Treating Dry Eye: Punctal Plugs

There are many different types of Dry Eye Syndrome (DES). The most obvious, of course, is not enough tears! The most common type of DES is to have a condition where your eyes just do not produce enough of your own natural tears and your eye is therefore dry. Some people have medical conditions that cause this like Sjogren's Disease or Rheumatoid Arthritis. Others may take medicines like diuretics or antihistamines that reduce the volume of tears. Most people have it just because.

As we've said many times before, the mainstay of treatement is to supplement your own tears with a high quality artificial tear. We like Refresh, Optive, and Thera Tears for this type of DES. It's also possible to increase the "contact time" of both your natural tears and your tear drops by putting a plug in one of the tear drains in your eyelid.

Think of your eye as a sink with one faucet and two drains. If you plug one of the drains the water will still eventually drain out of the sink, but it will spend a longer amount of time in contact with the sink itself. This is exactly how a Punctal Plug works, but slowing down the OUTFLOW of your tears.

When you have a DES evaluation at Skyvision Centers we will determine what type of DES you have and help you to find the best solution for your symptoms.