Evaporative Dry Eye Disease
Evaporative Dry Eye (EDE) is the most common form of dry eye disease.
When people think of dry eyes, it’s natural to assume that they’re mostly addressable by adding more fluid. But what if your eyes are actually making enough fluid, and it’s simply evaporating too quickly?
Tears are thin and eyes are warm.
Tears need a good reason not to simply disappear off the surface of your eyes. When we factor in the air conditioned environments we often put ourselves into, and our behaviours at our computer screens (we don’t blink much), it’s no wonder that EDE is becoming more and more prevalent.
If your eyes are only sore at the end of a day at the PC, try simply blinking more.
The trick is that if we’re concentrating on blinking as often as we should, we’re not concentrating on the screen, and vice versa. A way around this is to sit back from time to time and CATCH UP on the blinking. That will then add tears AND oils to your eyes and clear away some debris. Try having a mad blink-fest about every hour - blink really quickly for about 5 seconds or so, and even scrunch your eyes a bit to really squeeze some oils out.
We have gel hot packs for sale at the front counter for $15.
You might already have one at home (perhaps in the freezer). Daily heat application is often the cornerstone treatment for MGD. It’s actually quite luxurious; a lot of our patients ask if they can keep doing it once their treatment is netting nice results.
Curious to learn more?
Have a read of our information sheet on Evaporative Dry Eye Disease and book yourself in for a 15 minutes dry eye assessment with either Julie Newport or Andrew Robinson!