What to do about dry eye?
You are often prone to dry eyes. What is due to dry eyes? What eye sprays and which eye drops can you use? Our optician Sarah Marlien helps you to take stock of this symptom.
Dry eyes can be annoying, especially when you want to wear color lenses or contact lenses. We recommend you to settle this problem and then you could wear color lenses or contact lenses without any problem. We are talking about dry eyes when the eye, the lacrimal system more precisely, no longer produces enough tears and thus creates a feeling of discomfort and irritation when blinking or wearing lenses. You may then feel tingling, a feeling of sand in the eyes, have red eyes or eyelids stuck. This symptom is often linked to aging.
Tears have a protective role. They act as barriers against bacteria or dust. It is by the blinking of the eyelid that the tears spread, which allows to evacuate all the impurities which would enter the eye.
If this barrier is broken or not thick enough, the cornea can be directly irritated and damaged (for example by a direct friction of a dust which would scratch the eye under an eyelid flutter). Having an irritated cornea can be a gateway to the spread of bacteria inside the eye (keratitis ...).
This phenomenon of dry eyes can be accentuated by elements of the external environment (air conditioning, long screen fixation, pollution, cigarette smoke, etc.). Some drugs may have side effects such as decreased or modified tear secretion.
In fact, the tears are made up of fat which prevents them from evaporating too quickly. If the balance of tear composition changes, it can cause discomfort due to this accelerated evaporation. Maybe you also have a vitamin A deficiency? The cause can also be a blockage of the excretory channels.
Fight dry eyes with artificial tears and eye sprays
It is important to know the cause of the problem in order to choose the best treatment adapted to your personal case. Advice is nevertheless applicable to all:
- Have good eye hygiene (clean your eyes well, do not hesitate to make warm compresses and clean by stimulating the glands along the free edge of the eye by massaging with the cotton closed eye),
- Respect the daily wearing time of your lenses (8 h / day on average),
- Limit external etching agents (air conditioning, pollution, wind, cigarette smoke, etc.),
- Vitamin B12 can heal if the eye is irritated.
Lachrymal eyedrops and gels can be used as many times as necessary to restore punctual comfort and avoid friction causing irritation of the cornea.
You can for example use eye sprays of the brands Blink (Spray refreshing) and Aqualarm Intensive Spray by Bausch + Lomb, or eye drops Aqualarm UP by Bausch + Lomb and Blink Refreshing drops (intensity 1/4) and Blink Intensive (intensity 3/4). You can also test different products and find the eye spray or eye drops that suit you best according to your needs and your own dry eye.
This dry eye syndrome should be watched closely to avoid illnesses that can occur if left untreated.
Do not hesitate to speak to your ophthalmologist or optician or to ask us your questions on our site using our form in order to obtain an answer adapted to your eyes, your lifestyle and your contact lenses and color lenses.