#194: Best Tips for Mascara wear for Sensitive Eyes
We all love mascara. It turns out it is the most popular cosmetic. Most of us feel it's something that we feel like we can't live without. Many women won't even leave the house without putting it on.
Mascara makes your eyelashes look long, dark, and beautiful. It highlights the windows to our souls. In this blog, I'll explore three tips for you to wear mascara if you are a dry eye sufferer.
Tip #1) No Waterproof Mascara.
Many dry eye sufferers will start using a waterproof mascara because their eyes are so irritated and sometimes they run water. They use the waterproof mascara, to avoid it from running down their face.
However, there are waxes and toxins in this waterproof mascara that makes it waterproof. These waxes are hard to remove from your lashes at the end of the day. An...
#193: The Worst Thing you can do while Wearing your Contact Lenses
When you wear contact lenses there is always an increased risk of eye infections. In this blog, I'd like to explore the biggest risk factor for eye infections related to contact lenses.
When bacteria gets trapped under contact lenses it leads to infections called ulcers. An ulcer occurs when bacteria begin to create a crater in the front surface of the eye. When they are trapped underneath a contact lens it provides a nice, warm, safe home for them to burrow in and make a big infection.
The bacteria creates a hole in the front surface of your eye, and if you don't see an eye doctor quickly enough and get treated, it could lead to a sight threatening scar. These are very serious infections. They differ significantly from pink eye.
The symptoms of a contact lens related ulcer...
#190: How Does Makeup Wear Cause Dry Eye?
Patients come to me every day because they can no longer wear their eye makeup. Their eyes are irritated, red, watery. They apply their makeup and later find it running down their face. They're frustrated because they can't wear the products that they love.
This happens so often. I want to give you three reasons that this is happening:
REASON #1) INFLAMMATION
Some eye makeups cause inflammation to your eyes. Have you ever put your mascara on and then your eyes started to burn? This is happening because the ingredients in that mascara were irritating to your eyes.
Did you know that women apply mascara nine times a week on average? That's more than once a day. Women are applying mascara multiple times a day. And if that mascara contains irritating ingredient, it will cause inflamm...
#178: Scleral Lenses for Dry Eye Relief
Have you heard about using scleral contact lenses when you have dry eye disease? They're a great idea for dry eye sufferers. Let's review three reasons why scleral lenses work well for patients who have dry eye disease.
#1) The Shape of a Scleral Lens
Scleral lenses are a little larger than a soft contact lens. The lens goes over your eye from the white part of the eye, sclera, to the other side just like a soft contact lens would. But, the difference with a scleral contact lens is its rigid material.
The rigid material gives the lens a fish bowl shape that vaults over the front of your eye. You fill the lens with sterile saline solution. Then when you put it on your eye, the saline bathes your eye in moisture all day long.
The lenses work really well to keep your eyes lubricated an...
#176: Thankful for Dry Eye Relief
I wanted to continue to review a few of the new innovations that I am thankful for in 2022. This one is a new prescription medication that was FDA approved almost exactly one year ago. It is used to treat both the signs and the symptoms of dry eye disease. And, that is super important.
Tyrvaya is the first and only nasal spray that's FDA approved to treat the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. It's a nasal spray that we use to stimulate a nerve in the nose which sends a signal back to the eye to tell it to produce a full bodied robust tear. This is not just a reflex tear because something irritated you. The medication helps increase the volume of tears in your eyes. And, it increases the harmony on your eye because it is increasing all of the components of the tears not just add
...#174: Myth #3: There's NOTHING I can do to Treat my Dry Eyes
This is week three of the 3 myths of dry eye disease. If you've missed the other 2 myths, be sure to check out the other blogs: Myth 1 and Myth 2.
Myth#3: There's nothing I can do to treat my dry eye disease.
If you've been Keeping up with the other myths, then you already know that this myth is wrong. There's so many things you can do to treat dry eyes, and some of them are very new. If you've been following me for a while, then you know that I always talk about the four parts to treat dry eye, which is E Y E S. The EYES method gives four pillars of dry eye disease treatment.
Pillar #1) EYES
Step #1 is to treat your eyes. I like to talk about 4-simple steps to treat your dry eyes:
- Hydrate with a Preservative-free Artificial tear - get the guide here
- Harmonize with a lid and la...
#173: Myth #2 All Eye Drops are the Same
We are talking about three myths about dry eye disease. This blog is dedicated to Myth #2: "All dry eye drops are the same." New patients come in to see me all the time and say, "I've tried everything out there." This basically means that they went to the drugstore, and they picked up Visine and one other generic artificial tear. They tell me they tried them both. Their eyes felt great for about five minutes, but returned to the same level of dryness right away.
Even when talking about products that you can buy at the drugstore, not all dry eye drops are the same. There are 3 types of over-the-counter (OTC) products.
#1) Artificial Tears
In fact, even the ones that you get over the counter are different. You can go to the drugstore and buy artificial tears. If they come in a bottle, th...
#172: Myth #1 - Dry Eye symptoms will go away on their own
Today, I'm going to talk to you about the first of three myths about dry eye disease. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for the other two myths.
Myth #1:
Dry Eye Disease symptoms will just go away on their own.
Truth:
Dry eye is a disease. It's called dry eye disease (DED). And, it's chronic and progressive just like other disease that you might have, like diabetes or high blood pressure.
DED is chronic. You will need to treat it for a lifetime. It doesn't just go away on its own. So it needs to be treated long term. It's best to make simple shifts to your lifestyle to treat it. If you make your treatment regimen a part of your daily care routine (like you do for brushing your teeth) it is easy to do it over your lifetime.
Check out the 4-simple steps of daily dry eye care here. ...
#165: Understanding Sjogren's Syndrome Part 3
This week's blog is a continuation of the discussion I had with Dr. Pavly Moawad. A. Pavly Moawad, MD, MRCSEd(Ophth), FICO is a Lecturer and Consultant Ophthalmologist at Cairo University Hospital in Egypt. In her ophthalmology practice she specializes in seeing patients with Sjogren's Syndrome. She has graciously agreed to share her vast knowledge on the subject of Sjogren's Syndrome with my readers.
In honor of World Sjogren's Day, July 23, 2022, I wanted to take a deeper dive into the types of Sjogren's Syndrome. And, give some tips on treating dry eye disease in relation to Sjogren's Syndrome. If you missed the other two posts about Sjogren's Syndrome, please review the symptoms of Sjogren's Syndrome in this blog and how to treat dry eye disease in patients with Sjogren's Syndrome ...
#160: Umay REST: Digital Eye Strain Relief
Digital devices play a huge role in causing and exacerbating dry eye symptoms. Unfortunately, for most of you, digital device use is an important part of how we earn your living. You could not do your job without staring at a digital screen of some kind each day. Eliminate Digital Eye Strain using this guide.
Optometrist and inventor, Dr. Sharmin Habib, has developed an amazing device to help you not only rest your eyes. But, the device also stimulates tear production and cues you to meditate. What an awesome tool to use to soothe your tired eyes.
I have a device I've been able to utilize at home for about a month now. The device is available for patients to pre-order now though. It's super exciting. And, I want to tell you all about it.
Convenient Dry Eye Relief:
- Fully ad...
