Dry Eye

What Is Dry Eye?

We all know what mild and temporary dryness of the eyes feels like, but for millions of Americans, dry eye is an ongoing and frustrating condition that affects their daily life and vision. Dry eye may seem like a small issue, but it can lead to larger problems with your sight, affect the accuracy of your glasses prescription, and make it difficult to wear contact lenses. Understanding and treating dry eye today can help improve your lifestyle and reduce possible issues with your vision later in life.

Valley Eye Associates is committed to offering a robust set of treatment options to help anyone affected by dry eye. If you’ve already tried treatment options without success, we invite you to schedule a Dry Eye Examination so we can thoroughly check your eyes and recommend a treatment option that can offer you the relief you deserve.

We offer multiple treatment options for people suffering from dry eye, and we continue to research and add new treatment options to our dry eye program each year. If you have questions about dry eye, contact us or schedule your Dry Eye Examination today.

Schedule a Dry Eye Examination

Dry Eye Symptoms

The symptoms of dry eye can be frustrating, painful, and affect your daily life in many ways. They include:

Red, burning, or itchy eyes
Eye fatigue or headaches
Producing more tears than normal at times
Blurring vision or light sensitivity
Extra need to blink or rub eyes

Dry Eye Treatment

There are many different solutions that can provide relief from dry eye. Valley Eye Associates offers the following treatment options:

LipiFlow® Thermal Pulsation Technology

For many patients, dry eye symptoms are caused by problems with their meibomian glands. These glands line the upper and lower eyelids and are where the oil layer of the tears are formed. When these glands become blocked, dry eye can be the result.

The LipiFlow Thermal Pulsation System is an FDA-approved treatment that uses therapeutic energies to reduce blockages in the meibomian glands, which opens the glands to properly lubricate the eye. This can dramatically reduce dry eye symptoms for an extended period of time. LipiFlow provides a proven dry eye treatment option that is drug-free and can dramatically reduce your dry eye symptoms.

Vital Tears™

Many patients use different kinds of over-the-counter artificial tears or medicated drops like Restasis or Xiidra to treat their dry eye symptoms. These drops are often effective at temporarily reducing dry eye symptoms, but they lack the biochemical properties of your own natural tears.

Vital Tears can address this problem. Instead of using artificial tears, Vital Tears use serum made from your own blood to create customized, natural eye drops. Multiple studies have shown that serum eye drops are far superior to conventional treatments when treating severe dry eye conditions.

Optima IPL

Intense pulsed light, or IPL, is a light (not a laser) that treats your skin and eyelid inflammation safely, effectively, and comfortably. Each treatment is fully customized to your skin type and condition.

The light pulses penetrate the lid tissue, creating heat which shrinks the abnormal blood vessels in that area. It also liquefies and releases hardened oils that have clogged the meibomian glands in the eyelid. This not only treats the inflammation, but also improves the overall skin condition.

Optima IPL is used worldwide and is FDA-approved for over 20 different skin diseases as well as dry eye. IPL can also be used for facial rejuvenation and treats rosacea, sun spots, and blepharitis.

Next Steps

The dry eye treatment program at Valley Eye Associates offers the latest innovations in customized treatments to reduce dry eye symptoms. We have dry eye specialists on staff ready to assist you. To learn more about dry eye, schedule a Dry Eye Examination, take our online dry eye self-evaluation, or attend one of our dry eye seminars. Our team will work with you to create the best possible treatment plan to help you find relief for your dry eye symptoms.