Can no longer use artificial tears... alternatives?

[alia]

Hi everyone.

After 3 years of battling this, I have gone through almost every commercially available preservative-free eye drop I could find. It offered temporary relief, but then sometimes my eyes would be even dryer afterwards. I got frustrated with that and bought preservative-free gel instead, which actually caused a burning sensation on my eyes, like they were hot or on fire! So that last experience made me throw away all my artificial tears and gel. I think my eyes are simply way too sensitive to handle anything in them.

Is there a natural alternative?
Are there any other patients like me who can't use artificial tears anymore?
What gave you relief?

[grant555]

ive never really used them for the same reasons you dont. recently, i have had a little luck with them as the surface of my eyes have improved slightly. its a bad situation because there isnt much alternative. you can try saline which may help a little. or you could try drops like similisan, which is a natural eye drop that doesnt have the viscous ingredients in it that cause some peoples eyes to get worse.

[saveyoureyes]

I used artificial tears for years and then my eyes started getting more irritated so I stopped all drops. I now find my eyes are better without them.

I've been hearing a lot about SEA BUCKTHORN OIL..google it..It helps with dry eye plus many other conditions.

[alia]

Saline sounds promising, and I will look into sea buckthorn oil. Thank you for your responses!

[Phillips55]

I've noticed that too when I use artificial tears sometimes it seems to make the eye more dry. My guess is that artificial tears wash away too much meibomian oil and upset the natural balance of the tear system. I know most of here don't produce enough oil or tears, so the only thing we can do is use artificial tears constantly, but most of our tears artificial or natural evaporate rapidly off the surface of the eye.

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi everyone.

After 3 years of battling this, I have gone through almost every commercially available preservative-free eye drop I could find. It offered temporary relief, but then sometimes my eyes would be even dryer afterwards.
Is there a natural alternative?

In general,
1) Moisture chamber glasses
2) Autologous serum eyedrops

But depends also what exactly is going on. The answers are different for everyone. If it's aqueous deficient dry eye, the answer can be any one or more of: make more (hardest to accomplish, really can only be done pharmaceutically if at all), trap 'em (plugs or cautery), supplement 'em (drops) and reduce evaporative tear loss and tear film breakup (moisture chambers). When there's chronic MGD in the picture or other complicating factors it gets more complicated.

There are a lot of people in your situation actually. Many of the ones I know use AS drops and/or moisture chambers - and/or found they needed to address other factors, for example, if the burning is because of MGD, getting the MGD under better control should improve things too.

EDIT: In severe cases of course there's also sclerals.

[Mawsky]

I had a similar experience, I know everyone is different, but what seemed to happen to me was at the very first I was fine with regular and preservative free drops, and then I developed a allergy or sensitivity to the main ingredient in all commercial drops, there is only a few and I found it was in all of them, the only drop that didn't contain any of the common main ingredients was similasan I use them now and have no problems, I really think that it was an allergy because even the skin around my eyes was effected. Try them and see. I would be completely handicapped if I could not use any drops because I do not produce any tears. Very scary to me.

[No tears in ATL]

What Rebecca said. I can't do drops, either--never found any single brand that didn't cause burning. Autologous serum was marginally better if I needed something to get me over the inflammation hump, but I don't use them now. I don't know why I have a problem with drops and others don't, but it is likely the complexity that Rebecca described.

Moisture chambers. Breaks. Humidity. Lotemax gel for flareups. Going to try IPL. That's about all I have in my bag of tricks. I wish you well.

[saralynn143]

Have you considered scleral lenses?

[bakunin]

Yes, i'm like you. It seems my eyes can't stand any chemicals.

I wear moisture chamber glasses.
Maybe a drop of lavender essential oil in your nose, ner your eyes can help.

[Daniel2]

That's exactly the problem that I had. Offered relieve for 4 seconds and then 30 seconds in, the dryness came back stronger than before. It's unbelievable that it actually does more bad than good. So I stopped using any drops.

I had ordered Moisture chamber glasses from the dryeyeshop recently, many people had recommend me those. I hope to God it works because If it doesn't I literally don't know what to do to alleviate the pain. The thing that at least works slightly is taking a shower and letting the warm water through my face for 5-10 minutes.

Hope you feel better,

-Daniel

[L8rgator]

I often use saline as drops when I'm too lazy to go grab the bottles of my usual solutions (Theratears preservative free in the eye, and Blink contacts). They don't stick around, but they don't hurt going in. And I don't think there are any chemicals in it that can cause the rebound dry eye the next day. I think Unisol 4 is some of the best because it's formulated to match the PH or salts or of the eye or something like that. I also use saline vials. There are 4 packs in the store here I think, or I buy a huge box of addipak vials online really cheap (like 100 for $8). I just have to be sure they are STERILE saline, not just plain saline. They work well in well sealed moisture chambers.

Do your eyes feel worse in the morning, or are you putting drops in the middle of the night? I'm not sure how this would work with both eyes, but it might help to moisturize your eyes at night. Maybe you can switch eyes every night??? I've had good luck with using a nexcare active waterproof knee & elbow bandaid every night. I wet the cloth part with sterile saline , and then seal the bandage around my entire eye. It sticks even through my eyebrow to make a good seal (now that I have the hang of sticking it down). I make a little bubble with my finger, and that makes a nice warm humidity chamber that does a lot to soothe my eye at night. Or I'll tape a clear piece of plastic using nexcare absolute waterproof tape for the seal. I had an impossible time keeping moisture chambers on my head at night, so I don't really have any other choices at the moment.

I was using just gels and ointments before I got my scleral lens, but now when I try them at night they just burn. And twice I got a stye the next day. I have become allergic to vasoline on my skin in the last couple years, and I suspect the ingredients are similar. Fortunately the Theratears and Blink still work without irritation for me -although they don't stick around very long. Theratears gel however, makes me feel like I have dirt in my eye now.

Have you looked into Serum drops? I'm interested in trying those over my lens in the hopes of improving the health of my outer scleral in the terribly dry weather here. They have "biomechanical and biochemical properties similar to tears", so potentially like vitamins, growth factors, and fibronectin. I don't know if that is really useful, but some people here have recommended them, so I'm looking into finding a source to have some made for myself to give it a try.