Dry Eye Treatment

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Understanding Dry Eye

Dry eye is one of the most common — and most misunderstood — conditions we see.  Many people don’t realize their symptoms are caused by an underlying disease process.   For some people, symptoms are a minor annoyance. For others, they significantly affect quality of life, focus, and daily comfort.  Dry eye does not simply go away, it only gets worse over time. 
 

The good news?  Dry eye is very treatable — and at Vision Source Marysville, we take a thorough, personalized approach to figuring out exactly what's driving your symptoms.  You may benefit from a dry eye evaluation if you suffer from:

• Burning or stinging eyes

• Excessive tearing or watery eyes

• Redness

• Blurry or fluctuating vision

• Grittiness or sandy sensation

• Eye fatigue, especially when reading or using screens

• Difficulty wearing contact lenses

• Sensitivity to light

Even if your symptoms are mild, untreated dry eye can affect your vision, comfort, and long-term eye health. 

What Causes Dry Eye And Why Is It So Complex?

Dry eye occurs when your eyes do not produce enough healthy tears or when your tears evaporate too quickly. 
 

Dry eye isn't a single condition — it's the result of a disruption somewhere along the complex system that keeps your eye surface healthy and lubricated. That system involves your eyelids, your tear glands, the oil glands along your lash line, your nervous system, your immune response, and even your overall health and lifestyle.
 

Because so many factors can contribute, a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works. What helps one patient may not help another. That's why we don't just hand out artificial tears and call it a day — we take time to understand why your eyes feel the way they do, and build a treatment plan that actually addresses the cause.

How We Think About Dry Eye

We break dry eye down into categories based on what's contributing to your symptoms. Most patients have more than one category involved — and your treatment plan is built around your specific combination. Here's a look at each one:

Environment

Your surroundings play a bigger role in dry eye than most people realize. Spending hours in front of screens, working in air-conditioned or heated indoor spaces,  being exposed to wind, dust, or chemicals at work, or even sleeping with a ceiling fan on can strain your tear film and worsen symptoms.
 

For screen users, one of the simplest and most effective things you can do is practice intentional blinking. We often blink far less when staring at a screen — and incomplete blinking means your tear film never fully refreshes. Small habit changes can make a real difference.

Lid Function

Your eyelids do a lot more than you might think. Every blink spreads the tear film across your eye and helps pump oil from the glands along your lash line. When your lids don't close completely — whether due to anatomy, habit, or nighttime exposure — your eyes can dry out significantly, especially overnight.
 

For patients with lid closure issues, we focus on managing the effects with targeted nighttime treatments, protective options during sleep, and in some cases, specialty contact lenses or scleral lenses to keep the eye surface protected and moist.

Biofilm & Microrganisms

Just like what our dentist scrapes off of our teeth, our lids can be coated with biofilm and microorganisms that can causes real problems: irritation, inflammation, crusty lashes, and worsening dry eye. These pathogens disrupt the oil glands and contribute to chronic inflammation.
 

The good news is that these are very treatable. Lid hygiene is the foundation — using the right cleansers consistently makes a meaningful difference.  For more significant cases, we also offer in-office treatments to deeply clean and revitalize the eyelids.  Also, some time prescription drops are needed to manage these pathogens long term. 

Evaporative Dry Eye

This is the most common type of dry eye, and it comes down to your meibomian glands — tiny oil-producing glands that line your upper and lower eyelids. When these glands aren't working properly, the oil layer of your tear film breaks down too quickly, and your tears evaporate before they can do their job.

Treatment is focused on restoring and maintaining meibomian gland function. This often includes warm compresses, omega-3 supplementation (medical grade makes a significant difference), consistent lid hygiene, and — for moderate to severe cases — in-office procedures like our Awaken Your Eyes Bundle or Low-Level Light Therapy (LLLT). These in-office treatments are designed to directly stimulate and express the meibomian glands, giving lasting relief that drops alone can't provide. 

 Inflammation

Inflammation is both a cause and a consequence of dry eye — it creates a frustrating cycle where dry eyes trigger inflammation, and inflammation makes dry eye worse. Identifying and addressing the source of inflammation is critical to breaking that cycle.
 

Depending on severity, treatment may range from a short course of a mild steroid to a long-term anti-inflammatory prescription drop. For more persistent cases, we may recommend amniotic membrane therapy — a regenerative treatment placed on the eye that has powerful anti-inflammatory and healing properties. This can provide significant relief for patients who haven't responded well to other treatments.

