Do you notice yourself blinking a lot when you use your computer? Do your eyes get irritated while you wear contact lenses?
Both of these are common signs that you could have dry eyes. Making the decision on if and how you treat your dry eye is up to you and how it affects your life.
Keep reading to learn more about dry eye and what happens if you leave dry eyes untreated!
What is Dry Eye?
If you have dry eye, it makes your eyes uncomfortable. Some symptoms include a stinging or burning sensation.
Also, certain environments can cause dry eye. This includes airplanes, being around air conditioning or heat, and too much screen time. To prevent dry eye, it is important to know the causes and signs.
What Are The Symptoms of Dry Eye?
If you have dry eye, there are many symptoms you may experience. This can include itching, redness, blurry vision, a gritty sensation, a foreign body sensation, and light sensitivity.
Also, some patients with dry eyes experience an overproduction of tears. When your eye does not have enough moisture, it can cause your eyes to produce too many tears.
A signal is then sent to your nervous system to create more tears when you have dry eyes. When this happens, your nervous system will create more tears to try to make your eye moist.
This type of tear is mostly made up of water. When your eyes make normal tears, they are not watery. Low-quality tears do not cover the surface of the eye as they should.
When Should You Treat Dry Eye?
If you have been experiencing dry eye for an extended time and it is impacting your life, then it is time to treat it. Dry eye is a progressive condition, so it gets worse the longer you have it.
When left untreated, the longterm effects of dry eye can be serious.
Cornea Damage
If your eyes do not produce quality tears for too long, your eyes can feel itchy or irritated. As this continues, the tear film on your eyes gets worse.
This means that you can scratch the top of your eye or cornea. If your cornea gets damaged, you can experience infections and even vision loss.
Also, you could need surgery to correct it.
Difficulty Wearing Contacts
Patients that wear contacts need healthy eyes. This means that your eyes produce enough moisture.
You should not wear contacts if you have severe dry eye. Contacts will only make dry eye worse.
Wearing contacts while you have dry eye can cause your contacts to stick to your eyes. When this happens, you might scratch your eye trying to remove them.
These are only a few of the things that can happen if you do not treat symptoms of dry eye. Treating dry eye while it is less serious is key. Early treatment is beneficial when it comes to treatment and preventing damage.
Do you think that it is time to treat your dry eye? Schedule an appointment at Omaha Eye & Laser Institute in Lincoln, NE now!
