Care for Your Eyes Well to Preserve Your Good Vision

Tips To Help Your Soothe Your Extremely Dry Eyes

31 March 2017 by Ben Richardson

Dry eyes can feel incredibly scratchy, gritty, painful, and itchy. Unfortunately, dry eyes are a concern during both the hot and cold seasons due to the way that air conditioners and heating systems pull water out of the air. While some eye drops placed in the eyes can certainly help to reduce dry eye issues, they are rarely enough for more serious dry eye problems. For these sorts of issues, keep reading to learn about some tips to help soothe your eyes.

Use Gel Drop Varieties

If you find that regular eye drops do not work well for you, then it is wise to invest in gel drops instead. Gel eye drops are thicker varieties that have a higher viscosity. This means that the gel of the drops coats the surfaces of the eyes more thoroughly. The thick coating protects that ocular surface and keeps your eyes from drying out. However, the drops do tend to make the vision blurry for a few minutes. If you need to work right away or want to read or complete another task that requires clear vision, then the gel drops may not be the best option for you.

If gel drops are not suitable, then you can speak with an optometrist at a location like Wheatlyn Eyecare about prescription drops. Prescription eye drops will do a few different things. They reduce inflammation that causes the dry eyes to feel painful. The drops also cause the eyes to produce more natural tears. This means that the drops do not add moisture, but they can get your eyes to produce it on its own.

Clean The Eyes

Often times, the eyes will feel extremely dry and gritty when the meibomium glands become blocked or clogged. These glands are the ones that sit along the edge of the eyelids and produce an oily film material. This oil keeps the tear film from evaporating or deteriorating as quickly. This helps to keep the eyes moist for a longer period of time.

However, the meibum or oil can harden. You are likely to see eye debris or crusts around the eyes when this happens. The majority of the debris may be noted in the morning when you first wake up. It is wise to clean away the meibum in the morning and the evening so the eyes can retain as much moisture as possible. Use warm water, soap, and a damp washcloth to do the cleaning.

You also should think about placing warm compresses on your eyes numerous times throughout the day. This helps to keep the meibum moving into the eyes. Compresses do need to be incredibly warm to help loosen the oils, so keep this in mind when placing compresses on your face. 

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