Any eye discomfort can make life miserable. Think about what you do when you get an eye lash, a drop of soap, a piece of sand, or anything else in your eye. Those who have experienced eye trauma understand just how painful eye injuries can be. Dry Eye symptoms can be just as debilitating as a serious eye injury and can have a profound effect on a person’s day to day life. Ironically, in many cases, although it is painful to look at something, vision overall, and the ability to focus and see clearly, are not affected at all.
Dry Eye sufferers may experience extreme pain, because eyes are among the most sensitive tissues in the body and have a high density of nerve fibers. Compared to human skin, the cornea has between 300 and 600 more pain sensing nerve fibers.
More About Symptoms
But pain isn’t the only discomfort that Dry Eye sufferers can experience. Any comments we often here about symptoms usually start with a description of symptoms that aren’t typically found on popular health websites like WebMD. Nor are they mentioned by the makers of lubricating drops and ointments in advertising. In fact, the symptoms may sometimes seem strange and unusual, sometimes driving patients to think they are beyond help. But always, the symptoms are very real.
And in addition to the painful and debilitating physical symptoms of Dry Eye and the related co-morbidities, there are sometimes behavioral signs that might point to the disease. For example, sometimes any reading becomes excruciatingly painful making working impossible, or any light becomes unbearably painful, causing sufferers to become reclusive.
For the families and friends of someone suffering from Dry Eye, day-to-day life can become extremely frustrating. We hope that this website will everyone better understand the disease, and how those who suffer with it may alleviate their symptoms.
Reference
Corneal nerves: Structure, contents and function
Müller, L., Marfurt, C., Kruse, F., & Tervo, T.
Experimental Eye Research. 2003;76:521-542.
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