Are you experiencing any discomfort with your eyes, such as tearing, burning, itching or a sense that something is in them even when you look and see nothing there?”
There is no longer just one kind of patient who has dry eye. Those with this condition can vary from the pregnant or menopausal woman experiencing dry eye due to hormonal changes to the young person who is experiencing dry eye due to a prescription medication he has just started taking, or, perhaps most commonly, it could be the the aging patient who suddenly finds his or herself experiencing eye discomfort.
There are a lot of factors that come into play. One is the aging population and increased meibomian gland dysfunction and lid elasticity. Other factors are hormonal changes as it is suggested that increasing estrogen causes dry eye. Certain medications such as anti-depressants also cause dry eye.
Sometimes you don’t even know that you have dry eye.
Many contact lens wearers are experiencing these issues and are dropping out of contacts, when they may not have to.
If you work on a computer all day it causes a reduced blink rate–another common cause in today’s world of dry eye.
A visit to one of our eye doctors for this is considered a medical visit so can be billed to your medical insurance.