If your eyes feel gritty by mid-afternoon, sting when you step outside, or blur over while you are reading, you may have written it off as a long day or too much screen time. For a lot of people in our community, it is something more specific — and more treatable — than that.
July is Dry Eye Awareness Month, and it is a good moment to talk about a condition that quietly affects a great many people. According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly 5 million Americans age 50 and older experience severe dry eye symptoms, and roughly 20 million more live with milder forms. It is about twice as common in women as in men. Those are large numbers, and yet dry eye is one of the conditions patients most often live with for years before mentioning it at an appointment.
At Chico Eye Center, we would rather you mention it.
What dry eye actually is
Dry eye is not simply a matter of not making enough tears. Healthy tears are a layered film — water, oil, and mucus working together — that coats the surface of the eye, keeps it smooth, and washes away debris every time you blink. Dry eye happens when that film breaks down, either because your eyes are not producing enough tears or because the tears you do produce evaporate too quickly.
That second cause surprises people. Some patients with dry eye actually have watery, running eyes. The eye senses irritation and floods itself with reflex tears, which lack the oil that would help them stay put. So watering eyes and dry eye can be the same problem wearing a different face.
Symptoms worth paying attention to
Dry eye shows up in ways that do not always sound like “dry”:
- A gritty or sandy feeling, as though something is in your eye
- Stinging or burning
- Redness that comes and goes
- Blurry vision that clears for a moment after you blink
- Sensitivity to light
- Watery eyes, especially outdoors or in wind
- Trouble driving at night
- Contact lenses that used to be comfortable and no longer are
Any one of these on its own may be nothing. A pattern of them, especially one that has been building over months, is worth an evaluation.
Why it may be getting worse
Several things stack up, and many of them are familiar to anyone living in Northern California.
Age and hormones. Tear production tends to decline over time, and hormonal changes around menopause are a well-documented contributor. This is a large part of why dry eye is more common in women and in patients over 50.
Screens. People blink significantly less while concentrating on a screen. Fewer blinks mean the tear film goes longer between refreshes and has more time to evaporate.
Our climate. Dry air, wind, dust, agricultural season, and wildfire smoke all pull moisture from the eye’s surface or irritate it directly. Chico summers are not gentle on the tear film, and neither is a car heater in January.
Medications. Antihistamines and decongestants are common culprits, along with some blood pressure medications, antidepressants, and treatments for Parkinson’s disease. Allergy season and dry eye season overlapping is not a coincidence.
Underlying conditions. Blepharitis (inflammation along the eyelid margin), Sjögren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and thyroid disorders are all associated with dry eye. Sometimes an eye exam is the first place a systemic issue is noticed.
Why treating it matters
Beyond the daily discomfort, a healthy tear film is part of how you see clearly. When it breaks down, vision quality fluctuates. Left unmanaged, chronic dryness can also inflame and damage the surface of the cornea over time. And if you are considering cataract surgery, LASIK, or PRK down the road, an unmanaged dry eye is worth addressing first — the measurements those procedures depend on are more accurate on a stable, well-lubricated eye surface.
What treatment can look like
There is no single answer, because dry eye has no single cause. That is why the evaluation matters as much as the treatment. Our team looks at how your tears are produced, how quickly they evaporate, and whether the oil glands along your eyelid margins are doing their job.
From there, a plan may include artificial tears matched to your specific tear film rather than whatever is on sale, warm compresses and lid hygiene for meibomian gland dysfunction, prescription anti-inflammatory drops, punctal plugs to help your natural tears stay on the eye longer, in-office procedures targeting the eyelid glands, or changes to environment, screen habits, and nutrition. Often it is a combination, adjusted over a few visits.
Dry eye is usually a condition that is managed rather than cured outright, and results vary from patient to patient. But many patients who stay with a well-matched plan find their days meaningfully more comfortable.
Dry eye care in Chico
Dr. Gabrielle Duong, OD, has a particular focus on dry eye, and she works alongside a full ophthalmology and optometry team — including corneal specialist Dr. Sean M. Liston, MD — so that patients whose dryness is tied to a corneal or surgical issue can be cared for without going anywhere else. That is part of what full-service eye care is supposed to mean.
Our patients are also our friends, our neighbors, and our family. If your eyes have been bothering you and you have been waiting for it to pass, this is your reminder that it does not have to.
Schedule an evaluation at Chico Eye Center by calling 530-895-1727 or booking online.