Dr. Sciberras, in the month dedicated to Dry Eye Awareness, is proud to announce that his new website and e-commerce platform dryeyetherapy.ca has gone live. This site is dedicated to providing information on an eye disease that is the most common and becoming more prevalent as screen times continue to increase. There are explanations of the causes, risk factors, and various treatment regimens available. Dr. Sciberras has procured a vast assortment of premium eye care products meant to address both the signs and symptoms of a disease that is now even affecting the young. Dry eye kits have also been assembled and are recommended based on the score attained from the site’s dry eye survey.
This month, the Dry Eye Awareness campaign focuses on how lifestyle Changes during the COVID-19 Pandemic can affect vision. According to the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society:
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, dry eye disease (DED) had been identified as a global problem, affecting more than 30 million people in the United States alone. Researchers have long known about age, sex, and gender as factors, but they are now discovering ethnic and racial differences, and that dry eye impacts younger patients. Furthermore, during this unprecedented global health emergency, the exposure time on the screens has multiplied exponentially and smart-working and smart-schooling activities have become mandatory for the continuation of school and university teaching. According to UNESCO, over 1 billion students worldwide are at home due to the closure of schools caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Prolonged exposure to digital screens determines a faster evaporation of the tear film—the thin layer of liquid that covers the ocular surface. The reason lies in the scarce or incomplete blink, as the eyes are squeezed less frequently and this slows the spread of the tear film on the surface of the eye with consequences ranging from fatigue to burning, from irritation to pain. Studies have shown that viewing in front of digital screens causes a blinking rate decrease of 40 percent. This means significant near vision that leads to eye fatigue and vision disturbances of varying magnitude that can have an impact on physical, social, and emotional development.
DED occurs when the eye does not produce tears properly or when the tears are not of the correct consistency and evaporate too quickly. For some people, DED feels like a speck of sand in the eye, or a stinging or burning sensation that does not go away. For others, dry eye can become a painful chronic and progressive condition that leads to blurred vision or even vision loss if it goes untreated due to inflammation that can cause ulcers or scars on the cornea. Moderate-to-severe dry eye is associated with significant quality-of-life consequences such as pain, role limitations, low vitality, poor general health, and depression. Although DED has no cure, its signs and symptoms can be managed—often dependent on lifestyle choices/changes.
Dr. Sciberras would like to give special thanks to Michael for his work on the site. With dryeyetherapy.ca, relief is on the way.
