What is dry eye disease?
Dry eyes are dry eyes caused by insufficient tear production or rapid evaporation. There are two main reasons:
Insufficient amount of tears: Tears are secreted from glands in and around the eyelids. This function will decrease with age, people with systemic diseases or eye diseases. In addition, when the weather is windy and dry, the tears evaporate quickly, leading to dry eyes.
The quality of tears is not good: The tear film consists of three layers: the fat layer, the water layer, and the mucus layer, which protects and nourishes the eyeball. The fat layer helps to limit the evaporation of water from the water layer, while the mucus layer functions to flatten tears on the surface of the cornea.
When these three layers are out of balance, water evaporation increases, causing the eyes to dry out. Some eye conditions can cause disturbances in the oily and mucous membranes, such as blepharitis, rosacea.
Common symptoms?
Most of the early symptoms of dry eye are so mild that it’s easy to overlook:
Irritated eyes cause you to feel a tingling or gritty feeling in your eyes, having to constantly blink. In many cases, you will experience burning or burning in the eye sockets accompanied by watery eyes.
Temporary blurred vision is a phenomenon where vision is clear and blurry, after blinking, it may return to normal. However, in severe cases you will see this clarity and blur interlaced continuously.
Tired eyes or accompanied by a feeling of tightness that makes you constantly rub your eyes, sometimes this phenomenon makes you feel heavy eyelids, difficult to open your eyes. Many cases of prolonged eye strain can cause a dull ache in the head.
Eyes become sensitive to bright, bright light. You will close your eyes longer than usual, difficult to adapt to light with pain, discomfort.
If you are experiencing the above conditions, whether occasionally or repeatedly, you should consider seeing a specialist for examination and appropriate care.
Who is susceptible to dry eye disease?
People who are constantly exposed to electronic screens such as computers, phones, TV screens, etc. are very likely to experience dry eyes. Because when we focus on the screen, it will lead to forgetting to blink, causing the eyes to not be sufficiently hydrated.
In addition, during use, we often unconsciously shorten the distance between our eyes and the screen of the device, causing the blue light emitted from the screen to increase the evaporation of tears.
Drivers or long-distance drivers often have the habit of concentrating heavily to observe traffic to ensure the safety of themselves and other road users. Therefore, the eyes are often stressed due to the constant widening and less blinking. This habit in the long run will disrupt the function of the film membrane leading to dry eye disease.
People who work in a polluted, dusty environment also have a bad impact on the eyes. Besides, many jobs have to wear a mask for a long time, the mask is not close to the face, causing hot and humid breath to rise to the eyes continuously, causing tears to evaporate faster, leading to dry eyes. The phenomenon of dry eyes caused by wearing a mask, also known as “MADE”, appeared widely after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Complications of dry eye disease
Dry eye is not a dangerous disease, but if not properly cared for and treated, it will lead to chronic dry eye disease that causes discomfort in daily life.
In addition, dry eyes can progress to keratitis or corneal damage (easy to leave corneal scarring) that impairs vision, affecting quality of life.
How to prevent and take care of dry eye disease
Tips to prevent dry eyes: If you have to work a long day with an electronic screen, make it a habit every 20 minutes, look away about 7 meters for 20 seconds to relax your eyes more. Take a break in between if your work requires high concentration of eyes such as reading, writing, driving a long distance, …
Use safety goggles in a smoky, polluted work environment or sunglasses when driving outdoors to limit the impact of UV rays on your eyes. Schedule regular eye exams at least once a year for people under 40 years old and twice a year for people over 40 years old.
Solution to treat dry eye disease: For mild cases, you can use eye drops supplemented with an appropriate ophthalmic lubricant for use in dry eyes to improve dry eyes.
You can also take care of your eyes daily with these eye drops to prevent dry eye disease. In case of more severe dry eye, consult your doctor for appropriate treatment.
