People who suffer from severe dry eye can often benefit greatly from protective eyewear. There are an increasing number of options available including wraparound glasses/sunglasses, moisture chamber glasses/sunglasses, sleep masks or goggles, night bandages, side shields for glasses, and more.
Protective eyewear helps dry eye patients by:
- Keeping in moisture
- Reducing evaporation of tears (including artificial tear supplements) by limiting air flow over the eyes
- Protecting sensitive, vulnerable eyes from irritants (dust, allergans, etc)
Contact Lenses for Dry Eye
If your current contact lenses are making your eyes dry, new brands of disposable contact lenses are specifically designed to reduce dry eye problems. Our eye doctors have extensive experience fitting these new, more comfortable lenses and can determine if they are right for you.
Our Dry Eye specialists may also recommend specific styles of sunglasses and protective eyewear to reduce your risk of dry eyes and make your eyes more comfortable outdoors and on the job.
Who Should Consider Dry Eyewear?
You should definitely consider daytime eyewear options if any of the following applies to you:
- Your eyes are always uncomfortable out of doors in the wind.
- You have stopped doing certain outdoors activities because your eyes just hurt too much.
- Your eyes are always uncomfortable in stores like Wal-Mart.
- You have a really hard time working in an office environment because of the low humidity, heat or a/c and fluorescent lighting.
- Your eyes are very sensitive to light - sunlight, bright fluorescent lighting like in airports and warehouse type stores, etc.
- You don't read for pleasure anymore because of dry eye.
- Your eyes hurt a lot when driving because of dry eye.
- You have severe chronic dry eye from any cause and it is affecting your quality of life.
- You suffer from recurrent corneal erosions.
- You have eyelid abnormalities preventing complete lid closure with every blink.
- You wear scleral lenses.
You should consider night time eyewear options if any of the following applies to you:
- You wake in the night with eye pain.
- You have to get up in the night to apply additional lubricants (drops or goop) to your eyes.
- You are using a greasy ointment to keep your eyes lubricated at night.
- Your eyelids "stick" by morning.
- You sometimes get corneal erosions or abrasions during the night.
- Your eyelids do not close properly or completely due to blepharoplasty, other eye surgery, Bell's palsy, acoustic neuroma, etc.
- You have been diagnosed with lagophthalmos.
Gone are the days when dry eyewear meant unsightly swim goggles used only as a very last resort by the patients in the very worst condition. Thankfully, there are much better products available now and doctors and patients are learning more and more about the benefits of good quality protective eyewear for dry eye. many of these can be incorporated into your everyday life.
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