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Preserve our Eyes, not our Drops!

 

 

 

 


      

 

Dry Eyes: Consequences

 

The main characteristic of “dry eyes” or dysfunctional tear syndrome is the inability of tears to fulfill their role protection and regeneration of the eye surface as a whole (hydration is one of those aspects). The ocular surface in such configuration cannot defend itself from dryness due to the air and other aggravating factors that destabilize the tear (or lachrymal) film such as smoke, heat, pollens, dust, pollution, etc).  This may result in either a deficiency in quantity or quality - in some cases both - and sometimes a dysfunctional lid activity (reduced blinking or insufficient closure as in lagophtalmos).

There, even in the mildest forms one could notice:

Visual discomfort, photophobia, burning, foreign body sensation, stinging, conjunctival and corneal irritation, irritation, stretching of the eye surface, irregular sight,

and in the moderate to severe form on could observe the following as well:

Ulceration, punctuate superficial keratitis, extreme pain, extreme photophobia, vision loss, central ulcerations, corneal staining and opacity.

The range of severity of dry eyes is quite large since it ranges from the mildest forms needing less than 3 drops a day to sight threatening conditions.

Clinical Signs:

Abnormality of the quantity produced (less than 1,2 μl/min) or the quality of the tearfilm, a reduced break-up time (BUT) using a fluoresceine test (less than 10 seconds).

Some test are able to demonstrate a dry eye state better than others, here are some of them:

Schirmer, flouresceine tests, bengal rose test and lissamine green test.

Symptoms: foreign body sensation, watery eyes (increased lachrymal secretion), burning sensation, blurry vision, stretching sensation  of the ocular surface, red eyes, diminution of the lachrymal pool, superficial punctuate keratitis, filaments, marked bulbar conjunctival in the lid slit area, conjunctival hyperemia, papillary hypertrophy.

 

 

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Most of it is still in French; please excuse us.

In the meanwhile have a look at our page on preservatives in eyedrops:

http://preservative.free.fr/

or this one: Preserve our Eyes not our Drops!

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