When your eyes are irritated it can feel like your whole life is affected. After all, everything that you need to do throughout the day involves looking around and using your eyes to process what is going on in the world around you. Unlike a foot or other irritated body part, you cannot just rest your eyes for a few days and not use them. As such, when you have chronically dry, itchy eyes, (particularly dry eye that occurs after refractive surgery), you may find yourself wondering what you could possibly do to make them feel better. Get to know some of the things that you can do for dry itchy eyes to be sure that you are getting the care and treatments you need in St. Louis to find some relief from your discomfort as soon as possible.
Artificial Tears and Tear Ointments
One of the first lines of defense against dry itchy eyes is through the use of artificial tears and artificial tear ointments. These two treatments are designed to provide moisture and lubrication to the delicate tissues of the eyes that your body is not producing or is under-producing for some reason. Regular artificial tears can be used between 4 and 6 times daily (if you need them that much) to provide you with temporary relief from your eye irritation. The tear ointment, on the other hand, is usually best used once a day before you plan to sleep as it requires application beneath the eyelid and can cause vision disturbances.
Switch To Glasses
Sometimes, the reason for the dry itchy eyes you are experiencing is due, at least in part, to your contact lenses. People can have negative physical reactions to contact lenses that cause their eyes to become dry and irritated from the contact. Switching to glasses rather than wearing contact lenses and using soothing eye drops in the meantime may actually quickly and easily resolve the issue.
Tear Drain Plugs
Another possible solution to your troubles with dry itchy eyes is to insert plugs into the drains for your tear ducts, which are known as puncta. These drains allow the tears your eyes produce to drain away from the eye into the nasal cavity. However, when you have dry eyes, you want to keep those few tears your body is producing in the eye instead. A quick and easy punctal plug insertion (completely painless) can ensure that your eyes are getting as much natural moisture as possible.
Keeping these possible solutions for dry itchy eyes in mind, you should set up a consultation with the experts at Ophthalmology Associates as soon as possible to get your dry eye condition assessed and treated.
