Around 3 pm, a lot of people start rubbing their eyes. They feel scratchy, a little hot, and tired, as if there’s a speck of dust stuck under the lid that never quite comes out. Rubbing makes it worse, but you do it anyway. If this is your afternoon, chances are you have dry eyes.
At Nayan Vision, it’s one of the most common complaints we hear. It’s not only older people either. We see students, bank staff, auto drivers, tailors, and plenty of people in their twenties who’ve been on a phone screen since morning.
So why do eyes dry out?
Your eye is covered by a thin film of tears. It isn’t just water. It’s a mix of water, oil, and mucus, and it needs all three to stay put. When you make too few tears, or the oily part is weak and the tears evaporate quickly, the surface gets irritated.
Screens are the big one, because we blink much less while staring at them, sometimes half as often. Fans pointed at your face, AC rooms, dust, smoke, and long hours in contact lenses all add to it. Some medicines (allergy tablets, for instance) dry the eyes too, and so does age. Winters in India are hard on the eyes as well, since the air is dry and the pollution doesn’t help.
What it feels like
Not always “dry,” which surprises people. Many patients come in saying their eyes are watering all the time. That happens when the eye is irritated and floods itself with thin, poor-quality tears that don’t stay on the surface. Burning, redness, blurry vision that clears after a blink, sensitivity to light, and eyes that feel heavy by evening are all common signs.
Where eye drops come in
For mild cases, eye drops for dry eyes are usually where treatment starts. They put moisture back on the surface and make blinking feel smoother.
The ones most people use are lubricating eye drops, also sold as artificial tears for dry eyes. To be clear about what they do: they don’t cure an infection or fix whatever is causing the dryness. They top up your own tears so your eyes feel comfortable while the cause is dealt with.
They also come in different textures. Thin, watery drops feel light but wear off fast. Gel drops are thicker, blur your vision for a minute, and last longer, so people often keep them for bedtime. Preservative-free drops in small single-use vials are kinder to the eye if you need them many times a day, because the preservative in regular bottles can itself cause irritation with heavy use.
Which are the best eye drops for dry eyes?
People always want one name, and we can’t give you one, because the best eye drops for dry eyes depend on who’s using them. Someone working on a laptop all day needs something different from a farmer out in wind and dust. If you put drops in more than four times a day, preservative-free is the safer pick. If you wear contact lenses, read the label, because not every drop is meant for use with lenses in. And if a drop stings or leaves your eyes redder than before, stop using it and ask your doctor.
The market for dry eye drops in India is crowded, and every strip on the pharmacy shelf promises instant relief. At Nayan Vision we’d rather you choose based on your symptoms and what your eyes actually need than on advertising.
Habits that help more than you’d think
Drops alone won’t fix a daily routine that’s drying your eyes out. Try the 20-20-20 habit: every 20 minutes, look at something about 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Make yourself blink fully, since half-blinks don’t spread tears properly. Set your screen a little below eye level so your eyes aren’t wide open all day. Turn the fan or AC vent away from your face. A warm compress on closed eyelids for five minutes or so helps the oil glands along the lid edge work better. Drink water, sleep properly, and wear sunglasses outside.
Putting drops in the right way
Most people waste more than they use. Wash your hands, tilt your head back, pull the lower lid down a little, and let one drop fall in. Don’t let the bottle tip touch your eye or lashes, or you’ll contaminate it. Then close your eyes gently for a minute and don’t squeeze them shut. One drop is plenty because the eye can’t hold more. If you use two different drops, leave about five minutes between them.
When drops aren’t enough
Go to an eye doctor if the dryness hasn’t improved after a couple of weeks, if you have pain, discharge, or any sudden change in vision, or if you’re using drops every day and still feel no better. Proper dry eye treatment sometimes goes beyond lubrication. Depending on the cause, it can include medicated drops, treatment for inflamed eyelids, or tiny plugs that keep tears from draining away too quickly. Left untreated, long-standing dryness can damage the surface of the eye, so it’s better not to wait it out.
Come and talk to us
Dry eyes are common, and you don’t need to just put up with them. If you’re not sure which drops suit you, or whether you need something more than drops, the team at Nayan Vision will check your eyes, listen to your symptoms, and suggest a dry eye treatment plan that fits your routine.