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Dry eye
A common and frustrating concern among people of all ages
Summary of Dry Eye Under 40
- Dry eye occurs when the eye doesn’t produce enough tears
- Symptoms include pain, itching, scratching, and blurry vision
- Dry eye is more common among the young than it was years ago
- We can treat dry eye with drops, ointments, medications and more
- Have hope; you can be free from dry eyes with the right advice and treatment
An introduction to dry eye
Dry eye is a recurrent reason for consultation in our lives – especially for those with a dry eye over 40. Fortunately, we have an approach to relieve dry eye symptoms.
Dry eye management includes:
- A study of your dry eye profile
- A quantification of the severity of the symptoms you feel
- A complete ophthalmic examination
- Lipiview ®, which makes it possible to measure the meibomian attack as well as the analysis of the dynamics of the blinking.
This approach, in most cases, leads to therapeutic management that provides a satisfactory resolution of your dry eye symptoms.
Dry eye symptoms and lifestyle impacts
Symptoms of dry eye include:
- Burning and tingling sensations
- Eye fatigue
- Crying eyes
- A scratching eye
- Redness in the eye
- Itching eyes
- Sensitivity to light
- Vision disorders
Impacts of dry eye include:
- Difficulty performing visual tasks such as
- reading,
- watching TV
- working on screens
- driving
- Contact lenses intolerance
- Symptoms worsening over the day
- Constant use of eye drops
- Photosensitivity (avoidance of exposure to sunlight)
Dry eye causes
The “International Dry Eye Workshop” (DEWS, 2007) redefines dry eye as a
“multifactorial tear and ocular surface disease that causes instability of the tear film that can lead to lesions on the ocular surface. It is accompanied by an increase in osmolarity (solute concentration) of the tear film and inflammation of the ocular surface. Neurosensory abnormalities also have a role.”
Eye dryness functionally manifests by a foreign body sensation, burning, tingling, irritation, blurred vision, eye strain, photophobia with often paradoxical reflex tearing.
As a result, dry eye can become painful and a real handicap. Dry eye remains the leading cause of contact lens intolerance, and 50% of contact lens patients report having dry eyes, whereas this prevalence is only 20% in non-contact lens wearers.
The prevalence of dry eye is 9% in patients aged 40 years and older and 15% after 65 years. The percentage of patients treated increases with the ageing of the population. The prevalence of this pathology increases with age. Today, it is more and more frequent.
This dry eye dysfunction can be caused by:
- ageing
- hormonal disorders (like menopause)
- prolonged contact lens wear
- intensive use of screens (TV, computer, phones)
- pollution or other environmental factors (dry climate, air conditioning)
Your dry eye examination at Clinique de la Vision
TearScience ® – An assessment of dry eye in 3 steps:
- You describe their symptoms in a quick questionnaire (sensations, disorders)
- We perform a 3-minute, non-contact, pain-free examination with LipiView ®, the ocular area interferometer, which enables them to observe the tear film and blink dynamics
- We then perform a (painless) examination of the patient’s eyelids to evaluate secretions
After following these steps, we can, therefore, confirm the cause of your dry eye to be:
- either a lipid deficiency, due to dysfunction of the Meibomian glands (86% of cases)
- an aqueous deficiency, due to dysfunction of the lacrimal glands.
Your dry eye treatment at Clinique de la Vision
Finally, once we confirm a diagnosis and assess the severity of the impairment, we then propose treatment.
- Dry eye treatment consists of
- a local treatment based on lubricating eye drops which we can combine according to their preferred action
- Local anti-inflammatory treatment.
- Depending on the case, we may offer you
- corticosteroid eye drops,
- nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs,
- antibiotics with anti-inflammatory action,
- calcineurin inhibitors or a newborn glycyrrhizin, a new molecule available since January 2016 in the form of eye drops,
- Kéradrop®
- 1 drop morning and evening for 3 months and whose anti-inflammatory action would be equivalent to dexamethasone without side effects.
- Eyelid hygiene
- Blinking exercises
- We can supplement treatments with two technologies that have proven effectiveness:
- Lipiflow ®
- Pulsed Light E-Eye
LATEST MEDIA APPEARANCES
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BlephEx Ophtalmologiste
TÉMOIGNAGES
“Le jour de l’intervention, je n’ai ressenti aucune gêne et aucune douleur. Après 2 h de repos j’ai pu reprendre mes activités tout à fait normalement. Deux jour après l’intervention il ne subsiste aucune gêne. Je tenais également à insister sur le fait que, contrairement aux idées reçues, ce n’est pas une intervention réservée aux personnes jeunes. J’ai 59 ans et c’est une totale réussite.”
“Le Docteur Albou-Ganem m’a opérée de la presbytie il y a un an, et je suis très heureuse du résultat, plus besoin de lunettes pour lire, même ma vue de loin est bonne. C’est un vrai soulagement pour moi, car j’ai hésité pendant un moment avant de sauter le pas, difficile de prendre une telle décision.”
“Après une opération rapide et sans douleur j’ai quasiment immédiatement remarqué une nette amélioration de ma vue de près et de loin. Au fil des semaines cela n’a fait que se confirmer et je n’ai jamais reporté mes lunettes depuis! Je ressens une telle liberté dans ma vie de tous les jours ainsi qu’une impression d’avoir rajeuni que je recommande à toute personne de le faire sans hésitation si cela leur est possible!”
“Docteur Catherine Albou-Ganem l’a immédiatement dissipée. Contact et confiance se sont installés immédiatement. Ses explications ont été claires, précises et je peux dire que le Jour J de l’opération, j’y suis allé les yeux fermés! Pour les rouvrir quelques heures plus tard avec la vue parfaite d’un homme de 30 ans!”
“L’opération a été un franc succès. J’ai maintenant 10/10e, sachant qu’auparavant j’avais une assez forte myopie (-5 et et -4,5) et un léger astigmatisme.”
“Vous m’avez opérée il y a maintenant plus de deux ans. A part pour conduire et regarder la télévision, et encore… je n’ai plus besoin de lunettes, moi qui n’ai jamais rien vu… Il m’a fallu plusieurs mois pour que ma vue s’adapte. Je tenais donc à vous remercier de cette opération qui a changé ma vie! Plus d’ulcères douloureux dus aux lentilles et la possibilité d’ouvrir les yeux sous l’eau et d’admirer les jolis poissons!”
We have replaced the images of real patients who provided these testimonials to protect their privacy.
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About the author
Doctor Catherine Albou-Ganem
Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon
I am Catherine Albou-Ganem and I am an ophthalmic surgeon brought up in a family of ophthalmologists. I had a passion for ‘the eye’ and ‘the vision’ from my childhood. This was the subject of my first presentation at school.
Today, I share my refractive surgery activity between the hospital and the private sector.
I am proud to have contributed to the development of new laser refractive surgery techniques that can correct vision defects with accurate, effective and safe results when respecting the indications.
