Dry eye” is a general term for a variety of diseases caused by abnormal tear quality or quantity or kinetics, resulting in decreased tear film stability and associated eye discomfort.
Insufficient quantity of tears: In a normal person, the rate of tear secretion per eye is 1 μL/min. Insufficient secretion or excessive evaporation can cause a deficiency in the number of tears.
Poor quality of tears: Normal tears form a tear film on the surface of the eye. The tear film is divided into three layers from the outside to the inside: lipid layer, water layer, and mucin layer, and the quality of tears will be reduced by abnormalities in any layer.
Classification of dry eye disease.
1, divided into four categories.
a. Insufficient tear secretion from the tear glands in the aqueous layer.
b, insufficient secretion of the oil layer.
c, insufficient secretion of the mucin layer.
d, excessive evaporation of tears tear film distribution is not uniform.
2, divided into two categories.
a, tear production partly insufficient type.
b, over-evaporation type.
Clinical symptoms.
Common symptoms include dry eyes, fatigue, drowsiness, foreign body sensation, burning sensation, tight and heavy eyelids, sticky secretions, photophobia, sensitivity to external stimuli, temporary blurred vision; sometimes the eyes are too dry, the basic tear deficiency instead stimulates reflex tear secretion and causes increased tearing; more serious eyes will be red, swollen, congested, keratinized, corneal epithelial damage and filamentous adhesions, long-term damage will Long-term damage will cause keratoconjunctival lesions and affect vision.
Treatment and prevention.
1.Prevention against the cause.
Causes of corneal conjunctival dryness in life.
a, due to long time engaged in computer operation, car driving, reading and other fine work, the number of transient eyes decreased, causing a decrease in tears.
b, due to contact lenses, allergic conjunctivitis, atmospheric pollution, ultraviolet light and other reasons, and caused by the reduction of tears, quality decline.
c.The evaporation of tears caused by large eye fissures, or dry rooms in which they are located.
d.Taking some antihypertensive drugs and some psychostimulants have an effect on the production of tears.
e, due to advanced age, lack of sleep, mental tension and other physiological reasons, causing a decline in the quality of tears.
2.Prevention.
a, blink more, blinking is a protective neurological reflex action, once the number of blinks is reduced, it directly leads to a decrease in the amount of tears, and the tear film exposed to the air will evaporate quickly and lose its protective power over the eye.
b. When operating a computer, driving, or reading for long periods of time, remind yourself not to concentrate too much and take some time to blink. Most people generally blink once every five seconds, about 20 times per minute.
c. Pay attention to eye hygiene, wash your hands regularly, don’t rub your eyes with your hands, take a break for an hour or so, close your eyes and look into the distance.
d. People who work with computers for a long time, especially young people, should pay attention to the timely treatment of dry eye symptoms, reduce the time spent using computers, and avoid using computers continuously for a long time.
e, pay attention to diet, to eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, while increasing the intake of vitamin A, B1, C, E.
f, wear frame glasses, long time wearing contact lenses will reduce tear secretion, so people who wear contact lenses will always feel dry eyes, wear glasses on windy days, also wear goggles when swimming, and wear sunglasses when going out.
g. Use air conditioning as little as possible and stay less in rooms with low humidity.
h. Order artificial tears as needed. For example, Hailu, Ally, Tearan, Siren. Sometimes you can also use gels, such as Vadisil, Xiaolaiwei, Bevosol.
I. Treatment of lid gland dysfunction: do eyelid cleaning and hot compresses. Do lid massage: have medical staff massage along the direction of lid discharge to push out those secretions that cannot be discharged even with hot compresses. If you feel it is working, you can do it once a week for a month.
J. If it does not work, you can consider, tear duct embolization, SmartPlug tear duct embolization implantation.