so if you're having dry eye symptoms then this is the video for you because
I'm gonna go over seven dry eye treatments at home that your eye doctor
probably just didn't have time to talk with you about let's take a look okay
what's up everyone this is dr. Allen here from the Doctor Eye Health how helping
you learn all about the eyes and vision and if you're new here to the channel
and you like learning about the eyes and finding the best vision products and
then definitely consider subscribing otherwise today we've got seven
different treatments for dry eyes that you can use at home different one are to
use artificial tears throughout the day that's not just once like maybe in the
morning or once at night but often times using them maybe three four times
throughout the day I know if you go to see an eye doctor for dry eye disease
almost every single one of them will hand you a sample of artificial tears or
some sort of dry eye drop that they could recommend for you and they have
done that I definitely recommend trying the eye drop that they selected for you
and your type of dry eye disease otherwise the eye drop that I often hand out
as a sample is sustained complete I prefer to use sustained complete just
because it does cover both aqueous deficient dry eye that's where people
don't produce enough tear or watery component to their tears and then
there's the oil component which over 80 some percent of all dry eye disease has
some form of oil declined efficiency and the sustained complete also helps with
the oil component of the tears for people that need to use artificial tears
more than three four times a day they're using them five six or maybe every two
hours then looking for something that is preservative free is also really
important preservatives with artificial tears putting onto the I can basically
cause a chemical burn to the surface of the eye we call that medicamentosa
and it's imagine that you washed your hair too many times throughout the day
like five six times throughout the day with shampoo you can imagine that's
going to scorch and kind of burn your scalp a little bit same idea with using
artificial tears too many times throughout the day and they have really
hardcore preservatives in them thankfully most brand name artificial
tears don't use really harsh preservatives in them anymore but non
preserved artificial taters or preservative free tear
are still strongly recommended and because preservative-free drops don't
have any preservatives they can still be used for contact lenses oftentimes
preservative-free drops come in a little box like this one and inside they have
these little individual non preserved capsules these little vials they come in
the big kind of strip like this you can tear one off you tear off the top and
you put the drop in and then you're supposed to throw this away right after
each use but there is also a new development a lot of brands are coming
out with preservative free multi-use bottles like this one here from refresh
what's nice is that you don't have to worry about all the individual vials but
if you do pick up one of these bottles you do have to push pretty hard before
the tear drops and actually start coming out I know there's some people who like
the gel drops a little bit more because they tend to stay on the eye longer
rather than just evaporate very quickly and all the many different brands out
there I personally like sustained nighttime gel myself just because it
feels really good on the eye and it's not too thick but if you ever do reach
for a nighttime pointment those are extremely thick it's almost like
Vaseline on the eyes and that will definitely blur your vision but usually
appointments are really helpful for the people who sleep with their eyelids open
just a little bit and it can be helpful for people who sleep with a CPAP machine
as well now tip number two is one of my personal favorites and that is doing hot
compresses for your eyes doing a hot or warm compress for the eyelids the whole
purpose of it is to heat up the oil glands in the eyelids that allows the
oil glands to melt because a lot of times these oil glands will become
inflamed and then the oils become clogged up it kind of turns solidified
into something like butter and then heating it up we'll get those oils to
melt and then they run smoother out of the glands and onto the tears and that
prevents the tears from evaporating okay stop let me introduce you to Zelda she's
my cute kitty over here and she just will not leave my office so she's gonna
be in the video for the rest of the time though there's many different ways to do
warm compresses there's many different products on the market I've tried about
30-plus of them probably one of them that we recommend in our clinic is the
brooder eye mask these are really convenient because you just put in the
microwave for 20-30 seconds put them on your face for about 10-15 minutes feels
great and gets those oil glands running it's also something that I like because
you can wash it and keep reusing it but again
there are many other products on the market another one that I'll mention
here is from sterilized from the eye doctor
it's from Great Britain but also works very similar to the brooder mask but
there are many other brands that work the same way and I'll include a bunch of
links to different ones that I've tried and recommend in the youtube description
below but there are other types of warm compresses that heat up through
different methods there's ones that you plug in to a cellphone charger into your
laptop and those heat up and there's other ones too that you can even snap
with your fingers kind of like a warmer that would use if you were going outside
