Dry eye can be a temporary or chronic condition. When a disease is “chronic,” it means it has gone on for a long time. Your symptoms may get better or worse but never go away completely. There is no cure for dry eyes. Dry eye left untreated can lead to painful cornea damage.

Chronic dry eye occurs when your eyes are not producing enough tears because your tears are evaporating too quickly (evaporative dry eyes). It can also be due to inflammation in or around the eye ( blepharitis).

Environmental factors often cause temporary dry eyes. You may see symptoms from wearing contact lenses too long or being in a dry environment. 

Chronic dry eye, on the other hand, is often caused by an underlying condition. Conditions involving the eye glands, skin diseases near the eyes (eczema, psoriasis), autoimmune diseases, and allergies can all contribute to chronic dry eye.

Fortunately, there are many ways to treat this condition. The most popular is artificial tears. However, over time eye drops do not work well in chronic dry eyes. Consider oral dry eye treatment that works. Seek help from TheraLife.  

Here are the dry eye treatments available for chronic dry eyes. Find one that works best for you.

Types of dry eye treatment

There are many medications and procedures available to treat chronic dry eyes. 

Sometimes, an underlying condition or external factor may lead to a dry eye. Some medications can cause dry eye- switch medications can help relieve dry eye challenges.

Dry Eye Treatment with Eye Drops

One of the most popular ways to treat dry eyes is through artificial tears. Preservative-based eye drops stay on the shelf for a long time. Non-preservative eye drops come in several disposable vials that you use once and throw away.

Artificial tears moisten your eyes. If you have moderate symptoms of dry eye, artificial tears may be all you need. However, you may have to apply them several times a day. For chronic dry eyes, frequent use of eye drops will make dry eyes worse.  

The recommended dosage is no more than 3-4 times a day.  

Ointments can relieve dry eyes, but they tend to make vision cloudy. Ointments coat your eyes better than eye drops do. Because they make vision blurry, they’re best used right before bedtime.

Avoid using eye drops that reduce redness. These may eventually irritate your eyes because they constrict blood vessels – this includes Lumigen.

Prescription medications for dry eye treatment

Your doctor may prescribe a medication to treat chronic dry eyes. These medications may be given orally (steroids, antibiotics ) or as eye drops.

Most of them focus on reducing inflammation of your eyelids. Swollen eyes prevent your oil glands from getting oil into your tears. Without oil, your tears evaporate too quickly (evaporative Dry Eyes).

Doxycycline

Certain antibiotics can stimulate oil production in the glands around the eyes ( doxycycline). If your doctor believes your dry eye is caused primarily by inflammation, they may prescribe anti-inflammatory antibiotics. Doxycycline is particularly helpful for meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) and ocular rosacea.

Prescription eye drops are often anti-inflammatory as well. One example is cyclosporine (Restasis). Cyclosporine is also used to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. This drug suppresses the immune system so that the body stops attacking itself. lifitegrast (Xiidra) is another prescription medication approved explicitly for chronic dry eye treatment.

Eye inserts for Dry Eye treatment

When regular eye drops don’t work, eye inserts might be an option. These small, clear medication tubes look like grains of rice and go into your eye like contacts.

You place the inserts in your eye between your eyeball and lower eyelid. Medicine is released throughout the day to keep your eye moist.

Dry eye treatment Procedures

In addition to prescriptions and medications, there are procedures to treat chronic dry eyes, including:

• Plug up your tear ducts. Suppose your chronic dry eye doesn’t respond to traditional methods. In that case, your doctor may recommend this procedure to partially or wholly plug your tear ducts. The idea is that tears will stay in your eyes longer if there is nowhere for them to drain.
  Punctal plugs are made of silicone and are removable. This procedure will work if you make sufficient tears to shore up. Punctal plugs tend to cause ocular infections, and 50% of the time, they fall out.

• Special contacts. You may find relief from chronic dry eye by wearing scleral or bandage contact lenses. These contacts protect the surface of your eye by reducing friction when you blink. This option is helpful if your chronic dry eye has caused cornea abrasion.

• Clearing blocked oil glands. Your doctor may recommend a procedure known as Lipiflow or IPL( Intense Pulsed Light) to clear blocked oil glands. Both techniques involve heat to melt the clogging in your meibomian oil glands. Besides, there is a simple mechanical way to removing the plugs from your meibomian oil gland orifices called debridement scaling. 

Natural dry eye treatments

TheraLife

TheraLife Eye is a 100% natural dry eye treatment. See information more below.

Examples of natural dry eye treatments include:

• A gel or microbead type of hot compress– 10 minutes each time. Twice a day to reduce dry eye symptoms.
• Massage your eyelids with your fingers to loosen clogging materials from your oil glands after a hot compress.
• Omega-3 supplements. Adding supplements and foods into your diet that contain omega-3 fatty acids can help relieve your dry eye symptoms by reducing inflammation in your body. We recommend molecularly distilled fish oil for purity and efficacy. Get your omega three from fish oil supplements or eating foods like flaxseed, salmon, and sardines.
• Castor oil eye drops. Castor oil may help reduce tear evaporation, which can improve your symptoms. Artificial tear eye drops that contain castor oil are available. Always talk to your doctor before trying any natural remedy.

Alternative therapies

Two examples of alternative therapies that may help reduce chronic dry eye symptoms include acupuncture and intense-pulsed light treatment.

One showed that acupuncture might have benefits when compared to artificial tears, but more research is needed. One theory is that acupuncture reduces pain and inflammation, decreasing eye irritation and improving dry eye symptoms.

Intense pulsed light (IPL) therapy is an alternative treatment typically used to reduce rosacea and acne symptoms. In one for chronic dry eye, 93 percent of participants reported they were satisfied with their degree of symptoms after treatment with IPL therapy. IPL is particularly good for people who have facial rosacea or ocular rosacea.

Lifestyle changes

There are some at-home changes you can make that may improve your chronic dry eye symptoms. These include:

• wearing sunglasses with side shields to prevent tears from evaporating
• often blinking when doing the same task for a long time, like reading or looking at a computer
• using a cool-mist humidifier to add moisture to the air
• drinking water throughout the day to stay hydrated
• avoiding smoking and limiting exposure to secondhand smoke

Why TheraLife Protocol?

Dry eye is a complicated disease that centers around inflammation. TheraLife’s dry eye treatment approach is to treat multiple aspects of dry eyes at the same time. The protocol includes chronic dry eyes, blepharitis, meibomian gland dysfunction. 

TheraLife’s success rate in a clinical trial is 86% for first-time users. To learn more, click here.    

Conclusion

The treatment you choose to treat your chronic dry eye depends on a variety of factors. You may need a different treatment if an underlying condition causes your chronic dry eye. Work with your doctor to find the best solution for you.

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