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It’s a point of pride for us at Gulfcoast Eye Care to provide simple, effective solutions for even the most complex eye conditions. Dry eye syndrome may seem like a minor inconvenience, but if it’s persistent, it can negatively impact your quality of life.
Dry eye disease is a condition that can stem from a variety of different sources and cause a diverse array of symptoms. By offering a range of tests, treatments, and methods for managing dry eyes, we’ll be able to find the solution that works for you, guaranteed.
Dry eye disease — also called dry eye syndrome, keratoconjunctivitis sicca, or ocular surface disease — is a chronic condition caused by either decreased tear production, or increased tear film evaporation. Dry eye syndrome happens when your eyes are unable to produce the optimal tear quantity or quality to keep them moisturized.
Tears are important to maintaining the health of your eyes — they help to moisturize, protect against infection, and help wounds heal. Due to the complex nature of dry eye disease and its tendency to mimic the symptoms of other problems like eye allergies, this condition is frequently under-diagnosed.
There are two main types of dry eye disease: evaporative dry eye disease and aqueous dry eye disease. Though they both share similar symptoms, each is the result of a different root cause.
One of the most common types of dry eye disease, evaporative dry eye, is the result of a lack of tears caused by dysfunction of the meibomian gland. These glands produce oil that helps keep the tears from drying too quickly, and can cause dry eye if not working properly.
The other major form of dry eye disease is aqueous dry eye, which is when your eye isn’t producing enough tears, or the tears it produces are low quality. The lacrimal gland produces the water layer of your tears, and dry eye is frequently a result of it misfunctioning.
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