Q: sir, my wife is presently 50 years old. she has chronic dry eyes and she is losing her eyesight rapidly.on the advice of doctors, she is using eyedrops regularly with a negative result. what do you suggest?
Regards,
mukul sarma
A: I am sorry about this problem. The problem of dry eyes occurs when tear product decreases or due to bad quality of tears. The problem of dry eyes is more common in women of post-menopausal age and tear production starts to decrease after the age of 50. Moreover if you have a medical condition such as diabetes, Sjogren's syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma thyroid disorder or vitamin A deficiency that is affecting tear production or you are taking some medications such as anti-allergic, antihypertensive agents, hormone replacement drugs or some antidepressants, which decrease the production of tears, then your problem may aggravate.
Your wife has the two risk factors that she is 50 and is probably post-menopausal. Now, if she has any of the above-mentioned diseases or taking some medication that is causing decreased tear production then she may need to change the drug or to treat the underlying disease.
To treat dry eyes, when you go to your doctor next time, keep the following treatment options in your mind.
1. Treat underlying systemic cause, for example some systemic disease for example, Diabetes Mellitus, Rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, Sjogren’s syndrome or medication (mentioned above) that may be a possible cause of decrease tear production.
2. Treat the local cause. For example eyelid inflammation, eye lid infection. Whenever you blink your eye, the eye lids form a layer of tears on the surface of eyes. disease of eye lid causes decreased production of the tears. It is treated with anti-inflammatory eye drops and antibiotics such as a combination of tobramycin and dexamethasone.
3. Then there are artificial tear drops, easily available in the market that are put in the eyes as need to alleviate the symptoms of dry eyes.
4. You may ask for special type of contact lenses that are made for dry eyes. These lenses trap moisture and make ocular surface moist.
5. Your doctor may suggest to close the aqueduct that drain the tears from the eyes to nose. Complete or partial closure of aqueduct may help you.
So these are some treatment options for chronic dry eyes. Next time when you will go to the doctor keep these points in your minds.
Best Wishes
Dr. Adil Ramzan
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