Why do my eyes burn or get blurry on the computer?
This is a very common concern for many of the patients that I see. Did you know that your blink rate naturally decreases during reading, computer work, and driving? Therefore, the quality of your tears between blinks becomes very important. The quality of your tears is dependent on their stability, condition, and volume. Tears are made up of three layers: the mucus, water, and oil layer. If one of these layers is deficient, then you will begin to experience dry eye symptoms. Dry eye symptoms include fluctuation in vision, burning eyes, redness, light sensitivity, sore eyes, heavy eyes, and eye fatigue. Dry Eye is classified into two categories: aqueous (volume) deficiency and evaporative.
What is the difference?
Volume deficiency dry eye is commonly due to dehydration, Rosacea, Sjogrens disease, allergies, and medications. Evaporative dry eye is caused by having a poor oil layer. The outer oil layer is responsible for protecting the eye by stabilizing the tear film and preventing evaporation. The oil layer is supplied by the meibomian glands which are found in the upper and lower lids. These oil glands can become blocked resulting in gland loss and dysfunction. If the oil layer is not adequate, then your tears will evaporate and become concentrated (increased osmolarity). These concentrated tears will then create inflammation and damage to the surface of your eyes. The treatment for evaporative dry eye consists of improving your oil layer with artificial tear drops, diet modifications, medications, and Lipiflow (thermal pulsation treatments).
How our Dry Eye Service can help!
I will provide a full analysis of your tears during your visit with our Dry Eye Service at CarlinVision. We are able to treat you with the most advanced technology for testing your osmolarity, tear volume, surface inflammation and by imaging your meibomian glands. We are an Accredited Dry Eye Center and also performing the Lipiflow procedure in office. If you are suffering from any of these symptoms, please schedule an evaluation. Contact Hannah, our Dry Eye Coordinator, at 770-979-2020 x246 or dryeye@carlinvision.com.