At masquerade parties, mystery can be really fun.  Mardi Gras is an awesome time of year to wear a costume, crazy hat, or a mask.  But, I am not a fan of mystery in my clinical practice.  Dry eye disease can often masquerade as something else because there are other diseases that have the same symptoms.  And unfortunately, patients will sometime self-treat the wrong disease for weeks or months before coming in to see me. 

One of the biggest masqueraders of dry eye disease is allergy symptoms.  Here in Louisiana, my patients will blame everything that happens to them on allergies.  And because our winters are fairly mild, something is blooming here year round.  Allergy season can really be any season.   For instance to my patients a headache = allergies, dry cough = allergies, watery eyes ...