What is dry eye?

  With the economic development and social progress in these years, one of the main manifestations is the popularity of cell phones, computers and other communication tools. While they bring convenience to life and work, they also bring new problems to people’s health. In the eyes, the incidence of dry eye disease is increasing year by year and can be said to be the most common eye disease at present, without one.  Mild dry eye does not affect work and study, and most adults may have suffered from dry eye at different times, but do not pay attention to it because of its “minor impact”. Moderate to severe dry eye not only affects work and school, affects the quality of life, and may even lead to serious safety hazards, especially for drivers. Drivers with dry eye will experience dry eye discomfort while driving and need to blink constantly to relieve the symptoms. After driving for a long time, they will have difficulty opening their eyes, which seriously affects their vision and attention, and the risk of traffic accidents is greatly increased. Many traffic accidents are directly or indirectly related to dry eye, so patients with severe dry eye are better off not driving on highways and avoiding long hours of driving.  The most common causes of dry eye are: environmental pollution, dry climate, prolonged viewing of computers, cell phones or other videos, poor sleep, insomnia, short sleep (long night shifts), prolonged driving, high temperature environments, immune eye disease or systemic disease, inflammation of the eye itself, and prolonged use of eye drops (such as patients with glaucoma and uveitis). Menopausal women are prone to poor sleep and reduced tear production due to changes in hormone production.  Most dry eyes do not affect vision, but clinical treatment is not effective because it is related to the specific causes of each patient and different living and working environments. To improve the treatment effect, while using medication, the patient’s living and working environment and working and living habits may need to be changed accordingly, and those with systemic diseases or insomnia need to be treated accordingly. As long as the cause of dry eye can be found and can be removed or changed, the treatment effect of dry eye will be greatly improved.