and a cold winter those ones are also pretty cool if you're somebody who likes
scientific studies than the compress from I echo or tranquilize this one
seems to have the most research backed studies about not just the benefit of
warm compresses but of moist heat in the compress because the moist heat is not
just gonna heat up the oil glands but the moisture is gonna be trapped on the
eye and that's gonna help soothe dryness the best but again if you want to check
out more details about warm compresses I do have those links in the description
below you can check those out in addition to just dry eyes moist heat
compress also helps for blepharitis which is tip number three also managing
blepharitis symptoms if you'd have never heard of blepharitis before blepharitis
is where the eyelids become red crusty inflamed due to skin oils and bacteria
that sit on our eyelids blepharitis is very similar to having dandruff on the
scalp except that it's more on the eyelashes and eyelids so to treat that
oftentimes doctors can use medication but at home you can also use moist heat
compresses that help break up the oils that have solidified on the eyelashes
but just like having dandruff of the scalp where you would want to get an
anti dandruff shampoo there are different cleansers and soaps for the
eyelashes specifically and for that there's different products and brands
out there this has happens to be one of them from occu soft it's like an eyelid
cleansing wipe you simply tear this off and open it and then you wipe your
eyelashes with it they also do make foaming eyelid cleansers which are very
popular because they are very gentle for the eyelids and safe to use every day
and then there's an eyelid cleaning product called hypochlorous acid and
again there's many different brands of hypochlorous acid that are out there I
personally have not tested every single one and found one
more superior than the other but again if you want to look more into
hypochlorous acid I do have some description below as well as a video
going over hypochlorous acid more specifically again if you're interested
in checking that out tip number four is that after doing any cleansing for
blepharitis and doing a warm compress also consider doing blinking exercises
you can do these blinking exercises after doing a warm compress that'll get
the oil glands pumping because the whole process of blinking is what squeezes
your oil glands of the eyelids and get them to release those oils and one of
the major issues these days is that everyone seems to be on a computer or a
phone or studying really intensely whether you're looking in a book or
perhaps you're just playing a board game with family you are studying very
intensely and we don't blink as often if you and I were just in conversation
typically our blink rate is around 20 times a minute but as soon as we start
focusing on something up close our blink rate drops for about four times a minute
that's a significant decrease that means our eyes are more exposed to air and our
tears are going to evaporate much quicker one thing you should be doing is
the 20-20-20 rule where you spend 20 minutes doing your normal activity up
close again whether you're on the computer or your cell phone but then
after 20 minutes you have to take a break and look 20 feet away give your
eyes a little bit of a rest and blink your eyes a few times in addition you
can try something that I've been starting to do which is whenever there's
a commercial on TV or on a podcast or if I'm in the car and I'm stopped at a red
light I actually call it my red light challenge when I'm stopped
I force fully blink my eyes over and over again trying to encourage my
eyelids to blink a hundred percent close all the way because many people don't
close their eyelids a hundred percent if you're a contact lens where like myself
the cornea becomes desensitized over time and then people often don't blink
on two percent they feel like they are but really their eyelids are only coming
down maybe about 70 percent and that leaves the bottom one-third of their
cornea exposed to air and dries out faster but during this red light
challenge of mine I forcefully blink my eyes over and over and over again until
the red light turns green and then of course I'm driving normally at that time
just to be safe but certainly doing blinking
exercises can feel really good to the eyes and get that moisture back to its
normal level now tip number five is to consider taking an omega-3 supplement
now there's a lot of debate over the benefits of omega-3s in different parts
of the body they have strongly been suggested from both neurological
benefits historically heart benefits but also skin as well as the retina in the
back of the eye and in terms of Omega threes benefits for dry eyes there's
some studies that are strongly supported for omega-3s and there's some that
really kind of have cast doubt on the benefits of Omega 3 for dry eyes but the
vast majority of dry eye specialists that I know all do still strongly
recommend Omega threes as a potential treatment for dry eye disease now I'm
not going to go too deep into the science of omega 3s but the whole idea
of Omega 3s in medicine is that it reduces the inflammatory load within our
body and with dry eyes specifically there's a lot of inflammation that
occurs and it kind of adds like adding gasoline to a fire not only under the
eyes not having enough tears and that they're having a lot of evaporation from
oil components but there's an overall inflammatory cascade that occurs and
causes dryness to get worse and a lot of us are living lives where we eat a lot
of processed food and there's a lot of kind of processed oils like soybean oil
that have a lot of omega sixes and that really promotes inflammation in our body
