It is difficult to be patient when you are suffering from dry eyes. Constant itching and red, sore eyes are always begging for relief.
Dry eye syndrome is something you can control, but it takes time. There’s no saying exactly how long as recovery always varies from patient to patient.
How and when you recover depends on finding the right solution for your particular eyes. You should always be attacking dry eye from two different approaches. The first approach is what YOU can do.
How You Can Begin to Fix Your Dry Eye
The first step to treating a chronic issue is to try and avoid whatever triggers the problem in the first place. When it comes to dry eye, you’ll want to focus on three aspects.
These are your environment, your nutrition and health, and how you cope with your symptoms.
Modify Your Environment
Modifying your environment means making changes to your home, as well as precautions you can take. For example, modifying your home might include using a humidifier in rooms you spend time in.
Having more moisture in the air will help support your eyes. You can also dust frequently using a damp rag and keep irritating particles out of the air.
Nutrition And Hydration
Your nutrition plays a bigger role in dry eye syndrome than you may believe. First of all, staying hydrated will give your body the amount of water necessary to create tears.
Getting plenty of omega-3 fatty acids from certain kinds of fish, seeds, and nuts will help your eyes produce enough oil. Finally, reducing smoking will be less irritating to your eyes. It will also reduce your risk of countless other health issues.
Never Rub Your Eyes
You should never seek relief by rubbing your eyes. You can damage your vision beyond what your dry eye is doing, so stick to eye drops.
Buy eye drops and artificial tears for fast relief of dry eye symptoms. This will help if your eyes feel itchy or irritated, rather than rubbing them and causing more damage.
How Your Doctor Can Help
Even if you are following all the above tips, the problem may be more systematic in your body. You should still continue to practice them, as it will likely make your recovery go by faster.
Certain needs for treating dry eye cannot be met without professional help.
Gland Expression Therapy
If your eyes are not producing enough oil and eating more omega-3 fatty acids isn’t enough, you may have a blockage. This can be remedied with gland expression therapy.
Gland expression therapy unblocks the glands responsible for oil production.
Punctal Plugs
If your eyes don’t produce enough tears, you may want to ask your eye doctor about punctal plugs. Punctal plugs are small plugs placed in the tear ducts.
They are helpful for keeping tears on the surface of the eye longer. Tears evaporating too quickly are a large reason why people suffer from dry eye.
Looking for dry eye treatment? Schedule an appointment at Westlake Eye Specialists in Austin, TX and to start a custom dry eye treatment plan with one of our talented doctors!
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