TRIP

Xerophthalmia

VisualDx Health, 2007

Dry eyes (xerophthalmia) may be red and/or have a gritty, scratchy, or filmy feeling.
Tearing and/or dry eye problems are a set of conditions that affect the quality and/or quantity of the tears in the eye.
The more modern term is dysfunctional tear syndrome, as that covers the many causes of this very complex problem.
Anything that disturbs either the production of tears and/or the quality of the tears leads to dry eye syndrome (dysfunctional tear syndrome).
Dry eye problems are extremely common with increasing age, although they are more common in women than men.
Many ocular surgical procedures including cataract surgery, refractive surgery for vision correction, and glaucoma surgery.
Many oral medications such as diuretics, anti allergy medications, beta blockers, sleeping pills, pain relievers, and medications for stress.      Wearing of contact lenses – especially over wearing of lenses, low water content lenses, and ill-fitting contact lenses.
High wind and low humidity conditions, not only outside but wind drafts from heaters, fans, or air conditioners aimed toward your eyes.
Diseases that affect the ability of the eyelids to close fully such as Bell palsy or facial paralysis.
It is very unlikely that by looking at someone you could tell that they have dry eye problems.
However, the following should alert you to the possibility of dry eye problems: Dry, gritty, scratchy, or filmy feeling Burning Stinging Itching Excess tearing Excess mucus production that is especially stringy in nature Redness Blurred vision Foreign body sensation Sensitivity to light Inability to wear contact lenses for a normal amount of time Irregular pattern of the problem in that some days the eyes feel fine, and other days the eyes feel worse (often correlates with environmental changes such as winds, humidity, etc)