​​​​​​​Dr. Andrus started seeking out innovative treatments for dry eyes as he noticed that eye drops alone don’t help most patients that suffer from this condition. Dry eyes can have a major impact on your quality of life and can cause tired eyes, blurry vision, discomfort, and burning. Dr. Andrus has a wide variety of dry eye treatments that offer a more effective solution than eye drops.

Dry eye occurs when a person doesn't have enough good quality tears to lubricate and nourish the eye. We now know that dry eye is mostly a result of long-term inflammation of the oil glands in our eyelids. As the oil glands are inflamed, they don’t produce “good" oil, and this causes the tears in our eyes to be poor quality. Tears reduce eye infections, wash away foreign matter, and keep the eye’s surface smooth and clear, so dryness can have a significant impact on quality of life and eye health.

One traditional treatment for dry eye has been eye drops. There are still very mild cases that can be helped with drops, however, there are now treatments that help the oil glands produce better oil. For some people, gel-type eye drops can be used at night to help with dry eye symptoms.

There are several prescriptions that treat dry eye differently. Dr. Andrus can advise the best option for your situation.

• Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) Therapy - This technology uses defined wavelengths of light to reduce inflammation and is as close to a cure for dry eye as we have. There are a series of treatments that are needed but we offer a membership program to make this procedure more available to patients. This is all done in the comfort of the dry eye massage chair

• In-office Thermal Gland Expression with Nulids Device - This process involves warm compresses, eyelid massage, and a technique to help get the old thick oil out of the eyelid oil glands. This is all done in the comfort of the dry eye massage chair

• Contact Lenses - There are specialty contact lenses that keep the eye moist all day long. They’re called scleral lenses

• Antibiotics or Steroids - If your eyelids are inflamed, this can prevent oil glands from secreting oil into your tears. Dr. Andrus may recommend antibiotics/steroids to reduce inflammation
  
  

Contact Mid-Modern Eyecare in Midland, Michigan at (989) 486-3025 today to learn more about dry eye treatment or to schedule an appointment to get treatment started.