Patient Forums. We pick this source at number 1 because it provides patients with the essential “you are not alone” comfort that sufferers need to feel. The best thing about forum and blog contributions is that they are generally very down to earth, do not have complex medical terminology and often have real world advice that only experienced sufferers can impart to each other. Search for dry eye forums and dry eye blog.
Health Authorities. In the UK the NHS has developed an extensive database of patient advice information. We rank this source at number 2 because the style is relatively academic. Its as though the articles are written by doctors to pass scrutiny by other doctors. No doubt the result is a best practice database but there is a lack of practicality which takes the edge off it. Search for dry eyes in Google UK and you will find these sites very highly ranked.
Eye Care Professionals. Very few eye care professionals have been moved to present the best advice service online. Its understandable because they rely heavily on the face to face patient meeting for making diagnosis and treatment decisions. However this leaves a gap that patients are the first to spot! What happens after the magical moments with the eyecare professional. The patient leaves in awe of the experience and at best remembers to do a few things. This may be enough but the lack of future dialogue is always going to leave opportunities for clarification which a good leaflet or website can assist with.
Retailers. In our experience retailers provide very little “value added” information. Its disappointing that pharmacies whether on line or in the real world shops are rather cursory in product recommendation.
Manufacturers. This is the greatest mixed bag of them all, which is why they are ranked at number 5 here. Some manufacturers of dry eye products try to fill the gaps left by the patient journey through numbers 1-4. At Lumecare we have developed a particularly close relationship with our customers that drives understanding of dry eye patient information needs. On our information based website you will find explanatory videos, FAQ, an open Forum and opportunities for patients to learn and understand at their own pace.
Archive for the ‘ Dry Eyes Syndrome ’ Category
Dry itchy eyes are an indication of a common eye irritation known as dry eye syndrome. What is dry eye syndrome?
Dry eye syndrome is a common condition that is often described as an infection or an irritation to the tear duct or tear film. This often results in excessive tearing, evaporation of tears, an extreme redness of the eyes, dry itchy eyes, and sometimes pain.
There are many causes of dry eye syndrome. The difficult task is figuring out which thing is causing the condition in the first place. For example, your dry itchy eyes could simply be the result of working in front of a computer all day long. One way to combat this is by taking numerous breaks from the computer in order to give your eyes some rest.
Another common cause of dry eye syndrome is medication. Most people don’t read about the side effects that certain medications can cause.
When people are suffering from dry eye syndrome, they will have the following symptoms: eye dryness and redness with blurred vision; sensitive to light, and feeling of stinging, burning or sandy; too much tears in the eyes; and allergic to a foreign body and intolerance to contact lens.
So what are the causes for dry eye syndrome? First, let us learn about human tears. There are three main parts of human tears: lacrimal gland produces the bulk of tears, meibomian glands produce the oil component of tears, and the goblet cells keep all the parts in combination. When one of these glands is imbalanced, people will have eye disorders.