Dry Eyes Affect Vision

The most common symptom of dry eyes is a scratchy foreign body sensation, which in mild cases occurs later in the day. Another very common symptom of dry eye is excessive tearing or epiphora. There are two tear mechanisms in normal eyes. The first is the basic tear that keeps normal eyes moist and which is what becomes deficient in the dry eye patient. The second type of tear is the reflex tear, which is produced when you get something in your eyes, or when your eyes get irritated like when you are cutting onions. In that case, once the offending agent comes out of your eye, there is a neural feedback that shuts off the reflex tear and the watering stops.

The person with a dry eye who tears too much may be having a problem because of the reflex tears being produced because essentially your brain thinks you have something in your eye. This occurs because of the above mentioned dry eye symptom of a foreign body sensation. The reflex tear does not relieve the dry eye problem so your brain keeps trying to wash out the offending agent. Obviously there is nothing in your eye to wash out and the reflex tear keeps coming and hence the complaint that "my eye waters all the time".

So the solution for the dry eye patient is to put in artificial tears when your eye waters too much.

The tear film in a normal eye is the most important refractive surface and allows for clear vision. Dry eye patients have abnormal tear films and very often this will blur their vision at certain times. The effect is like your dirty windshield in the rain or when you turn on your windshield wipers to clean your dirty windshield. Until the grime and oil are removed the windshield is streaky and not clear because the water film is not smooth on your windshield.

The solution for dry eyes may be as simple as using an artificial tear which is formulated to substitute for the normal basic tear and restore the tear film integrity. For more serious cases, plugs can be placed in the drainage canals in each lid to slow down the drainage of the basic tear and allow them to remain in the eye longer and hence improve the tear film.

A good prescription drop called RESTASIS works well for many people. There are also often associated problems such as allergies and abnormalities of the glands in the lids that may need to be addressed as well. The dry eye problem can be very complicated and what works for some does not work well for others.

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