so Omega threes are supposed to come back to the omega sixes but most studies
that show benefits of omega threes for dry eye symptoms do show that taking the
Omega 3s for about two this three months just show is not just improvement in
symptoms for the patient but also that symptoms or signs of the dry eye disease
do go down and that's something that I doctors observe in these studies on
patients eyes it does often take several months of taking omega-3 supplements to
have some sort of a clinical benefit because those Omega threes have to be
incorporated into your whole body again Omega threes is a huge topic there are
many different brands out there there's only one at the timing of this video
right now that is actually a prescription omega-3 that you actually
need a prescription they have filled and that's the only one that's actually
regulated by the FDA when you take any type of vitamin
supplement whether it be vitamins or omega-3s
they're not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration that means there is
no overlooking company or administration that is making sure that that is being
made exactly what's on the label of the bottle so when it comes to omega-3s
again with other supplements I do strongly recommend that you look for a
company or a product that is third-party tested in both their manufacturing as
well as their kind of delivery so as far as getting on omega-3 it's important to
make sure you getting a high quality omega-3 and not just looking for the
bargain bin type of omegas if you want to know what brands of omega-3s that
I've had success with I will include a couple of different links to products in
the youtube description below if you want to close out I do also want to
encourage you that if you're considering taking any supplement at all again
whether that be vitamins or an omega-3 you do speak with your local physician
about using those and how it regards to your personal health ok we've covered a
lot before but here are two treatments that oftentimes doctors do not mention
during an examination but first if you're finding value in this smash that
like button for me if you're thinking the cat is cute smash that like button
for me and leave a comment below which part of this video has been your
favorite is there any sort of treatment that seems to have worked really well
for you at home or if there's something new that you and that's not mentioned
this video that you've been doing go ahead and leave that in the comments so
it helps the entire community otherwise let's keep going
tip number six is to consider using a humidifier and even the office the
bedroom or the living room and that's because the air around us can get very
dry especially if you have the heater running at all the heater can really dry
out the air in your house and that can cause the eyes to feel really dry and
Scratchy again a lot of us are not blinking enough when we're sitting in
front of a computer all day so having a humidifier to raise the humidity in the
office is going to help soothe those dry eyes and prevent the tears from
evaporating so quickly one special tip I'll include is that if
you're using a humidifier make sure you use distilled water and not just using
tap water as tap water will have different minerals that can be ear
alized and then you can breathe in those minerals and they can even get trapped
in your fur our air purifier in your home and our
final dry eye treatment at home for tea today is also about moisture and
humidity and that's using moisture chambers now the whole idea of using
moisture chambers as a treatment for our dry eye is certainly not a new treatment
by far but is often one that's not discussed in clinics now there are
several different brands and designs for moisture chambers that are out there but
they're all around a star on the same concept there type of goggle that wraps
around the eyes and holds on to the side of the face and that seals in the
moisture of the eyes and prevents the tears from evaporating as easily now
again there's different brands that are out there this happens to be just my
favorite from the Zienna brand of eyewear for moisture chambers the Sienna
brand makes glasses that look more like regular glasses except that they have
this little side shield that is built with magnets so it comes on and comes
off so you can clean them easily and they are available to having your
prescription lenses put into the glasses most of the moisture chambers that are
out there they're kind of like onion goggles for cooking to prevent your eyes
from burning and stinging when you're cutting onions they don't allow
prescription where's Ziena lenses you can have regular prescription lenses put in
there from your local optical if your local optical or eye care clinic doesn't
have the Ziena brand available you can order from their website if you're
interested I do have a coupon code for Z Anna if you want to check that out and
only get include that in the tradition below as well I hope these tips help you
but as always make sure that you do follow up with your local eye care
physician to make sure that your eyes are being well taken care of
all right wave through all seven tips hopefully your eyes start feeling a lot
better here at home otherwise if you'd like to check out more information about
different dry eye treatments that are available not just for at home but also
in your eye clinic then you can go ahead and check out my full dry eye series up
here to the side or if you'd like to see more videos from dr. eye health go ahead
and click or tap the screen down over here again this is dr. Allen here thanks
so much for watching keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you soon