Friday, December 11, 2015

Dry Eye Clinic at Village Eyes Optometry of West Los Angeles/Westwood Village

We are very excited about our new Dry Eye Clinic at Village Eyes Optometry.  We are able to help patients with all of their dry eye issues.

Dry eyes can be a very complicated subject.  The reason is that there are different causes of dry eyes.  Dry eyes can be caused by certain medications, computer and cell phone usage, certain eyelid conditions such as blepharitis and many other causes.

There are two main types of dry eyes.  One is due to a patient's eyes not making enough tears.  This is called tear insufficiency dry eyes.  The other cause of dry eyes is called evaporative dry eyes.

In tear insufficiency dry eyes we just do not make enough tears to keep our eyes lubricated.  There are many underlying conditions that can contribute to this problem.  There are different ways to help this problem that can be as simple as using tear supplements to more complicated approaches that involve using a medication to  help our eyes create more tears.

In evaporative dry eyes our eyes don't make enough of the oil that our eyes normally make and this lack of oil, which functions sort of like an oil slick on water, allows our tears to evaporate too quickly.  It is possible to treat the oil glands that are meant to produce this oil to get them to properly secrete the oil that our eyes need.

It is also very important to create a healthy ocular surface when treating dry eyes.  This can be helped by properly cleaning the eyelashes and lids and sometime by the short time usage of certain treatment medications that can help bring the ocular surface back into a healthy state.

If any readers feel that they may be helped by seeking treatment for dry eyes, please contact Village Eyes Optometry and our Dry Eye Clinic of West Los Angeles to schedule a consultation.