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...

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:

1. Hydrate with a Preservative-free Artificial tear - get the guide here
2. Harmonize with a lid and la...

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.  ...

Let's talk about fall. When I think about fall, I think about getting ready for back to school.  For me, as an eye doctor, I think about your back to school eye exam.  This time of year, all the moms bring their kiddos to the eye doctor, in August and September, and get them ready for the school year.  They update their glasses and make sure they have a good pair for school and maybe an extra pair for home.

In general, fall is a time to get back into structure from the easy days of summer. It's a good time to dust off your old routines or pick up some new ones. Get back into the swing of things and take care of what needs to get done.

I want to encourage you, even if you aren't going back to school,  to schedule an eye exam. It's a great time of the year to just get back on trac...

I've been talking a lot about how Winter is a dry eye season.  There are many factors in your environment and also in your lifestyle that can be significantly affecting how your eyes feel this time of year.  

If you haven't been following along with this series about how to help your dry eyes feel more comfortable this time of year, you can catch up with these blogs: self-care, indoor adjustments, and outdoor adjustments.   

1) Diet

Now let's talk about your diet this time of year, especially with the holidays, you probably ate all sorts of things that aren't part of your normal diet. There's usually lots of potlucks and people bringing in little treats from home this time of year.

When you're at the office, you may be eating too much sugar, wheat, dairy, alcohol, and caffeine. Just ...

 

The Dazzling Eyes Bundle

I want to talk to you about a very important topic.  It's called "Falling Off the Wagon".  Surely, it's happened to all of us. We've all fallen off the wagon from doing something from time to time. 

Whether we're talking about treating our dry eye, being on a diet, or even making our bed in the morning, we've all stopped doing something even though we know it is in our best interest to keep doing it.  Sometimes, we just want to eat the Oreos.  We know that we shouldn't, but we do it anyway. 

The Down Fall:

Maybe you've been doing great with you dry eye treatment.  Your eyes feel so great  that you stopped doing it.  Maybe you stopped for a couple of days, and your eyes didn't feel bad.  Nothing really bad happened.  You start thinking to yourself:

• Do I really need to do my lid scrubs
...

Mascara is an important topic to American women.  Did you know there is a study that shows that American women apply mascara to their eyelashes an average of 9 times per week?  I think it is probably in every woman's makeup bag.  And, it is so important to take it's ingredients into mind when we are talking about the long term health of our eyes.

Those of us who have dry eyes are already dealing with red and irritation.  Many of my patients tell me that they just can't tolerate eye makeup anymore.  They have suffered too many years of wearing makeup that is full of toxic ingredients. 

Let's talk about three reasons why you should switch to my favorite mascara, Eyes Are The Story.  It's the mascara that I use every day, and I think that it is the best mascara out there for people who are ...