dry eyes can actually cause a bunch of different symptoms
some more surprising than others in this video i'm going over the top
causes and symptoms of dry eyes some that you may not expect let's focus in
hey howdy everybody this is dr neal guymon dr eyeguy with the show that keeps your eyes
healthy and your vision clear i make videos all about the eyes so make sure you're subscribed so
you don't miss any of my future videos so i can help you with your eyes now let's focus on those
dry eye symptoms before i go over the different symptoms of dry ice let me go over the different
causes of dry eyes so that way we can understand the symptoms a little bit better the tears of your
eyes are actually made of three different layers oil layer water layer and a mucus layer also known
as the lipid layer aqueous layer and the mucus layer now if you have problems in one of those
layers or multiple layers then likely you're going to experience some dry eye symptoms now usually
i'd say most people fall under the category of having problems with the oil layer or the water
layer likely they have problems with both the layers or a combination of the two now there are a
lot of different things that can affect the water layer of the tears a lot of medical conditions
like thyroid disorders rheumatoid arthritis lupus vitamin a deficiency can all affect the production
of the tears coming out of the lacrimal gland above your eyeball a lot of medications can affect
it as well antihistamines decongestants birth control acutane that people take for acne can
affect the aqueous or the water layer of the tears as well another big one is the laser surgery like
lasik the lasers can actually damage the corneal nerves the nerves are what sends the signal back
to the brain saying hey my eyes are dry and so the brain will send the signal to produce more tears
now if those nerves are damaged the brain is not getting the message from the cornea and so then
you do not produce the water part of your tears now the oil layer is probably the most significant
factor to dry eye disease the importance of that oil layer is to lock your tears onto your eyes if
you do not have the oil layer on your tears then your tears will evaporate and they'll evaporate
too quick just leaving your eyes exposed to the air in fact a lot of doctors like to use the term
evaporative dry eye disease meaning that your tears just evaporate way too quick and usually
the cause of that is pour oil or poor lipid layer on your tear film the big causes to the dry eyes
there are usually stemming from problems with the oil glands you have little tiny oil glands running
vertical on the eyelids and if those oil glands aren't pumping out the right oil then you will
not have that nice covering or coating of oil on your tears now blinking plays a big role in
coating your tears with oil if you're spending a lot of time on screens computer all day phone all
day then you're probably likely blinking a whole lot less and you're probably doing an incomplete
blink the reason why the blink is so important is every time you blink your eyelids pick up
that oil from your oil glands and spread a nice coat over the tears if you're blinking less or
have an incomplete blink then you're not going to have that nice coat of oil now another common one
is wind smoky environments dirty dry air can cause the evaporation of your tears to go a lot quicker
as well now this video is just a part of a series of dry eye videos that i'll be doing other videos
i'll go more in depth and more in detail about the causes of dry eyes so make sure that you check out
that series that i have i'll put the link down in the description below before i go over the
different types of symptoms that people might be experiencing with dry eyes make sure that you
hit that like button if you're finding value from this video also leave a comment down below if you
yourself experience dry eyes and what symptoms you might be experiencing now there are top symptoms
that you will probably expect if you're having dry eyes the main one that most people describe
their dry eyes symptoms would be a dry eye a lot of times they'll use the terms as their eyes
kind of feel like there's sand in there or it's really gritty usually if the surface isn't coated
with that tear film then the eyelids and the eyes just scratch or rub against each other even when
they're moving their eyes around when they're blinking it just feels like sandpaper scratching
on the eyeballs and actually can be quite unpleasant quite painful more than you'd think the
cornea the front part of your your eye is actually one of the most sensitive tissues in your body so
if you have something that's irritating the cornea it just makes you miserable the other symptom of
burning or stinging is another common description that people give and you could probably experience
this or have already experienced this if you actually keep your eyes open long enough all
of a sudden your eyes will start to sting and burn and that's actually your tears evaporating off and
the surface of your eyeball is now feeling the air the dry air around you and it causes your eyes to
sting and burn another symptom that you probably will expect is that your eyes will actually
get red because you have that significant inflammation and dryness the eyes get irritated
the vessels get dilated and so you have this red dry eye appearance now usually a dead giveaway
if your red eyes is caused by dry eyes if you open up your eyes really wide if you still have
white parts of your eye on the top and the bottom where your eyelid has been protecting it
but your redness is just nasal and temporal or on the sides of the the eyes the white part of the
