So anyone with dry eye symptoms you need to listen up, because there is a new dry eye treatment
in town and no it's not an eye drop in fact this is a nasal spray called Tyrvaya and in
this video we're going to break down how Tyrvaya works as a dry eye medication sharing some tips
on how to use it as well as kind of going over side effects, cost and my overall experience
trying it out for the last several weeks. so if you suffer from dry eyes like me and
you're looking for a new dry eyes treatment, this video is for you. let's take a look.
hey what's up everyone this is dr Allen here from the dr eye health show and today
this video is a little special this is in fact the first time that i've ever talked about or
reviewed a prescription only medication and because it is prescription only i want to make
it clear that this video is NOT sponsored by any pharmaceutical company, i'm not receiving payment
from any company to make this video. I this this video is just because this is new
it's something that i think my patients and other people should really hear about
and i figure if it even helps just one person to learn about a new treatment that may help them
whether it just helps them feel better about their eyes in terms of dry eye or maybe see a little
bit better then it's totally worth my time but now that that's out of the way let's talk about
Tyrvaya. first thing is it is pronounced Tyrvaya even though the aya honestly confuses me a little
bit phonetically i keep on wanting to call it like Tyrvaya but no they really want you to say Tyrvaya
but again what is different about Tyrvaya is that it is not a prescription eye drop for dry eyes
like most dry eye treatments that they are eye drops but this one is a nasal spray. now just a
few weeks ago i had the privilege of flying out to Boston Massachusetts to attend what is called
the American Academy of Optometry meeting which i am a fellow of, and that's what the FAAO at
the end of my name stands for, stands for the Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry,
but that meeting happens to be my favorite meeting throughout the entire year because it's where eye
doctors like myself get to go and learn about new medications, new research, new treatments,
all that cool stuff and while i was there i was even able to meet some of the people from the
Oyster Point pharmaceutical company who currently is making this medication which means i was able
to ask more questions get to know more about the medication as well as get some samples and i've
actually been trying it out and i'm excited to share my experience with you later in this
video. now some things i learned is that Tyrvaya which the active ingredient is called varenicline
which is in fact the same active ingredient used in the prescription called chantix which is famous
as the medication that's prescribed to help people quit smoking but it's only about a third
of the concentration or so of that prescription of chantix so there's really no like associated
same similar side effects or anything like that but like many medications that are out there they
don't fully understand how the medication works but they do believe that it works mainly through
what is called the trigeminal parasympathetic pathway you see we all have cranial nerves that
have branches that go from your brain to your face and from your face to your brain and around
your nose and inside your nose is a branch of the fifth cranial nerve called the trigeminal nerve
and this medication Tyrvaya stimulates that fifth cranial nerve which coincidentally sends a signal
to the seventh cranial nerve called the facial nerve and this nerve sends a signal directly to
your lacrimal gland which produces most of your tears but it also sends signals to your other
accessory lacrimal glands including goblet cells and the ever famous meibomian glands which makes
me really excited and pretty hopeful because most people with dry eye have some other issue with
deficiencies of their meibomian glands including me so in short tear via helps you tear up and make
more tears not necessarily cry but it increases your basal layer of tear production imagine that
your base level of tears is right down here and if you're using Tyrvaya for a while your basal
levels should be more up here that's basically how it's supposed to work in fact in clinical
studies they found a significant improvement in basal tear production after just five
minutes after using the medication and in their clinical studies after four weeks of continuous
use 52 percent of patients had a greater than 10 millimeter rise in their basal tier production
and without going into how they measure basal tier production we'll maybe save that for another video
i'll just tell you a 10 millimeter rise and anything greater than that is
significant and just impressive and now that we know how it works let's talk about how to use
Tyrvaya and if you're like me you thought oh it's a nasal spray just jam this up my nose i'm going
to snort it like most other nasal medications but no it's actually a little bit different for
the official guide of how to administer Tyrvaya i'd rather have you just read their instructions
that come with the medication when you pick it up but there's just one little tip i want to give you
a heads up on in case you ever end up using this yourself you're not actually supposed to jam this
way up your nose and then squirt it inside you really just want the tip barely inside of the nose
and tilt it so that it's going toward the top of your ear and then you don't want to push it all
the way against the side of your nose because then you're not going to get the medication like out
