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for dry irritated eyes B y C onnie Wir t a Photo s from E s sentia Health
The hours you spend each day staring at a computer screen or checking your smartphone can take a toll on your eyes. You may not only be straining your eye muscles but also compromising the tears that protect your eye. “When we’re paying attention to something like a computer screen, we end up staring and not blinking, or not blinking completely,” said Dr. Anne Keating, an Essentia Health ophthalmologist. “That can lead to dry, irritated eyes.” “To properly lubricate your eyes, you need to close your eyelids completely when you blink,” explained Dr. Keating. That action stimulates tiny Meibomian glands inside your eyelids to add a layer of lipids, or oils, to the tear film that protects your eyes. The top layer of lipids prevents the watery layer below from evaporating too quickly. According to Dr. Keating, dry, burning, red or irritated eyes can be caused by many factors so it’s important to get your eyes examined. One of the most common diagnoses is evaporative dry eye, which is caused by blocked Meibomian glands. 64
People with evaporative dry eye can treat their symptoms with artificial tears, prescription eye drops, warm compresses, and a new treatment option called LipiFlow. “LipiFlow is a scientific approach to unplugging the Meibomian glands and improving their function,” said Dr. Keating. “The advantage of LipiFlow is that it treats the underlying problem, not just the symptoms.”
poor or partial blinking can contribute to dry eye. A LipiFlow treatment takes 12 minutes in the doctor’s office. The lightweight devices sit on the eyelids and heat them to a precise temperature that liquefies the
LipiFlow applies heat and gentle pressure inside the eyelids to push out the lipids and unplug the glands. “The special eyepieces heat the glands from inside the eyelid, which you can’t do at home with warm compresses,” the ophthalmologist explained. To get a proper diagnosis, Dr. Keating does a thorough eye exam and then assesses a patient’s tear film. Next, a computer program analyzes how often and how completely a patient blinks since
Dr. Anne Keating, an Essentia Health ophthalmologist, offers a new treatment called LipiFlow that addresses the cause of evaporative dry eye.