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As we all know, Dry Eye Disease (DED) is a symptom-prominent condition. I have articles going back as far as 1998 explaining "Weak association between subjective symptoms and objective testing for dry eyes and dry mouth..." Despite this awareness, clinical emphasis remains on scoring objective signs of disease, even when assessing a patient's level of need for treatment.
My DED has been around for 30 years. Like many of you, my fellow DED-heads, I have lost track of the number of physicians who have said "your eyes look fine" and then dismissed me to my own devices.
So how about we construct a DED Symptom Severity Scale to accomplish two things:
1. Establish and validate the critical role of symptoms in defining DED's impact on a person
2. Provide an easy way for us to report where we are on the symptom severity scale to our providers
I hope this will be helpful in guiding just how much intervention is warranted for a given person with DED. It could also be useful in following changes over time and responses to interventions. Assembled so far is the attached is a spreadsheet "DED Symptom Severity Index" based upon what I have read in other people's reports and what I have experienced. Maybe we could call this the DEZ DED Score.
So, please, lots of input. Be critical. Be helpful. Add your experience.
Thanks
Bill
My DED has been around for 30 years. Like many of you, my fellow DED-heads, I have lost track of the number of physicians who have said "your eyes look fine" and then dismissed me to my own devices.
So how about we construct a DED Symptom Severity Scale to accomplish two things:
1. Establish and validate the critical role of symptoms in defining DED's impact on a person
2. Provide an easy way for us to report where we are on the symptom severity scale to our providers
I hope this will be helpful in guiding just how much intervention is warranted for a given person with DED. It could also be useful in following changes over time and responses to interventions. Assembled so far is the attached is a spreadsheet "DED Symptom Severity Index" based upon what I have read in other people's reports and what I have experienced. Maybe we could call this the DEZ DED Score.
So, please, lots of input. Be critical. Be helpful. Add your experience.
Thanks
Bill