What’s the link between all the symptoms in the title? If you guessed dry eyes you are exactly right and if you experience dry eye it’s time to stop suffering.
“Forma warms your skin using radio waves and softens thickened oils, restoring the glands natural function”
We’ve talked here before about different types of dry eye but let’s talk about some solutions to get you feeling better. The bad news is there isn’t a cure for dry eye but don’t give up hope! The good news is there are many treatment options that improve symptoms significantly and take the sting out of dry eyes. Two of the biggest recent advances in dry eye therapy are Radio Frequency technology from Forma and Prokera.
Radio frequency, or RF, was originally used in dermatology to tighten skin. It found a new use in eye health as a treatment for dry eyes. Forma works by applying radio waves to your skin which penetrate deeply and warm the tissue, feeling much like a warm face massage! This softens the thickened oils deep in your glands and allows the doctor to express them, restoring their natural function as well as tightening skin and reducing the look of fine lines and wrinkles. Usually, after only four to six sessions symptoms are significantly reduced and in some cases fully resolved.
If your eyes feel like this, we have a problem.
Prokera is a special type of contact lens made up of an amniotic membrane. When applied to the eye, it can dramatically improve the symptoms of both types of dry eye over the course of a month by improving the health of your cornea (the front clear part of the eye) and essentially turning back the clock on the health of your corneal cells.
“Consistency is key in traditional dry eye therapies. You must do them every day!”
There are also two different medications just for dry eye, Restasis and Xiidra, that our doctors can prescribe. These medications work best for patients with aqueous dry eye and increases your tear production by decreasing inflammation. There are other medications that we use, generally, to decrease inflammation, that can also help!
You may be asking if the only options are high tech or prescription lenses or medications and the answer is no! There are things you can do at home that can help. Often what our doctors will recommend to start are solutions like hot compresses, lid wipes, preservative-free artificial tears, and omega 3 supplements. The important take-aways for home therapy are that you must do the hot compresses for at least ten minutes and the compress has to stay hot the whole time. The other important message is to be consistent. If you do home treatments sporadically, it just won’t work. You need to do this every single day.
It’s normal to wonder if you actually have something wrong, especially in the early stages. The easiest way to know is to book an appointment and let us assess your eyes but let’s be honest, sometimes doing a quiz at home is just more fun. Take our dry eye quiz and find out for yourself. We’ll still be here to help you when you’ve completed it.
As always if you would like more information you can contact us on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, via our website or phone us at (403) 474-6744.