How Do You Know If Lipiflow Is Right for You?

Dry eye syndrome can get in the way of you enjoying your day-to-day activities. The things you need to get done in a day, like driving around, running errands, or working, can be unbearable if you suffer from this condition.

It’s no wonder that individuals with this condition visit our optometrist in Calgary, looking for a treatment option to alleviate this condition. Several dry eye syndrome treatment options are available, but one excellent treatment that is gaining popularity is the LipiFlow dry eye treatment.

Before we understand this treatment option, let’s look at what dry eye condition is all about.

Dry Eye Syndrome, In a Nutshell

Anyone can be affected by dry eye syndrome, but it has been seen to be more prevalent in women than men. The bottom line is that this condition occurs when your eyes fail to produce sufficient, high-quality tears that can lubricate and nourish your eyes.

This can be brought about by a myriad of factors, such as wearing contact lenses, environmental factors, allergies, or extensive hours of screen time.

If your eyes are healthy, they will produce a sufficient quantity of tears containing mucus, oil, and water that nourish and lubricate your eyes. However, this is not the case when you have dry eye syndrome.

When affected by this condition, your eyes will often feel gritty, irritated, and extremely dry. This will lead to the development of issues such as red, itchy, burning, and photosensitive eyes, blurred vision, eye fatigue, and eye pain.

What Is Causing Your Dry Eye Syndrome?

Meibomian gland dysfunction is the most prevalent cause of dry eye syndrome. This gland is responsible for the secretion of the oils that form part of your tears. When there is a blockage in these glands, they fail to produce enough oils and lipids to enrich your tears.

This means that your tears will easily evaporate, leaving you predisposed to dry eye syndrome.

Despite how this may sound, the terrific news is that LipiFlow treatment can help alleviate this issue and get your eyes back on track.

What Is LipiFlow, and How Does It Work?

LipiFlow is an FDA-approved non-invasive eye treatment designed to treat and alleviate dry eye syndrome. LipiFlow works efficiently against dry eye syndrome by targeting its root cause, Meibomian gland dysfunction.

It deals with eradicating the blockages within the glands by applying a calculated amount of heat to your inner and outer eyelids while massaging your eyelids from outside.

This whole procedure is not invasive, and the massage is gentle enough not to hurt or irritate your eye globes.

During the procedure, our optometrist in Calgary will gently and carefully place the activators over and under your eyelids. These activators are disposable and will be used to disperse the heat and pressure required to unclog the blocked glands.

The precise combination of gentle pressure and heat will help dissipate any accumulated blockage within your Meibomian glands over a given period. Removing this accumulated residue will help ensure that your glands return to functioning as they should, thus alleviating the dry eye syndrome.

This procedure ideally takes about 15 minutes to perform and will have to be repeated over about 6- 8 weeks to achieve an optimum result.

Who Qualifies to Undergo this Eye Treatment?

When you visit our eye clinic near you, exhibiting dry symptoms, our optometrist will have to ascertain if you qualify to undergo the LipiFlow procedure before signing you up for it. To see if you are a good candidate for this treatment, the eye doctor will examine the state of your Meibomian gland openings.

This examination will help establish whether the glands are functioning properly. This examination may involve using a camera to obtain a detailed image of your glands to check for any blockages.

We will also check the rate at which your tears evaporate to establish the quality of your tears.

This treatment may be ideal for you if you suffer from chronic dry eyes caused by a blockage of the Meibomian gland.

You, however, might not be a good candidate for this treatment if:

• You have undergone eye surgery recently
• You suffer from any eye inflammation
• You have an eye injury
• You have been diagnosed with severe ptosis
• You have any eyelid abnormalities

Either way, our eye doctor will help you ascertain if this treatment option is right for you. Contact us today at Premier Eye Care- Mahogany for dry eye treatment.