Even Jennifer Aniston has Dry Eye
Jennifer Aniston is one fo the 30 million Americans that suffers from dry eye syndrome. Just like many eye patients, she had symptoms for years. She thought she had allergies.
The majority of eye care patients we see at Unionville Optometry have some form of dry eye. Some have symptoms and some don’t (yet).
Lipiscan
Every patient over the age of 19 that visits our office for a full eye exam has their meibomian glands scanned with an infrared camera, called Lipiscan. The lipiscan shows if there are blockages or inflammation of the meibomian glands that can progress as we age; causing symptoms to get worse.
Once the gland is blocked and inflamed for long enough, its starts to drop out. These changes cannot be reversed but they can be prevented with treatments like Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) and Lipiflow that we offer at our Dry Eye Clinic
Dry Eye Symptoms
Symptoms of dry eyes can vary widely including:
- No symptoms at all,
- Red or burning eyes, or irritated skin on the eyelids
- Watery eyes
- Loss of eyelashes or brittle eyelashes
- Poor or blurry vision
- Headaches or discomfort when reading, on a computer, or wearing contacts
- Sandy or gritty feeling in the eyes
- Itchy eyes or styes,
The list is long and dry eye symptoms are different for every patient.
The amount of time we spend on our digital devices (with reduced blink rate by up two 70%) is part of the reason why dry eye syndrome is so much more common. We are also starting to see dry eye patients at a much younger age.
Therapy for Dry Eyes
Traditional conservative dry eye therapy with eye drops only act like a band-aid.
Fortunately at Unionville Optometry we have a Dry Eye Clinic that offers IPL and Lipiflow Treatments to treat the root underlying cause of dry eye syndrome. These two treatments combined allow Our Eye Doctors to target both the inflammation and blockages of the meibomian glands. They help to improve symptoms and prevents the dry eye condition from progressing.
Contact Our Dry Eye Clinic
The only way to know if you have dry eye syndrome and meibomian gland dysfunction, is to have your eyes examined with an Optometrist that specializes in dry eye and offers digital imaging of the meibomian glands like Lipiscan.
Come visit us at Unionville Optometry for a dry eye consultation or call us at 1-905-477-4488
For more info on this topic, see this Mayo Clinic post on Dry Eyes Causes & Symptoms.