eye that's the area that's exposed to the air that got exposed when your tears evaporated and caused
that inflammation and redness dead giveaway for dryness now one important dry eye symptom
that you may expect and some people may not is that you may experience blurry vision from the dry
eyes in fact it might be fluctuating blurry vision your focus might go in it might be clear then all
of a sudden just a few seconds later it'll be blurry and defocused you might even experience
after blinks you might blink your vision's clear and great and then all sudden it will go blurry
that's also a big symptom of dry eyes that some people may not expect they might come into the
clinic thinking hey my vision's blurry i must need glasses and they might have no prescription or no
need for glasses but the surface of their eyes are dry and so they'll have that evaporation and cause
blurry vision now one symptom a lot of people may not expect is a foreign body sensation it'll
almost feel like something might be inside their eye or on the surface of their eye underneath
their eyelid they'll spend a lot of time trying to rub or flush it out and it won't get out of there
and they'll actually come into the clinic saying hey i have something in my eye what's going on
and i'll look and look i don't see anything in their eyes but i do notice that their eyes are
really dry and they might have these dry patches or inflammation on the surface of your eyes
and that might be what they're feeling as their eyelids kind of run over those dry
patches it almost feel like there's actually some foreign body or something else in there but it's
actually their dry eye another one that might be confusing is sometimes their eyes will be itchy
thinking hey i have allergies and they may they may have the combination of allergies and dry eyes
but sometimes the dry eyes can make your eyes feel itchy if you have inflammation eyelids
surface of the eyeball it will cause your eyes to feel irritated make you want to rub
and scratch the eyes because that actually does make it feel better if you can kind of rub and
soothe the tears around but it might make the eyes feel itchy the dryness might be the cause of that
now one big symptom that we need to talk about is your dry eyes may cause watery eyes and that
confuses a lot of people i'll get people that come into the clinic all the time saying hey my eyes
just keep watering and i'll look at their eyes and say hey your eyes are actually dry and they'll
look at me like i'm crazy and then i didn't listen to a word that they said but because their eyes
were dry a protective mechanism kicks in causing your eyes to water more than your eyes can handle
and so just keep it keep that in mind that your watery eyes might be because of dry eyes in fact
i did a video on why your eyes water i'll put that link up there and you can check that out now
another big one that most people don't realize may just be from their dry eyes as their eyes might
feel sore or fatigued or tired a lot of times when they're working on the computer all day long
they blink less do incomplete blinks it will cause that inflammation and make their eyes just feel
tired sore fatigued almost an achy feeling it's just because that dry inflammation is causing
that feeling to show up and it might just be from their dry eye problems now another symptom that
a lot of people may not experience but it can be from dry eyes is photophobia or light sensitivity
sometimes people will come into the clinic saying oh man the lights the snow
sometimes nighttime and the headlights kill on my eyes and it actually can stem from your dry
eyes now the exact cause or reason for that not really known a lot of people think it
stems from the actual inflammation of the eye the inflammation can also inflame the trigeminal nerve
that affects the eye and a lot of people think that's where that light sensitivity comes from
but just keep in mind if you're experiencing light sensitivity it may be from dry eyes now like i
said there's a lot of different causes also a lot of other different symptoms that might be coming
from your dry eyes dry eyes can actually be very complicated to treat and figure out there's a lot
of dry eye treatments that may help other people may not help this person and so it's usually best
if you're experiencing any of these types of symptoms to go and see your eye doctor usually
your eye doctor can try and nail down where your dry eye stem causes or root causes coming from
either from one of those different layers of the tear film or a combination of the three
and then that way they can come up with a good game plan to help treat your dry eye disease or
dry eye symptoms to help mitigate the symptoms that you have now if you're experiencing these
dry symptoms and have a dry eye disease i made a video of the top four most advanced dry eye
treatments you could be doing at home to help your dry eyes but like i said make sure that you go in
for an eye exam get your eyes looked at to see what type of dry eye disease you have but if you
want to check out that video i'll put a link right up in that corner there now also check the links
below for dr guy's golden nugget recommendations for dry eye treatments hey thanks for watching the
video all the way through make sure that you're subscribed i'm dr neal guymon dr eyeguy looking
out for you and your eyes stay focused and if you're interested in my other videos click or tap
the screen up here also another video that might interest you click or tap the screen down here
how many times did i say dry eyes in that video it almost made me feel like i have dry eyes right now