How can I reduce my dry eye symptoms

[Natalies1]

Hello,
I am a twenty year old female who was recently diagnosed with chronic dry eye. I had a viral pink eye in both eyes a couple months ago and since then my eyes have continuously become drier. They're itchy, bloodshot, and are heavy and sore at night. I tried OTC preservative free drops, lotemax, restasis, omega 3 fish oil, and am drinking a lot of water. My remedies are helping but this condition is awful and I'm not sure if I'm doing enough to reduce the symptoms. Is there anything else I can try to help my condition? I know that my pink eye had something to do with my tear production so I was hoping  someone else had a similar experience and had a successful remedy to deal with this.

[JohnHaganMD]

Restasis: twice/day rest of your life.  If you stop the dry eye comes back. Dry eye does not normally get better with time after age 40; usually not with people younger.  But some young people that have dry eye due to medications such as for anxiety get better when the medication is changed.

JCH MD

[mariposa87]

Natalie, the condition gets better with time
After viral pink eye the first year was really bad but gradually it improved.Not so much that I can wear contact lenses,but still ...

[mariposa87]

Doctor Hagan,

Is Restatis a drug that one takes continuously or does it cure the dry eye and one can get off it forever?

[JohnHaganMD]

The above note from pinhole is spot on.  The link can also be found at the bottom of this page on Today's Pulse. Click on the blue dots till you get to the dry eye article then read it.

Restasis is a wonder drug for moderate or severe dry eyes. My wife and I are both on it for years. You have not "tried restasis" until you've used it twice per day for a minimum of 6-7 months. Treatment failures when used that long are rare in my personal and practice experience.

JCHMD

[pinhole]

Please read Dr. Hagan's recent response that he posted at the end of the thread below called "Burning Eyes, Aggressive blinking, very heavy around the eyes." In his post at the end of that thread Dr. Hagan included a link to information about treating chronic dry eyes.