A constant flow of tears is essential for good eye health. Some- times the eye may not produce enough tears or the tear quality is poor. This results in dry eye syndrome. In Australia and New Zealand, about one adult in 10 is affected. Possible causes include:
- some medications such as antihistamines or antidepressants
- certain medical conditions such as Bell’s Palsy
- autoimmune diseases such as lupus, Sjorgen’s syndrome or rheumatoid arthritis
- getting older
- smoking
- living in a dry or windy climate
- vision correction surgery
- long-term contact lens wear
Groundbreaking Diagnosis Technology
Ask our team about our groundbreaking piece of imaging equipment that changes the way we diagnose and treat eye diseases. This brand new machine is among the latest advances in optometry, it is especially useful for testing, diagnosing and treating dry eye disease. It offers the following benefits over more complicated alternatives:
- Non-invasive way to take high resolution images
- Offers a wide variety of different tests and software analysis
- Gives patients more insight into their conditions and needs
Integrating a high definition camera, keratometer, and corneal topographer into one seamless and state-of-the-art imaging machine. Together, these tools work to create precise and useful records of the exact shape, size, function, and abnormalities of your eyes.
IPL + thermal pulsation Treatment
If you have suffered for a long time with chronic dry eye and it seems like all the drops and other dry eye solutions are just a short-lived, temporary relief, it may be time to take your eye care treatment to the next level. A new long-lasting solution with a great success rate known as IPL technology has been developed, designed to help those specifically with Evaporative Dry Eye.
IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light and is intended for long-term relief by treating the main cause of chronic dry eye: inflammation. The wavelengths from the IPL target the visible signs of inflammation in the eye and reduce the inflamed cells in the cornea. While drops and other remedies may be a snappy relief of moisture at the moment, they aren’t treating the problem at the source and solving your dry eye disease.
IPL technology focuses on the most common type of chronic dry eye (from the Meibomian glands, the evaporative dry eye) which happens to be less of a surface-level problem and requires a more invasive treatment to correct its lack of oil/lipid production. This is not to say that this technology specifically targets these glands. Instead, the infrared light creates a pulse that develops a micro gradient temperature that then triggers neurotransmitters which are linked to nerves connected to the Meibomian glands. This assembly line passes on stimulation to revive the glands’ natural lipid secretion.
For an information sheet on Dry Eye Syndrome from RANZCO click here.