Primary Care Doctors, Optometrists Can Raise Awareness About Dry Eye

Mina Massaro-Giordano, MD, co-director of Penn Dry Eye & Ocular Surface Center, spoke with The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®) about how dry eye can be discussed with patients so as to identify the condition in patients who may live with the condition.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Transcript

How can physicians raise awareness and inform their patients about dry eye?

Yeah, I think ask the appropriate questions. Are you having? Are you feeling dry eyes, your eyes burn? Do you blink locks when you're trying to read? Are you aware of your eyes? Are you rubbing your eyes? Do you have difficulty staring at the computer for a long period of time? And the computer is a big culprit as well, because as we stare, as we're reading, we blink one-third of the time, less than we really need blinking to help coat the tears over the surface of the eye and, most importantly, to release the meibum onto the surface. So these people who are sitting in front of computer typing away for many, many hours can really have symptoms of dry eye and they might not even realize it's going on. But a health care professional can really offer tips and clues about how to sit in front of a computer, what's the appropriate eyewear or glasses to wear, enforce blinking, also understanding their environment.

July is dry eye month. I'm surprised it's not in the winter, because most patients have most symptoms in the winter as the heat comes on. But summertime can be tough as well, because patients are exposed to ceiling fans or air conditioning vents that are blowing in front of their eyes. And if they're sitting in front of the computer all day long and not blinking and not really keeping the computer at the right distance, many times patients are looking at a computer they're staring up at a computer, so their eyes are completely open as opposed to just looking down at the computer. If you look down at the computer, your eyes are three quarters of the way shut so the eyelid is covering most of the eyeball and you have left less evaporation.

So I think during this month, primary care doctors, optometrists, ophthalmologists sometimes asking the questions: how do your eyes feel? How do you use your eyes? Do you swim in a chlorinated pool? Do you wear sunglasses? That's important too. Protect your eyes from UV is number 1, but also protect your eyes from wind and dust that can be blown into the eye.

So I think just raising awareness. You know in this day and age, we do have websites and computers, and many times people are putting information, Googling the information. There's a lot of useful information out there. But sometimes this was not great information out there. So I guess the primary care doctor just asking the appropriate questions and then encouraging that patients should at least see an optometrist ophthalmologist once a year, once every 2 years to make sure that they have healthy eyes.