It is very common this time of year for patients to come in for their first eye exam ever. As always I will ask them what brings them in to the office today…….are you having any vision problems? The patient will respond with yeah my vision is blurry all the time. So we dig deeper……any itching, burning or tearing? To which the patient responds yeah they do burn and tear at times.
Does any of this sound familiar? What is going on? Why did I suddenly notice this blurry vision? Well the answer is quite common. A lot of patients that have never experienced vision problems will notice some blurry vision this time of year. This is usually caused by Dry Eye. The reason we notice it this time of year is because of the conditions we live in.
My practice, Riverside Eye Center, is located in Columbus Ohio and this time of year (early November) we start to get much cooler air. This cooler air is much drier and as a result affects our body and more specific our tissues. So what do we do when it gets cooler we turn on our furnace…….which dries our air even more. To make the situation even worse the majority of people work in professional office buildings that are typically very dry and within those buildings we work on computers. On these computers we are very focused on the work at hand (or your Facebook account) and as a result we tend to blink less, which means our tears are evaporating and we aren’t refreshing them.
So let’s review: we have dry air outside, heated dry air inside, and decreased blinking, not to mention the typically windy condition we experience here in Columbus.
If you don’t believe me, let s perform an experiment. Sit in front of your computer or your TV. Now hold both eyelids open. How long did you last before you had to blink? It typically takes approximately 15 seconds for your tear film to evaporate………if you didn’t last that long you may need to visit your eye doctor.
The good news is this dry eye can usually be easily corrected. With the use of artificial tears the majority of the cases return to normal. There are other cases that require more assistance with the use of punctual plugs, restasis, fish oil, or other forms of therapy for the dryness.
So if you are noticing any blurry vision maybe your sight is fine and it is just the dryness affecting it. In any case it is always a good idea to visit the eye doctor for a thorough evaluation!!!
http://www.riversideeyectr.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment