17, with chronic dry eye

[cocoroco]

i'm 17 and have been having dry eye problems for several years now. I have tried various drops, punctum plugs, and now am using restasis. Is it unusual for a young person to have such a problem? I would appreciate any thoughts you have.

[Lucy]

Have you ever taken any meds for acne control?

[Rebecca Petris]

It's very unusual... but it happens.

[littlemermaid]

Dry eye child

Yay! My favourite topic. littlemermaid was 11 years old when she got dry eye, undiagnosed for 14m by 3 ophth, 3 GPs, 2 optom 'unknown etiology'. Thank God Number 4 ophth knew children get dry eye, MGD, rosacea and the rest. When her treatment is stable and I've got the right ophth/derm/optom combination on the case, I'll take time to post some links.

If anyone's interested in pediatric dry eye, search pubmed.gov and there they all are (the lucky ones who got treated). Child cornea behaves differently, less sensation: keratopathy, vascularisation, sight loss, corneal breakdown. Spread the word to your professionals. Please.

Ophthalmology. 2007 Dec;114(12):2271-80. Visual outcome and corneal changes in children with chronic blepharokeratoconjunctivitis. Jones SM, Weinstein JM, Cumberland P, Klein N, Nischal KK. Department of Ophthalmology, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, United Kingdom. [27 children, age range 7 months-15.9 years] 'A 2-year lag between symptom onset and treatment resulted, on average, in a reduction of .. visual acuity. Conclusions: These findings suggest that visual loss may be significant in BKC and that delayed treatment may result in decreased final best corrected visual acuity.'

[rhad]

yea, it's less common. But I was 17 when my MGD and dry eye started...I am now 22 years old.
however I have greatly improved.
rhad

[cocoroco]

what have you done to correct your problem?

[ccasti02]

same boat

I am 19 years old and I have the same problem. i've worn contacts for years, then i got an infection and ever since then, i've been concerned with my eyes. I just got told i had dry eyes about a month and half ago. I just started using restasis, but before that i used a steroid drop that controlled the gritty, raw, stinging feeling. Now under control i started using the restasis and theratears nut. supplements. it seems to be working, but i'm hoping for the best.

[hirentherock]

I have Stevens Jhonsons Syndrome from age of 8 now im 28!!!!!
Well at age of 8, when i cud understand very little i got this problems.
Hence i have got very much used to these prblems.Still its very tough!
I can feel how u might be feeling to have got these problems suddenly.