Recognizing the symptoms of Evaporative Dry Eye
A leading, but commonly overlooked, cause of dry eye is meibomian gland dysfunction due to internal obstruction. It is usually not accompanied by obvious inflammation or other signs.
Physicians often suspect dry eye based on frequently reported symptoms, including dryness, discomfort and irritation, tiredness, sensitivity to light and grittiness. This is especially true in the presence of other symptoms such as pain or foreign body sensation, ocular fatigue, tearing or mucus discharge, transient blurring, symptoms that worsen later in the day, and contact lens intolerance.
Patient and Physician perspectives
The perspective of patients impacted by moderate-to-severe symptoms of dry eye differs from that of their physicians. For sufferers it is a high-involvement, lifestyle-impairing chronic disease with marginal or inadequate treatment.
