If you’ve ever felt a stinging or burning in your eyes, or a grittiness like there’s something stuck in them, then you might have experienced dry eye. Dry eye is a frustrating condition that can harm your quality of life if untreated.
While you should always consult a professional about persistent eye conditions, eye masks can be an effective tool for addressing dry eye. Sleep masks can protect your eyes from dry air overnight, while heated eye masks can help resolve blockages in the glands that provide oil to your tear film.
Dry Eye
Normally, the eye’s surface is covered by a layer of tears that help keep it safe, healthy, and moist. Dry eye occurs when the eye doesn’t make enough tears, or when the tears that it does make either evaporate too quickly or don’t have the right chemical composition.
Symptoms of dry eye can include:
- Stinging and burning
- Pain and redness
- A feeling of grittiness, or like there’s something in your eye
- Heavy eyelids
- Eye fatigue
- Episodes of blurred vision
In most cases, dry eye is a chronic condition—symptoms can be alleviated, and the eye’s health can be maintained, but there aren’t any single, simple cures.
If left untreated, dry eye can affect quality of life. In some cases, it may also result in damage to the eye’s surface.
How Can Dry Eye Be Treated?
Treatment of dry eye involves management of the condition. First, your eye doctor needs to determine what’s actually causing your dry eye. If it’s caused by another condition (like Sjögren’s syndrome or meibomian gland dysfunction), then the underlying condition needs to be treated.
Other causes of dry eye include aging, frequent use of contacts, air travel, and spending too much time in a dry environment.
Some treatments for dry eye include:
- Prescription eye drops
- Meibomian gland expression
- Eyelid massage devices (including radiofrequency treatment)
- Intense pulsed light (IPL)
- Warm compresses/face masks
While all of these options have proven effective, face masks and radiofrequency treatment can sometimes be appealing options because they’re simple and fairly non-invasive.
Eye Masks as a Treatment for Dry Eye
Eye masks have been shown to be effective for some cases of dry eye. As such, they are cheap and easy solutions to what can often be an annoying condition.
A dry eye mask is a mask designed to be worn over the eyes. They come in several varieties, including both heated eye masks and sleep masks, and they offer several benefits, including:
- Acting as a warm compress
- Warming the oils in your eyes
- Protecting your eyes from dry air overnight
Sleep masks can be useful for patients exposed to dry, blowing air overnight, for instance due to a fan, an air conditioner, or a C-PAP (the device used for sleep apnea).
A heated eye mask works by warming the natural oils located in your meibomian glands. As these oils warm, they become increasingly fluid, loosening any clogs in your glands and allowing them to reach the tear film, where they can contribute to moistening your eyes. It takes several minutes at about 42°C to thin meibomian oil enough to see beneficial effects.
In terms of heat masks, we recommend the I-RELIEF mask. This mask offers both hot and cold therapies suitable for dry eye syndrome, meibomian gland disorder, and other conditions.
The mask is easy to use—put it in the microwave, then heat for approximately twenty seconds. Touch the mask with your fingers to double-check the temperature, then place it on your face for three to five minutes, or as directed by your eye care professional.
Radiofrequency Treatment for Dry Eye
While masks can be effective, sometimes they just don’t do enough. In some such cases, radiofrequency treatments can be an option. Radiofrequency (RF) treatments are in-office, non-invasive procedures that use energy waves to generate heat in the skin around your eyes.
Similar to eye masks, the heat generated in an RF treatment melts obstructions in your meibomian glands, allowing oils to reach your tear film and moisten your eyes. In the case of RF, however, the treatment can also address various cosmetic concerns you might have for the area around your eyes.
Radiofrequency takes 10-20 minutes per session and may involve multiple sessions spaced out over several weeks.
We offer—and recommend—the Tempsure RF treatment platform for our radiofrequency treatments, and we follow a comprehensive dry eye evaluation process to ensure that this technology is right for you.
Don’t Let Your Dry Eyes Bother You
While dry eyes tend to be a long-term condition, a variety of treatment options do exist. One such non-invasive option is heated eye masks, which can treat dry eye effectively by means of heat therapy.
For those for whom eye masks might not be enough, radiofrequency treatment is a simple, in-office procedure that can help.
If you’re suffering from dry eye, don’t let it hurt your quality of life—book an appointment at Trinity Hills Eyecare. Your vision is our passion.
