so one of the most intense conditions
that can cause
severe forms of dry eye disease is
called sjogren's
syndrome so in this video we're going to
go over what is sjogren's syndrome how
your doctors can test for it
along with how it affects the eye and
potential treatments
for sjogren's syndrome that's today's
video let's take a look
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hello and welcome this is dr alan here
from the doctor ihealth show hoping to
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now today we're talking about sjogren's
syndrome if you've never heard of
sjogren's syndrome before
it's an autoimmune condition that
usually affects women
in their middle age between 40 and 50
years old but
can still affect men and interestingly
enough i've seen some
younger women in their early 20s even
develop this condition
now sjogren's syndrome again autoimmune
condition so your body's
attacking itself and in this condition
it affects your lacrimal gland
as well as your parroted gland and can
ultimately affect any mucous membrane on
the body
now some of the most common symptoms
because your lacrimal gland
produces your tears of your eye people
develop really severe forms
of dry eye disease technically it forms
what's called
aqueous deficient dry eye meaning you're
not producing
enough tears in contrast to evaporative
dry eye which is the tears evaporate too
quickly
but there could also be mixed forms of
this for the dry eye
other individuals will have decreased
parroted gland secretion that's what
produces your saliva
and so individuals can have really
severe forms of dry mouth
they'll have difficulty swallowing
things like swallowing their food
they'll have to drink water
while eating or they'll have to wake up
in the middle of the night because their
mouth is so dry and get a glass of water
some people even have such dry mouths
that they end up developing oral sores
and increased amounts of cavities in
their teeth
and this is something that dentists will
often pick up now on top of just having
these types of symptoms your doctor will
confirm the suspicion of a diagnosis of
sjogren's syndrome by ordering a blood
test
on that blood test they'll order an anti
ssa
an anta anti ssb also known as rowan law
as well as rheumatoid factor and ana
those are typically the blood tests that
are ordered
and even though sometimes yes they'll
come back positive confirming the
suspicion
suspicion of children's syndrome
sometimes they'll even come back
negative
but if the symptoms are strong enough
then your doctor may still make the
diagnosis of sjogren's syndrome now
unfortunately sjogren's syndrome at this
time does not have a cure it's not
fully understood but it is associated
with other diseases so such as
rheumatoid arthritis lupus as well as
having a higher risk of non-hodgkin's
lymphoma later in life
and that is one of the reasons why
anybody with this condition should be
followed
by a rheumatologist as they're going to
be able to monitor and prescribe
medications
to help with the symptoms in addition
because the dry
eye is so severe for these individuals
we actually don't even call it dry eye
we call it
keratoconjunctivitis sicca it's like a
whole other class
of dry eye because it's not just the
eyes being red and irritated feeling
like this sandy or a foreign body
sensation
it gets to a point where there's so much
inflammation and so much dryness
that it starts to cause damage to the
surface of the eye
this can cause fluctuating vision early
on but because the damage can occur
it can cause scarring that can even lead
to permanent damage
and permanent vision loss i personally
think it's a little funny when i read
medical journals that say just treating
with artificial tears is appropriate
because myself and many other eye
doctors disagree
it is so severe that these individuals
usually are not satisfied with just
using lubricating eye drops throughout
the day
they often need additional medications
one of the most commonly prescribed
medications
that i ever see for these types of
patients are
using some type of topical cyclosporine
this is in the brand names either known
as restasis
or another one called sequo which is a
little bit newer but that is to help the
lacrimal gland start to produce some of
its own tears
in addition there often are other forms
of treatments that are used for this
form of dry eye disease
such as punctal plugs which is where we
put a little silicone plug in the lower
lacrimal ducts
and sometimes even the top lacrimal
ducts so that the tears that are formed
on the eye
rest longer on the surface and again
help with those dry eye symptoms
some people even need more advanced
treatments because of the inflammatory
response that's
drummed up from the severe dryness some
of these treatments that i have
performed here in the office
are such as amniotic membranes as well
as using topical steroids more long-term
or even using
special type of scleral contact lenses
to
hold the fluid within the contact lens
to the surface of the eye
to help with the dryness symptoms now if
you are feeling overwhelmed
about sjogren's syndrome or the
different treatments for dry eye
then i encourage you to first leave a
comment in the section below
of any questions you have about
sjogren's syndrome about dry eye
and if you have sjogren's syndrome
yourself go ahead and just share your
story and experience about it i'd love
to be able to connect hear from you
and i do take your comments and
suggestions seriously and
hopefully those any questions that you
have will help drive future content for
this channel
if you do have other questions about dry
eye and want a little bit more i do have
a full series on it and you can check
that out by clicking or tapping the
screen up over here to the side
or if you want to learn a little bit
more about different subject about eye
care you can click or tap the screen
down over here again this is dr alan
here from dr eye health helping you
learn all about the eyes and vision
keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you
soon