Many patients ask me what can they buy to help with their dry eyes. I love natural treatments first, so I still highly recommend:
1. Frequent blinking especially when on an electronic screen.
2. Take breaks from the computer, type with your eyes closed, dictate to SIRI, use a scribe if you can: Use your eyes for Eye Worthy Activities
3. Apply warm compresses (a warm towel that you re-heat works but the heat lasts only a few
minutes.4. Eat a low inflammatory diet: eat more Omega 3, low/no sugar/gluten diet: Paleo. Stevia is ok.
5. Every time you wash your hands, wash your eyes with warm/hot water. If this makes your eyes more red, painful, itchy, infla
med, use Cold Water or Cold Ice after.
Here are my top recommendations: I or someone in my family uses or a dear friend or patient uses these products and love them. This does not mean you will like them or your eye will like it.
Warm Compress Routine:
It is a pain to do this, but studies still indicate that warm heat (it can be wet or dry from what we know thus far) is the best way to open the Orifice of the Meibomian 
Here are my patient’s favorites:
1. Spectrum Thea Blephasteam Goggles for Dry Eye
https://amzn.to/2OTswnS
Thus far, 4 of my patients have said they love Blephasteam. It is currently unavailable at Amazon: not sure if it is because it sold out or other issues.
I was going to get this for my husband for Christmas as a fellow MD colleague love how it feels.
It runs about $800.
Heated Eye Mask – USB Dry Eye Mask, Electric Heating Eye Mask, Far-Infrared Therapy, Adjustable Temperature, Sleeping Heated Eye Mask, Sleep Mask to Relieve Dry Puffy Eyes.
3. The Wizard Dry Mask is loved by many of my patients although 1 had to return 3 of them due to issues. Still it looks like it will heat up just the meibomian glands and not the whole orbital area.
Supplements:
1. Omega 3: PRN is considered the best but it is expensive. My husband really feels these help his dry eyes, but I have other patients who say it does nothing to help. The papers on the benefits of 2000-4000mg Omega 3 per day are still controversial.
Ointments:
1. Coconut Oil: We use coconut oil at home for all kinds of things: for cooking of course, as a hand moisturizer, to protect eyes at night. If you are using Coconut oil for the eyes, we do not use same container for other things; we use a clean finger and rub it into the eyelashes & then wash off well in the morning: it is very sticky and will blur the vision.
2. Cold Pressed, Hexane-Free Castor Oil: some of my patients love this. I could not find a good published study on this product but patients use this to lubricate the eye and seal in moisture. I could not find any reports of corneal infections thus far with this product.
3. Medical Grade Manuka Honey:
These are the kinds my patients have been using.
Take The Red Out of the Eyes:
I don’t like the preservative they chose for this, but I have many patients who find this helps to get the red out without rebound redness Visine causes. If you use this, try to use it only 1x per day. Never more than 4x per day. If you need it more than 4x per day, you need to see an eyeMD.
