Through excellent work from world leading researchers, we now know that dry eyes has a pathological basis to it – in other words, it is not “normal” to have dry eyes. In fact, researchers are encouraging clinicians to call dry eyes a disease, meaning that there are causes.
Yes there are certain trends we see in dry eyes including it being more prevalent in females and more common going into our golden years. Dry eyes is a multi-factorial condition in which there are many different things that can both cause or contribute to dry eye.
Dry eye can be caused by one or more, but not limited to, the following:
- Lifestyle (Screen time)
- Excessive tear drainage/blockage
- Poor quality of one or more tear layers
- Laser eye surgery
- Contact Lens Wear
- Health concerns – rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease, Sjogrens Syndrome
- Nutritional – not taking vitamins that supplement and promote eye health
- Environmental – living in Edmonton and/or being a snowbird travelling down to Arizona.
- Medications – almost all oral medications have dry eyes as a side effect.
You can probably already tell how complex dry eyes can be. Due diligence in history and taking a complete detailed profile of lifestyle, health and expectation is how Bonnie Doon Eye Care makes the difference.