Dry eyes is a common eye discomfort. Dry eyes, itching, fatigue, and foreign body sensation may occur. These conditions are collectively referred to as dry eyes. There is also a disease called Sjögren’s syndrome, which invades the exocrine glands, especially the salivary glands and lacrimal glands, resulting in dry mouth, dry eyes, and swelling of the parotid glands. After autumn, the dry climate can aggravate the symptoms of patients. To deal with this kind of phenomenon, it is necessary to carefully identify, diagnose the cause, and take correct prevention and treatment methods in order to effectively relieve the symptoms. Sjogren’s syndrome, which has been introduced in detail before, today we will focus on dry eye.
Dry eye, for which there is currently no uniform international diagnostic criteria. In 1995, the National Institute of Ophthalmology of the United States classified dry eye into two types: tear-deficient and evaporative. Insufficient tear type, mainly due to insufficient tear production, and excessive evaporation type, including abnormal lipid layer, as well as increased tear evaporation caused by inability to close the eyes, reduced blinking times, and incomplete blinking. Dry eye is a chronic syndrome caused by local dryness, including dry eye syndrome and dry eye disease.
Dry eye can affect both eyes, causing fatigue, redness, itching, dryness, foreign body sensation, eye pain, photophobia, burning sensation, blurred vision, intolerance of contact lenses, etc. Performance. If after rest or short-term use of artificial tears, it can return to normal, and there is no abnormality such as damage to the surface of the eyeball when the ophthalmologist examines it, it is called dry eye. When there are symptoms and abnormalities are found on examination, it is called dry eye disease. At present, my country mainly adopts two diagnostic criteria for dry eye disease. First, there are symptoms such as dryness, foreign body sensation, burning sensation, fatigue, discomfort, and vision fluctuation. Second, tear film break-up time, less than 5 seconds, or tear secretion test, less than 5 mm.
Dry eye, also known as keratoconjunctival xerophthalmia, is an abnormality in the quality or quantity of tears, or abnormal hydrodynamics, causing instability of the tear film and damage to the ocular surface, resulting in ocular discomfort. Epidemiological surveys show that the prevalence of dry eye is more than 20% in people aged 30 to 40 years old, and as high as 36% in people over 70 years old. The overall prevalence of dry eye is approximately 14.9% in men and 22.8% in women. Relevant studies have found that driving for a long time is an important factor leading to dry eye syndrome, because the average person blinks 15 to 20 times per minute, but when driving, the number of blinks per minute is only 2 to 3 times, which greatly increases tear evaporation. , unable to form a complete tear film, which can lead to corneal damage.
The formation of dry eye syndrome is closely related to the excessive use of electronic terminals. Staring at a screen for long periods of time can cause your eyes to blink less often and your tears to evaporate too quickly. Looking forward and upward at the screen increases the exposed area of the tear film between the eye fissures, aggravating symptoms. In addition, light stimulation will cause abnormal tear quality, decreased tear film stability, hypoxia in the eyes, and ciliary muscle spasm, which will affect visual adjustment, causing eye discomfort and blurred vision. In people with oily skin or the elderly, abnormal lipid composition of the meibomian glands, increased free fatty acids, can reduce tear film stability, or block the ducts, leading to dry eye. Wearing contact lenses for a long time can cause damage to the surface of the eyeball and induce dry eye syndrome.
The formation of dry eye is also affected by hormone levels and diseases. For example, after menopause, women’s ovarian secretion function decreases, which will cause the activity of meibomian glands to weaken and the lipid composition of tear film to decrease. , the evaporation of water increases, resulting in dry eye syndrome. Dry eye syndrome can also be caused by reading or using mobile phones in a dark environment in a sandy or polluted environment, or lack of indoor air circulation. Vitamin deficiency or increasing age can easily induce dry eye syndrome. Anti-allergic drugs, nasal sprays, antihypertensive drugs, antidepressants or neurological drugs, sex hormones, eye drops, etc., can also induce dry eye.
Prevention and treatment of dry eye and dry eye disease requires avoiding predisposing factors. Because dry eye is stressTherefore, an important measure is to avoid staring in a certain direction for a long time, and at the same time, you should develop the habit of blinking more than 5 times per minute. Use a computer to avoid eye strain caused by bright images reflected on the screen, and rest your eyes for at least a few minutes every hour. In terms of diet, you can appropriately increase the intake of vegetables and fruits, pay attention to the intake of foods rich in vitamin A, local massage or hot compress, or use steam eye masks, which can increase the blood supply to the eyes and relieve fatigue. When using air conditioning or heating indoors, a humidifier should be placed. Usually, you can close your eyes and roll your eyes. Also, avoid using your phone or tablet with the lights off. If the symptoms still cannot be relieved after taking these measures, you need to seek medical treatment in time, and choose artificial tears or anti-inflammatory drugs according to the condition.
To whomever you love, pass on your health.