Are There Any Actual Eye Specialists In The Uk Who Have Helped With Dry Eye

[fed up kate]

hey guys

well ive been searching and spending hundreds on eye specialists desperatly seeking for a diagnosis and have yet to find anyone who is actually a dry eye specialist.
do they exsists or should i give up looking?????

can anyone say "yes this person is great etc etc" i will travel any where in the uk haha im that desperate.
supose to be seeing michel guillon in few days but duno if i have enough info or proof that he can help so im in two minds on what do.

would love a recomendation please or any advice

[irish eyes]

This is taken from the RNIB site - Royal National Institute for the Blind:

"At the moment RNIB is not aware of an organisation which specialise in Dry Eye"'


I think the best we can do is find consultants that actually take an interest in the condition and seek to further understand it.

I cannot comment on Michel Guillon although I contacted them some time ago and looked at their site quite recently. All I can say is that they didn't seem to be offering anything different to what I had done already. The shop is referred to as an `Eye Boutique & Vision Clinic'. They seem to stock some swanky glasses and it all looks very nice.

On two occasions, I have emailed them in response to an ad for clinical research volunteers - but I didn't get an answer. Among other things, they claim they can `optimise visual performance' - perhaps that means they can provide people with glasses so they can see better. (This is the 21st century after all.)

[fed up kate]

hmmm intersting,if only i could afford trip to the US seems its more advance over there.
only thing i know it is hard to get hold of Michel as he always out of the country or soemthing so may be thats why they dont back to you but as you i just need someone to say what it is and then i can come to terms with it,if he cant then i duno who else to got to.
thanks for your input irish eyes

[Rebecca Petris]

I'd call Andrew Matheson. I haven't heard anything about him for quite awhile but it used to be the case that I'd hear from patients of his who were getting better care than they had found elsewhere particularly London.

[Rebecca Petris]

p.s. One of the problems with getting a referral to a doc who is good at dry eye is that most of them don't want more dry eye patients. This is more true of ophthalmologists than optometrists but applies to both in some degree. For example, I have found that many good docs in the US do not want to be listed in my Dry Eye Yellow Pages because they are afraid they'll get flooded with dry eye patients. Frustrating, but the fact is, treating dry eye is not sufficiently remunerative and so many doctors do not want more than a certain relatively small percentage of it in their practice.

[fed up kate]

rebecca

thank you for that.
would you recommend andrew than michel?
i did send you an e mail actually not sure if you got it.
thanks for the info

[Rebecca Petris]

I don't know either of them personally so I'm afraid I can't say. Sorry about the email, can you please resend it to service@dryeyeshop.com and I'll take a look.

[irish eyes]

Hi Kate
Hi Rebecca

I haven't visited Andrew Matheson but I have spoken to him on the phone - this is when I have needed advice on a particular product from his online shop. Our conversation strayed into the general frustrations that this condition presents and I believe that he genuinely cares about the people he treats. I considered going to see him but it was the distance that deterred me.

Rebecca has made an interesting point. Dry Eye isn't remunerative, nor is it a `sexy' topic. One doctor told me that the Cornea Clinic was the one he hated the most because it was so depressing; there seemed to be so few people that he could help and he felt drained at the end of the session.

It is so difficult to recommend anyone really. The head of the eye department at our local teaching hospital came from another prestigious teaching hospital. A work colleague from his previous workplace described him to me as being `magnificent' and that he was `passionate about dry eye'. That was certainly not my experience. I found him dismissive, he seemed bored - and he signed me off the books saying that my eyes weren't that bad at all and he had gone as far as he could go with me vis a vis treatment. After much suffering, I went to see a private consultant earlier this year - and he found my eyes to be severely dry. So bad in fact that the NHS has approved autologous serum.

So - someone thought this `passionate guy' was good but he certainly didn't impress me. I've seen pictures of him grinning for the camera - offering laser eye surgery - which is probably more up his street.

[Lucy]

So - someone thought this `passionate guy' was good but he certainly didn't impress me. I've seen pictures of him grinning for the camera - offering laser eye surgery - which is probably more up his street.

Oh, Irish Eyes..........this makes my hair stand on end. I've seen the likes of him all over the internet, magazines, billboards, newspapers for the past 10 years. (Since my botched Lasik.) I think they all get their hair highlighted, that is, if they have hair. Then get their teeth bleached so they can give the big "passionate smile."

Thanks for the laugh. Lucy

[irish eyes]

Ha ha Lucy - yes, he has just a touch of the narcissist about him.

[irish eyes]

rebecca

thank you for that.
would you recommend andrew than michel?
i did send you an e mail actually not sure if you got it.
thanks for the info

Hi Kate

I know you were considering going to see Michel Guillon in London. I mentioned in one of my postings (here) that I had enquired about an announcement that appeared on M Guillon's site, about a dry eye trial needing volunteers. They finally got back to me today with a questionnaire. It's not M Guillon himself who is hosting the trials; it is an organisation called OTG and here is a little bit about them.

OPTOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY GROUP Research & Consultancy is an independent group of research clinicians and scientists, which has built up an international reputation in contact lens and dry eye practice. We carry out clinical trials approved by an Independent Ethics Committee and urgently need volunteers to take part in our contact lens and eye drops trials

Their reply to me was sent from info@otg.co.uk but there should be details on M Guillon's site if anyone else is interested.

[fed up kate]

hi irish eyes

how funnys that since we were talking bout it.
good that theyve got back to you
well im seeing him this week so fingers crossed im gona get sum answers but i will try and ask about that see what it involves etc as if they want to experiment then least its a step closer to find something that works yay.
thanks for letting me know

[irish eyes]

Good morning Kate

I have no experience of Michel Guillon's treatment but I will keep my fingers crossed for you. You are so young to be weighed down with this burden so I hope he can help.

[fed up kate]

morning irish eyes

i really hope he can help to,if not then i duno what im gona do.
will keep you posted

have a good day x

[Rory]

I have seen most of the drs and opticians in the UK.

No one has ever clarified my problem or prescribed any effective treatment.

I saw Michel Guillon a few times about 18 months ago... He is a nice guy.. but his treatment was nothing special and didnt help my symptoms even 1%.


The "famous" opthalmologists" in London... are horrendously bad when it comes to dry eyes. They are dismissive and incompetent... they try to cover their ignorance by belittling your symptoms.