What causes Dry Eyes?
Dry eyes happen when your eyes don’t have enough moisture or the right kind of tears to stay comfortable and healthy. There are a few main reasons this can happen.
Not Enough Tear Production:
Your tear glands may not make enough tears. This can happen as we get older, after certain surgeries (like LASIK), or from some medical conditions such as arthritis or thyroid disease.
Poor Tear Quality:
Your tears are made of three layers — oil, water, and mucus. If the oil layer is too thin (often from blocked oil glands along the eyelids), tears evaporate too quickly, leaving the eyes dry.
Tears Evaporating Too Quickly:
Things like wind, air conditioning, or screen time (when we blink less) can make tears dry up faster.
Inflammation or Eyelid Problems:
If the eyelids or the glands along the edges of the eyelids are inflamed (a condition called blepharitis or meibomian gland dysfunction), it can interfere with tear production and stability.
Medications or Medical Conditions:
Some medications (like antihistamines, blood pressure meds, antidepressants) and health conditions (like diabetes or autoimmune diseases) can reduce tear production.
Symptoms of Dry Eyes
Gritty, sandy, or burning sensation
Redness or irritation
Blurred vision that improves with blinking
Excessive tearing (reflex tears from irritation) Eye fatigue or discomfort after screen use Light sensitivity
Feeling like something’s in your eye
Feeling Tired
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Ways to Help Dry Eyes
​Artificial tears: Use preservative-free drops regularly
Take screen breaks: Follow the 20-20-20 rule (every 20 mins, look 20 feet away for 20 secs)
Humidifier: Adds moisture to dry indoor air
Wear sunglasses: Protect eyes from wind and sun
Warm compresses: Help unclog oil glands in eyelids
Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of water
Omega-3s: Consider fish oil or flaxseed supplements (check with a doctor)
Avoid smoke and fans: Reduce exposure to irritants
Eyelid hygiene: Gently clean lids to remove debris and oils
In Office Treatments
Radiofrequency (RF) treatment helps with dry eyes by targeting a key cause of the condition—meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD).
What it targets:
Meibomian glands are oil glands in your eyelids that keep your tears from evaporating too quickly. In MGD, these glands become blocked or clogged, leading to evaporative dry eye.
What RF does:
RF uses gentle heat from radio waves to warm the eyelids
This heat loosens hardened oils in the glands
Improves oil flow into the tear film
Reduces inflammation in and around the glands
Extra benefit:
The heat and massage from RF can also stimulate collagen production, which may improve eyelid tone and function (bonus cosmetic benefit).
Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) therapy helps treat dry eyes, especially when the cause is meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD)—which is one of the most common types of dry eye disease.
IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) is a light-based treatment that delivers broad-spectrum light pulses to the skin just beneath the eyes (cheeks and eyelid margins). Originally used in dermatology (e.g., for rosacea), it was found to also improve dry eye symptoms.