Optician said I may have dry eyes?

[jazzyman]

Just found this great forum!

I am a 61 year old male and have been having a strange problem with my left eye, on occasions it feels like there is something in my eye just like an eyelash. It's very irritating and there is no pain. I recently had an eye test and mentioned the problem to my optician who checked my eyes through some type of equipment and could not find anything out of the ordinary. The optician was not one of the best and strangely kept saying that his vision was not very good! The conclusion by the optician was that I maybe suffering with dry eyes and that I should try artificial tears. So my first question does having dry eyes feel like having an eyelash in your eye?

My wife had a look and some of my eyelashes were long, which she plucked out and it did seem to improve, although not 100%. The problem tends to get worse during the early evening when watching tv, in the morning when I awake it is fine and there are no symptoms whatsoever?

I purchased some Hypromellose Artificial Tears Eye Drops and again this seemed to improve things although not 100%.

Hoping I can confirm that it is dry eyes and that I am not suffering from another type of eye problem. Do my symptoms sound familiar for dry eye sufferers?

[Keely]

It could be, but in my experience dry eye normally gets worse overnight. If your only symptom is feeling like there is something in your eye, I would suggest getting a second opinion, possibly with your GP. Even if it is dry eye, there are a lot of different types and treatments, so if you can narrow down the type it is easier to treat.

Did the optician just look at the eye, or did he do a dye check to check for scratches on the eyeball? I'm just thinking that, from past experience, if an eyelash scratched the eyeball, that can feel like there's something in it for ages after you've got the lash out.

[jazzyman]

Thanks for the information. The optician did carry out a dye check and said everything seemed to be ok, unknown to me the optician let me leave the premises without telling me that my eyes were bright orange, had some funny looks that day..

[BBKelsey]

In my experience, yes, dry eyes can feel like there is something poking you in the eye! I've had this sensation a couple times, and my optometrist flipped my eyelid over and checked everything to make sure there was nothing physically poking me. There was nothing there and he informed me that sharp poking or pain of that kind is associated with dry eyes. This pain subsided after I started artificial tears and was on a steroid to clear up some inflammation.