January 8, 2019 – Treating Dry Eye

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Anchor lead: Dry eye can be managed, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Dry eye, a condition where tears fail to lubricate the eye properly, can result in slowed reading speeds and difficulty with visual tasks, a new study by Esen Akpek, an ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues has shown. Akpek says the good news is the condition can be managed.

Akpek: At this point dry eye is known to be not curable but we can improve it by for example by adjusting the tears on the eye surface. There are approved medications for that, and artificial tears to supplement the tears can be added. Also we have some procedural treatments such as tear duct plugs, or newer procedures called IPL, intense pulsed light treatment, geared toward improving the oil layer of the tear film which gives the tear film the stability.  :31

Akpek says dye eye occurs more often as people age and that some examination of tears should be part of every eye exam. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.