Artificial tears and tear quality

[Joseph]

I was wondering if artificial tears stabilize the tear film or do anything to help your tear quality and if so how. Or are they just a product that helps with the symptoms only. I remember my doctor saying that I should use artificial tears 4 times a day to get my tear film back to a good quality, but how or for that matter what would make them do that.

[adienich]

As far as I know there are differences between eye drops in this regard. Some probably only help the symptoms, some are specifically advertised as helping to restore tear film or something. I've been using Systane Balance which is advertised as doing the latter, it worked pretty well for me before, but less well lately for some reason. It's not preservative free either which is why I'm not sure I should go on using it forever.

[SunshineinCalgary]

I am only using artificial tears that are preservative free, Refresh Celluvisc and Systane Ultra. When I was at my last eye appointment, I told the doctor that my eyes were not dry but irritable. He said my eyes are wet but I don't have good tear quality, that's why I always feel irritable. I always feel that too much preservatives are like adding toxins to our eyes in the long run.