but you want it just barely inside pointing to the top of your ear tongue against the
top of your mouth so that you can breathe in through your nose and then you administer it
oh
i don't know if you can see me tearing up now after i just did that and again you're supposed to
do it on both sides twice a day 12 hours apart so basically morning and night usually take it right
after i brush my teeth in the morning and then again right after i'm done brushing my teeth at
the end of the day. so now what does Tyrvaya feel like and are there any side effects well i've been
using this for about three to four weeks now at the timing of this video releasing and i think
the best way to describe it is it's kind of like sniffing like pepper spray in a way. it tingles
the inside of my nose and if i snort kind of hard enough while i'm taking it it kind of feels like a
tingly sensation in the top of my nasal passages and even in the back of my throat but i find the
tingling sensation really doesn't last very long maybe only like maybe 20 seconds or so at most
and only a few times maybe once or twice i've had like a sneezing fit following afterwards which is
kind of interesting because in their clinical studies they reported 82 percent of people who
took the medication sneezed after taking it but the sneezing experience i had was very brief and
mild in fact even the clinical studies reported only like 98 percent of people who did sneeze
reported to be very mild and like brief sneezing but i can't say that at least for me and my
experiences after using it my eyes do tear up in fact they even look a little bit glossy in a way
so i do feel that it does work at least for me. so now let's talk about the price of Tyrvaya
and how to get it. at the timing of this video and here in the united states where i practice Tyrvaya
is a prescription only medication which means you do have to get it from a prescribing doctor and as
far as price goes it's tough for me to say because there is a lot of variability with price in terms
of where you live and kind of your insurance and all these different things and i haven't
like officially seen a price tag on it but i know just being in this dry eye world and where other
medications are for dry eye i would expect it to be probably in like the 500 us dollar mark for a
month's supply if you're paying cash or something like that but the makers of travail have currently
teamed up with a company called phil rx to help people get the lowest price possible so if you do
have commercial insurance and you live here in the united states you should probably be able to get
it for as low as like zero or ten dollars for a month's supply or at the very least you'll get it
at a much discounted rate now as far as my opinion on Tyrvaya so far from my personal experience
as well as professional standpoint on it i'm pretty excited to at least have a new medication
as a dry eye treatment that especially one that's not a eye drop because so many of the different
treatments we have for dry eyes is an eye drop form and most people who suffer from dry eyes
we're using enough eye drops throughout the day as it is and we don't want to add extra preservatives
another who knows what extra ingredients onto the ocular surface so i'm excited that we have
like a different pathway to potentially treat dry eyes and i personally work at a very busy dry eye
specialty practice with a lot of patients who have chronic and severe dry eyes and
and those people need basically like any type of treatment they can possibly get i'm also excited
that Tyrvaya does add some stimulation to the meibomian glands because at this current time we
just don't really have that many ways to stimulate the meibomian glands and get them working better
i don't know really the exact science just yet they haven't released too much unlike the exact
mechanism of that with the meibomian glands and to what extent they get stimulated but
either way i think it's exciting that it's coming out uh and i think perhaps might be another avenue
for more research otherwise again from my personal experience using it it does work it does make my
eyes feel less dry and i do feel like i'm getting more tear production after i use it i have a few
of my patients i've prescribed it already for i'm still it's so new i'm still waiting to eventually
see them back and kind of see where they're at symptoms wise but overall i think it's working
but i ask you if you've used Tyrvaya at all if you've been subscribed it and you're using
it and you're noticing a positive effect negative effect or any other side effects let us know your
experience in the description below uh it'd be kind of cool to hear about it but as always if
you want to learn more about Tyrvaya if it's a good thing for you talk to your local eye doctor
your optometrist your ophthalmologist ask them if they think it is a good option for you and
if it's something that you can get if this is your first time here at the doctor Eye Health
channel and you haven't checked out any other videos in our series about dry eyes about
what causes dry eyes or the different type of dry ice that you may have or other dry eye treatments
check out our video description below we'll have tons of links there for additional resources for
you otherwise i hope you found this video helpful and if you learned something new smash the like
button for me subscribe to the channel so you don't miss any of our future videos otherwise
again this is dr allan thanks so much for watching keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you soon you