Dealing with Dry Eyes in New Mexico

Do you ever experience any of the following symptoms?

• A gritty sensation
• A burning sensation
• A feeling of a foreign body or sand in the eye
• Blur or hazy vision
• Excessively watery eyes
• Dry eyes
• Tired eyes
• Red irritated eyes
• Pain

86% of all dry eye patients suffer from a condition called Meibomian Gland Dysfunction. The meibomian glands are the glands that line the inner part of the eyelid. They put oil into the tear film. This oil serves as the protective layer to keep objects out of the tears and to keep the other tear layers from evaporating off. If your meibomian glands are not working properly your eyes will often become symptomatic. Very often this is worse in contact lens wearers. This can also be impacted by oral medications, make up and make up removers, and a big one is blinking.

Did you know that there are now treatment options available to help?

We offer two treatment options in our office:

• Lipiflow- this is the best treatment we have available at this time. This instrument warms the glands up from the inside and the outside of the eyelids. Once the glands are warmed up it gently expresses the glands to rid the lids of all of the obstructions.

• Meiboflo- This instrument is an intense heat applied to the outer eyelid and liquifies the oil to allow it to get expressed from the glands.

After these treatment it is important to maintain the open glands at home with an oral supplement such as Hydro Eye or fish oil as well as warm compresses.