What Is A Dry Eye Center Of Excellence?

Battling dry eye is a team effort. There are plenty of ways to improve dry eye on your own, but consult an eye doctor to stop chronic symptoms.

You can ask about dry eye treatment during a scheduled appointment at Pinke Eye Center in Shelton, CT.

Dry eye is one of the most common and prevalent eye disorders. We are proud to include a Dry Eye Center of Excellence as part of our clinic at Pinke Eye Center.

We specialize in dry eye treatment and provide comprehensive solutions to our clients throughout the Shelton, CT areas. Wondering if a dry eye center of excellence is right for you? Keep reading to learn more!

Meibomian Gland Dysfunction Treatment

Our meibomian glands are found underneath the edges of the eyelid. These glands have a very important function to the well being of our eyes because they produce oil.

This oil coats the outer layer of our tears which blocks them from evaporating too fast.

Sometimes these glands become blocked with a waxy residue. If this happens, the glands won’t function properly. Without oil production, our tears become low quality.

Low-quality tears are unable to hydrate and deliver key nutrients to the eyes. There are ways to unblock these glands and improve the quality of your tears.

Using the Lipiflow treatment, warmth and pressure is directed to the meibomian glands. This removes any of the waxy residue on the glands. The pulsating energies emitted by Lipiflow are delivered through a Vectored Thermal Pulse.

These energies are safe for delicate eye structures. The treatment only takes about 12 minutes to finish and is painless. In fact, many people describe it as relaxing!

Lacrimal Plugs

Sometimes the solution to dry eye is ensuring enough tears are staying on the surface of the eye. One way to remedy this is plugging up the eyes’ tear ducts.

Using lacrimal plugs (more often referred to as punctal plugs) is a common and safe way to achieve this.

Your eye doctor first determines what size of lacrimal plug to use, as the size of your tear ducts can vary. Punctal plugs come in either a permanent or semi-permanent form.

Permanent punctal plugs stay in your eyes, while semi-permanent plugs dissolve. Once dissolved, the plugs are safely absorbed into the body.

Dissolvable plugs are usually used to test whether this form of treatment will help. Plugs are easy to remove at any time if they are proving to be ineffective or causing eyes to become too watery.

Advice on Home Dry Eye Care

There are lots of ways to improve your dry eye situation with choices that you make every day.

You can come in and discuss some of the most popular ways to treat your dry eye at home. Small lifestyle changes like a humidifier and less screen time can make a difference!

The important thing to remember is treating your dry eye is about more than small changes. When you don’t find the relief you’re looking for, visiting a dry eye center of excellence makes sense.

Ready to treat your dry eye the right way? Schedule a dry eye appointment with Pinke Eye Center in Shelton, CT today!