Some people may have noticed that their eyes (also known as optics) are constantly uncomfortable, itchy, or even have excessive moisture. While some of us disregard this as just normal allergies or irritation it can actually be a chronic disorder known as dry eye. Dry eye is when the optic does not produce good quality, or enough, tears. This can result in excessive watering and also sensitivity of the eyes.
What Tears Are Made Of
The tears our eyes produce are made up of a few different layers; a water layer, an oily layer, and a mucous layer. The oily layer helps seal in moisture so that it doesn’t dry out very easily. The watery layer, or the middle layer, helps clean out debris from our eyes and is the layer that most of us think of when we think of tears. The base layer is the mucous layer which allows the water layer to evenly distribute across the optic. Without the mucous layer our tears would not readily stick to our eyes.
What is Dry Eye?
Dry Eye: it seems like a bizarre name for a disorder whose main symptom is over acting tearing. The reason for this is that the optic cannot keep the tears in or they are not very effective at what they are doing. Since all the layers depend on each other they all end up failing, allowing moisture to escape and debris to sit on the optic. The excessive tearing is the optic responding to the dirt and dryness that gets caught; trying to correct itself. Since the tears are poor quality the optic continues to be irritated.
Seeing a doctor about dry eye is always important. They may prescribe you medication, such as special drops, to help combat this disorder. If you feel like you may have dry eye contact a physician today.
