How often can you use refresh drops?

[humbug]

I have annoyingly dry eyeballs.. How often can I use [refresh] drops? It seems it only "refreshes" for about an hour or less.. then my eye dries up, which is very frustrating. Is it that I haven't found the right brand of tears? I'm finding it difficult to read, and driving, well, its torture. I've found one temporary effective way to make tears.. by sucking on sour candy or fruit, but the problem is .. I'm going to have a ton of cavities.. I've been to the opthamologist.. she told me "your eyes are dry use these drops and gel at night" and I have found that advice unsatisfying.. as I can't get much relief..

There is an annoying sensation in my eye, that I'm having trouble describing, when I focus on objects, it feels as if .. there is tension at the back side of the eye as if it were on the verge of tearing.. at times it also feels like a needle and frequently turns into a headache.. would this be considered strain [as it seems to relate to focusing on objects]? Does anyone have this type of sensation? It usually occurs while I'm driving.. and as of late, I cant drive!

[Arcaeon]

I was at your position a while back, but reading through this site thoroughly helped me to improve dramatically. I will give you my opinion.

If the drops alone don't work to give you bearable levels of comfort during the day, then there is something else wrong that needs to be catered to. I would read up on warm compress, massage and lid scrub techniques (all found on this site) and do this religiously - even if it doesn't cure the source of your problem, it's almost guaranteed to help. Also, everyone says this , it's a bit of a cop out, but seriously track down and buy the Dry Eye Remedy by Dr. Latkany - it's an amazing book and will help you.

Also, drink a lot of water (about 5-6 liters) during the day, and avoid caffeine and alcohol. Doing these things will get you improved pretty quickly, within a week or so.

[rubyslippers]

Instead of the candy, try forcing yourself to yawn. That makes me tear up a tiny bit and seems to give me oilier tears that last a bit longer. This worked earlier, but after getting my plugs, the yawning can be all I need a times. I also find scrunching my eyes tightly closed repeatedly works too.

[bernmee]

Getting Dr. L's book is a good idea. It will give you some idea of what causes dry eye, what helps dry eye etc.

More important though I would be looking to find someone who is going to try and figure out why you have dry eye, and what level of dry eye you have.

Have you had any tests done such as the Schirmers test or the Tear Break up Test. If you can find out what is causing your dry eye then you will be a little closer in trying to work out what treatment will work for you.

Have you spoken to your Dr. about getting plugs in. They can block the bottom tear duct from where the tears drain, therefore keeping those precious teras in the eye, and if that doesn't help they can try the top on also.

But I really think you should get hold of that book, start reading through posts on this site. Get yourself a notebook and start writing down tips, questions to ask your Dr. or anything else you find that might be useful. For some people asking the right questions is the only way to get answers.

But you in the right place for gettting started.

B.