What's the Difference between Dry Eyes and Xerophthalmia ?
Xerophthalmia is caused by a variety of factors, tear film stability decline, and accompanied by eye discomfort or ocular surface tissue lesions. It also known as keratoconjunctivitis xerosis. Common symptoms include dry eyes, fatigue, itching, foreign body sensation, burning pain, sticky secretion, fear of wind, photophobia, and sensitivity to external stimulation; Sometimes the eyes are too dry and the basic tears are insufficient, which stimulates the secretion of reflective tears and causes frequent tears.
Why do you have xerophthalmia?
The root cause of xerophthalmia is the unstable lacrimal film, resulting in eye damage and vision impairment. The tear film consists of a liposaine, a water liquid layer, a prolin protein layer, and the lack of any component in the three layers can cause the tear film to be unstable.
There is one layer of "film" formed by tears on the surface of our eyes, which is just like "hydrating mask" to lock moisture and block invasion. The hydrothermal layer of "hydrating" is secreted by the lacrimal gland, and the lipid layer with "locking" function is secreted by the meibomian gland. Studies have shown that more than 80% of xerophthalmia are caused by lack of lipid secretion, and lowered "lock water".
The meibomian gland is inside the upper and lower eyelids, with a total of 50-70 left and soibly mate gland. Meibomian gland of patients with xerophthalmia has completely disappeared.
Difference
between dry eye and xerophthalmia
Dry
Eyes
Xerophthalmia
Concept
Dry
eye is a kind of symptom, that is, the dry feeling of the eyes. Part of dry eye
is temporary, mostly due to visual fatigue caused by excessive eye use. The
previous treatment is to use eye drops (artificial tears) to relieve it. When
you will feel eyes pain, eyes will be relieved and comfortable for a while
after squeezing eyes hard , because the contraction of the eyelid muscles can
help renew the tear fluid and promote the secretion of lipids from the
meibomian glands.
Xerophthalmia
is not a symptom in medicine, but a disease. The eyes may feel dry, itchy,
astringent. Sometimes people are sensitive to light, smoke, and even tears. It
may be an early manifestation of dry eye.
Causes
Mental
stress, overtime working, staying up late, serious lack of rest time, smoking
and drinking, etc.
Caused
by personal skin, such as oily skin, it is easy to cause dysfunction of the
meibomian glands, sjogren’s syndrome, etc.; caused by eye diseases, trauma or
eye surgery, such as cataract surgery, laser surgery eye disease, allergic
conjunctivitis, etc.
Symptoms
Itching,
pain, burning, fear of blowing, fear of light, blurred vision, eye blood and so
on.
There
are obvious irritation symptoms such as photophobia and tearing, which may also
cause vision loss. If it continues to develop, it will cause long-term vision
damage. If it is organic, it may cause blindness.
