, the surface of the eyes suffers. When eyes are dry, we may start to have unpleasant sensations such as:
- Stinging;
- Itching;
- Burning sensation, "sandy feeling in eyes" or "foreign body" sensation, sometimes even (paradoxically) tearing.
In more advanced stages of dryness, we observe that eyes start to become more red, vision disturbances appear (doubling of images, or, specifically, improvement of vision after blinking), inflammations, infections or even chronic corneal suffering appear.
Dry Eyes – Causes and Risk Factors
There are two main causes for dry eyes: the first cause is decreased tear production, the second is represented by excessive evaporation of tears.
Decreased Tear Production
The main causes leading to decreased tear production are the following:
Advanced age – In old age, physiologically, our eyes no longer produce as many tears as in youth.
Female sex – Especially after menopause, due to decreased estrogen, the hydration level of the eyes also decreases, as well as of the skin and other mucous membranes.
A series of conditions – Some diseases are accompanied by reduced tear secretion: diabetes, some thyroid diseases, autoimmune diseases (such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis), Sjogren's syndrome (which associates dry mouth and dry eyes).
Certain medications – Most frequently implicated are antidepressant medications, antiallergics, oral contraceptives. Especially if used long-term, these can influence the ocular surface, leading to dry eyes.
Excessive Evaporation of Tears
Causes that can lead to excessive evaporation of tears:
Prolonged concentrated visual activity – Represents the most common cause of dry eyes nowadays and we find it in activities such as: reading, computer or phone activity, driving. In such situations, we "forget" to blink as often (blinking frequency decreases to half or even a third compared to normal). The surface of the eyes is no longer protected by tears, which evaporate, and we start to feel ocular discomfort.
Exposure of eyes to air currents – Air conditioning, whether in the work room or in the car, if directed at the eyes, will dry our eye surface. Fans or excessive wind have the same negative role.
Lack of fats – If our tears don't contain enough fats, then the aqueous component of tears will evaporate more easily. We frequently encounter this situation in case of inflammations of the eyelid glands (in blepharitis).
Diet poor in "good" fats – Among these we find omega 3, vitamin A, vitamin E, which we find in ocean fish, nuts, carrots, broccoli, etc. Their absence from the diet causes drying of the eyes and skin.
By having simple, "healthy" habits, related to diet but also to daily behavior, we can avoid the causes of dry eye occurrence and the bothersome symptoms. If you feel you have dry eyes, regardless of causes, we await you at the Clario ophthalmology clinic for an ophthalmologic checkup.
