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Dry eyes
Dry eyes are very common, most people will likely have suffered from the symptoms at some point in their life. Eyes can feel dry, tired, gritty, painful, blurry vision and sometimes the eyes can look red.
Older age, tiredness, weather conditions, certain medications and wearing contact lenses can make dry eye symptoms more common. If you have certain medical conditions such as blepharitis, rosacea, or Sjogren's syndrome, dry eyes can be linked to these.
Doctor’s advice
What can you find here?
How can I improve symptoms?
For dry eyes caused by tiredness, it's best to rest your eyes. There are also many dry eye treatments available at the pharmacy, such as eye lubricant drops or eye gels.
If you work with computers for long periods, are reading, or watch television, remember to take regular breaks every 15 to 20 minutes. When concentrating in such cases, we tend to keep our eyes open that little bit longer, and have a reduced frequency of blinking, which can contribute to dry eyes, as blinking helps to disperse tears over the eye surface to provide lubrication.
Healthwords pharmacists' top tips
Treatment choice for dry eyes depends on your particular symptoms. Treatments differ in the thickness or viscosity of the drops, whether the product contains preservatives that can interact with certain types of contact lenses, and the shelf life after opening.
Eyes that feel gritty or tired can be due to dust or debris exposure, or because there are reduced tears lubricating the eyes. You can treat this with saline eye baths from the pharmacy, or products such as Optrex Multi Action Eyewash, which contains distilled witch hazel to cleanse the eyes and soothe irritation. For lubrication, hypromellose eye drops or lubricating eye ointments or gels such as Lacri-lube or Viscotears are readily available at the pharmacy.
If you have a dry eye sensation, this can be accompanied by watering eyes. The tear ducts respond to the dry eyes and start overproducing tears. Using an eye drop to lubricate the eye in this situation, will often run straight out of the eye, and not stay long enough to be fully effective. In such cases, using a product with a thicker consistency will be better, or preferably a gel or ointment, that will stay in to lubricate the eye for longer.
This should help to reduce the dry eye sensation, which in turn will calm down the overproduction or runny tears.
Pharmacist recommended products
Am I fit for work?
You are fit for work if you have dry eyes.
When should I see my doctor?
If your symptoms do not improve after two weeks, see your pharmacist, doctor or optometrist.
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