Can dry eyes cause blindness

Can dry eyes cause blindness

Dry eyes can affect different people in different ways. If your dry eyes are caused by environmental factors, they may be irritating but clear up relatively quickly and cause no lasting damage to your eyes. However, if your dry eyes are caused by dry eye disease or are a symptom of another condition, they can be harder to treat and cause more serious problems if left untreated for a long time.

At the Eye and Dental Clinic, we don’t want anyone to suffer from dry eyes. Here’s some information on the causes and treatments of dry eyes, as well as the potential consequences if you don’t seek treatment.

What causes dry eyes?

Dry eyes can feel irritating or even painful, with many people with dry eyes complaining that they feel as though there’s dirt in their eyes, or that they’re itchy. Your environment and your health are the two main overriding factors that cause dry eyes.

Some environmental factors include:

• Smoky rooms.
• Air conditioning.
• Aeroplanes.
• Cold or dry wind.
• Long-term and close-range use of computer screens.

Some health conditions that can cause dry eyes include:

• Dry eye disease.
• Rheumatoid arthritis.
• A chalazion is blocking your tear gland.
• Thyroid disorders.
• Lupus.
• Vitamin A deficiency.
• Some medicines such as antihistamines, antidepressants and birth control.
• Hormone replacement therapy.
• Corneal nerve desensitisation caused by laser eye surgery or frequent use of contact lenses.

If you have the symptoms of dry eyes, you should see your GP or an eye specialist as soon as possible to find the cause of your dry eyes. If the cause is an environmental factor, it can be easily rectified, and your symptoms should go away quickly. However, if the cause is another health condition, you may have to undergo more lengthy treatment for the condition, as well as treat the symptoms of dry eyes.

Do dry eyes go away naturally?

As symptoms of dry eyes can vary greatly, how long they take to clear up also varies. If you’ve been cycling on a crisp, dry winter morning, you may have symptoms of dry eyes, such as a stinging or itching sensation, or your eyes may be over-watering or streaming as your body attempts to quickly moisten your eyes. However, with a short period in a warm, more humid room, you’ll notice your symptoms going away naturally.

If your dry eyes last for longer than a few days, you should seek treatment for them, as leaving your eyes dry for prolonged periods may cause more serious problems to your eye health.

For people with long-term dry eyes, or dry eyes caused by conditions like a thyroid issue, you may have dry eyes for a long time, or potentially permanently, and require more permanent treatments for your dry eyes.

Are dry eyes harmful?

For dry eyes that last a long time, you should treat the symptoms to avoid any further health complications. You should treat the cause of your dry eyes as well to relieve symptoms; however, this may take a long time, so treating the symptoms of dry eyes while undergoing other treatment is essential.

Eyes need to be lubricated to facilitate blinking to effectively clean and clear our eyes of dust and debris. We need to clean our eyes to prevent developing eye infections such as conjunctivitis and blepharitis, as well as remove harmful dirt particles that may scratch the surface of our eyes.

When our eyes are dry, our eyelids scratch at the surface of our eye, causing redness, irritation and inflammation. This irritation is not just superficial but can cause issues with our vision.

Can dry eyes cause blindness?

Having dry eyes can affect your vision, but it would have to be left untreated and dry for several decades to lead to blindness just from dry eyes, without a more serious cause of dry eyes having an effect.

Although it may sound contradictory, some people who have dry eyes have very watery eyes, which causes blurred vision. While dry eyes are most often caused by a lack of tears being produced, it can also be caused by poor-quality tears which don’t effectively lubricate the eyes, leading to people’s eyes streaming but still feeling irritated as they are not being cleaned as normal. When tears are constantly being produced, people’s vision can be greatly impacted, as everything appears blurry.

In some cases, regular screen use causes dry eyes, but it can also cause blurred vision as it becomes difficult to focus, particularly on things further away than your screen. This may seem as though your dry eyes are causing blurred vision, but by changing your lifestyle (practising the 20:20:20 rule), you should be able to cure both your blurred vision and dry eyes.

For very serious cases of dry eyes that go untreated, you may scratch the surface of your cornea so severely that your vision becomes blurry. If you still neglect your dry eyes after scratching your cornea or developing an eye infection and not treating it, you may lose a great deal of your vision altogether.

Can you treat dry eyes?

Fortunately, there are temporary and more permanent treatments for dry eyes available to people suffering from mild and severe symptoms.

If your symptoms of dry eyes are mild or are caused by temporary environmental factors such as cold or dry weather, you can make some small changes to your environment and lifestyle to relieve symptoms of dry eyes. These include:

• Drinking sufficient fluids to avoid dehydration (at least 1.5-2 litres a day).
• Adjusting your computer’s distance and screen brightness to avoid eye strain.
• Having a humidifier prevents the dry air from hurting your eyes.
• Avoiding air conditioning.
• Wearing glasses in cold and windy weather.

For more serious cases of dry eyes, you should seek a different treatment.

Eye drops known as artificial tears are the most common treatment for dry eyes and can be very effective. Some eye drops contain preservatives that may irritate some people’s eyes, so check the ingredients on the label for any allergens or speak to a pharmacist before you use them.

Although you can buy most eye drops for dry eyes over the counter, you should check with an eye specialist which one you should use before you try them. Some artificial tears work by preventing tear evaporation, while others lubricate the eyes. Depending on the cause and symptoms of your dry eyes, one type of eye drops may work better for you than another.

If eye drops don’t work well enough to relieve your symptoms, or your health condition that is causing dry eyes is more severe and requires a more permanent solution, you can speak to your eye specialist about surgery.

Can you cure dry eyes?

There are more permanent solutions to severe cases of dry eyes that involve minor surgeries and can be greatly effective. However, in many cases, even after surgery, you will still need to use artificial tears from time to time to lubricate your eyes, so there is no complete cure for dry eyes.

If you have severely dry eyes and have recurrent eye infections and discomfort that is affecting your ability to perform your daily activities, you should speak to your eye specialist about tear duct surgeries.

The more common of the two is known as punctal plug insertion; punctal plugs are tiny devices that can be inserted into your tear ducts to block them and prevent your eyes from drying out. These often require you to still use eye drops to provide your eyes with the initial moisture.

The second procedure, which is rarer but a more permanent fix for dry eyes, is known as Minor Gland Salivary Autotransplant. This involves grafting salivary glands from your mouth and inserting them next to your tear ducts to replicate tear production. Ask your eye specialist for more information if you have been suffering from dry eyes for many years.

Eye and Dental Clinic – take care of your eyes

The Eye and Dental Clinic has two expert teams of dentists and ophthalmologists ready to help treat your eye and dental issues. If you need a routine appointment or an emergency appointment, contact us today, or look at our latest news for more information.

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