Relieving Dry, Irritated Eyes
For many Americans, dry eyes can be an uncomfortable but common experience. Over 16 million Americans live with chronic dry eyes, dealing with stinging eyes, blurry vision, and fatigue. If you have dry eye, you don’t have to live with this condition.
Visit Mt. Tam Optometric Center for a dry eye evaluation. We can help you enjoy long-term comfort.
Request an Appointment
Dry Eye & Why It Happens
Dry eye is a common condition where your tears cannot effectively hydrate your eyes. You may experience several uncomfortable symptoms when you have dry eye, such as blurry vision, eye fatigue, watery eyes, redness, or a stinging, burning sensation in the eyes.
Dry eye is a multifactorial condition, meaning there can be several reasons for developing it. When describing dry eye, we often refer to what we call the dry eye cycle. Chronic dry eye is basically a chronic inflammatory condition. As long as the eyes are inflamed, they can suffer from insufficient tear production, increased tear evaporation, or a combination of both. This, in turn, can affect the tear film, which is responsible for keeping your eyes healthy and protected.
Your tear film is made of 3 layers (mucus, water, and oil) that work together. The mucus layer helps tears spread across the eye’s surface, the water layer hydrates and protects against bacteria, and the oil layer helps prevent your tears from evaporating too fast.
When your tear film has trouble, you may experience dry, irritated eyes.
Our Dry Eye Evaluation
During your evaluation, we go through an in-depth history about your dry eyes and any related conditions. We will also go over what you have tried for relief, including both what hasn’t worked and what may have helped. We will then perform a thorough exam of the front of your eyes and the surrounding tissue.
Your exam may include a video analysis of your eye’s structure and its tear layer, a determination of your tear break-up time, infrared photography of your meibomian glands, and an evaluation of your meibomian gland health via artificial intelligence.
We will compile all the information we collect and tailor a treatment plan for you to help break you free from the dry eye cycle and help your eyes heal—so they can do what they are meant to do.
Our Dry Eye Treatments
It can feel like there is nothing you can do about your dry eyes, but we offer numerous treatments at our clinic. We can tailor a treatment or combination of treatments for your needs after identifying the cause of your symptoms.
Your dry eye treatment may include prescription eye drops, hygiene support, meibomian gland support, OptiLight by Lumenis, and a variety of over-the-counter options.
Prescription Eye Drops
You may have tried over-the-counter eye drops but found them to be a temporary solution at best. We use a variety of prescription eye drops tailored to the causes of your dry eye.
Since, at its base, dry eye is a chronic inflammatory disease, many of the drops we prescribe are anti-inflammatory in nature. Others can help with improving the health of your meibomian glands, which in turn can improve the effectiveness of your tear layer.
A new class of medication we are very excited about is biologic eye drops. These medications are designed to improve upon or enhance certain body functions in very creative ways. 2 of the drops we are using now to great success are autologous serum drops and Regener-Eyes.
Autologous serum eye drops are derived from your blood by combining certain parts of your blood with a salt solution. The resulting serum is similar to natural tears but can be more effective at reducing inflammation.
Regener-Eyes are a sterile, preservative-free eye drop which we have found to reduce inflammation and help stabilize the tear layer, resulting in less dry eye symptoms.
Eyelid Hygiene Support
Conditions like blepharitis and meibomian gland dysfunction are both inflammatory in nature and can contribute to your dry eye condition. They both are bacteria-driven, so anything that reduces the bacterial population can help reduce the inflammation and resulting dry eye symptoms they cause.
Using warm compresses and eyelid wipes are 2 effective ways to promote good eyelid health. We also offer several eyelid hygiene products to help treat dry eyes.
Meibomian Gland Support
Meibomian glands produce meibum, the oily layer that reduces tear evaporation. Conditions like blepharitis can lead to meibomian gland dysfunction, and the atrophy of these glands can lead to many of the symptoms associated with dry eyes. It is for this reason that the preservation and support of these glands is so important.
When appropriate, we can provide you with simple at-home techniques or in-office procedures like meibomian gland expression to help restore the health and function of your meibomian glands.
Punctal Occlusion
In each of your lids, there is a small drainage duct called a puncta. These drain up to 70% of your tears into your sinuses—tears that dry sufferers can’t afford to lose.
Punctal occlusion is an in-office procedure that blocks those ducts to help increase your tear pool and reduce dry eye symptoms. There are a variety of punctal plugs available—some temporary and some semi-permanent. If appropriate, we can help you select the approach suited to your needs.
OptiLight by Lumenis
We’re proud to be one of the first practices in the North Bay area to provide the OptiLight technology.
OptiLight by Lumenis is a light-based, non-invasive treatment to manage dry eye. It uses precise light pulses to reduce the inflammation typically associated with dry eyes.
Learn more about this treatment by visiting our OptiLight by Lumenis page.
Live Comfortably
Comfortable vision and hydrated eyes are possible with help from our team. We can diagnose the cause of your symptoms and recommend a customized treatment plan to meet your dry eye needs. Relief is available, no matter what treatment you receive.
Request an appointment and see how we can help relieve your dry eye symptoms.
Request an AppointmentOur Location
Mt. Tam Optometric Center is located in San Anselmo, on the corner of Suffield Ave. and Sir Frances Drake Blvd. If you are having trouble finding us, please give us a call!
Our Address
- 1604 Sir Francis Drake Blvd.
- San Anselmo, CA 94960
Contact Information
- Phone: 415-453-8906
- Fax: 415-453-0156
- Email: [email protected]
Our Hours
- Monday: By Appointment Only
- Tuesday: By Appointment Only
- Wednesday: By Appointment Only
- Thursday: By Appointment Only
- Friday: By Appointment Only
- Saturday: By Appointment Only*
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Sunday:
By Appointment Only
*Includes the first and third Saturday of the month
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