 Aqueous Deficiency

Some patients simply don't produce enough of the watery component of tears — the aqueous layer. This can be related to autoimmune conditions (like Sjögren's syndrome), certain medications, age, hormonal changes, or inadequate hydration.
 

For mild to moderate cases, something as simple as increasing water intake and adding an electrolyte supplement can make a noticeable difference — your tear glands need proper hydration to function. For more severe aqueous deficiency, we have options like Lacrifil (gel that slows tear drainage) and specialty prescription drops that help stimulate your own natural tear production.
 

Mucin Deficiency

Mucin is the sticky layer of the tear film that helps tears adhere to the surface of the eye. Without enough mucin, even a good volume of tears won't stay where they're needed. This can cause symptoms that look and feel like classic dry eye but don't respond well to standard lubricating drops.
 

We have prescription options specifically targeted at helping your eyes produce more of their own natural mucin — helping your entire tear film work the way it should.

 Allergy

Allergies and dry eye frequently overlap, and each can make the other worse. Allergic inflammation disrupts the tear film, causes itching and rubbing (which introduces more irritants), and can damage the surface of the eye over time. Many patients come in thinking they just have bad allergies — and while that may be true, there's often a dry eye component that's been missed.
 

We address the allergy component as part of the overall dry eye picture, whether that means recommending appropriate rinses to flush allergens from the eye, or coordinating with your other providers on systemic allergy management.

Systemic Health & Wellness

Your overall health has a direct impact on your eyes. Chronic inflammation, poor nutrition, inadequate sleep, dehydration, high stress, and certain systemic conditions (like thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes) can all contribute to dry eye and make it harder to treat.
 

We talk with our patients about five pillars of health that we believe are foundational — not just for your eyes, but for your overall well-being: water, movement, stress management, sleep, and nutrition. For patients with stubborn inflammation that hasn't responded to standard treatments, we recommend starting to look at improving the health of the whole body. 

Makeup, Botox, Lashes & Serums

This is an often-overlooked contributor to dry eye, particularly in our patients who wear eye makeup regularly. Makeup residue that isn't fully removed each day builds up along the lash line, clogs meibomian glands, and contributes to biofilm and inflammation. Certain eyelash serums, lash extensions, and even some botox or filler placements near the eye can also affect lid function and the tear film.

Complete makeup removal every day — with the right products — is essential. We recommend gentle, effective cleansers with clean ingredients that support lid health rather than disrupt it.

Other Ocular Surface Disease

Not every ocular surface problem is dry eye. Conditions like corneal nerve damage, conjunctival scarring, basement membrane disease, and others can cause symptoms that overlap with dry eye but require different management. We're trained to identify these conditions and ensure you're getting the right treatment — not just a dry eye protocol applied to something that needs a different approach.

Our Approach to Treatment

At VSM, we don't believe in guessing. After a thorough evaluation, we identify which categories are contributing to your dry eye and match treatments specifically to what we find. Your plan may involve a combination of at-home products, prescription medications, lifestyle adjustments, and in-office procedures — all chosen with your specific needs, severity, and lifestyle in mind.
 

We also believe in educating our patients. When you understand why you're doing each part of your treatment plan, you're more likely to stick with it — and more likely to get real, lasting results. Dry eye is a chronic condition for most people, but with the right approach, it is absolutely manageable.

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In-Office Services

In addition to at-home care and prescriptions, we offer a range of in-office treatments for patients who need more than drops can provide:

• Awaken Your Eyes Bundle — A fast, rejuvenating in-office procedure that combines professional lid cleaning and stimulation with a gentle eye rinse to clear away inflammation, allergens, and debris. Patients often leave feeling immediate relief. 

• Low-Level Light Therapy (LLLT) — A gentle, non-invasive light-based treatment that stimulates meibomian gland function and reduces inflammation. Performed as a series of sessions, with meibomian gland expression incorporated into the treatment. 

• Prokera & CAM360 — Amniotic membrane treatments with powerful anti-inflammatory, anti-scarring, and regenerative properties. Used for moderate to severe ocular surface disease. 

• Lacrifil— We insert a soft gel in the tear drainage channels to help retain natural tears on the eye surface.

Not sure where to start? That's exactly what your comprehensive dry eye evaluation is for. We'll do the detective work and build a plan that makes sense for you.

Ready to Find Relief?

If you've been dealing with dry, irritated, or uncomfortable eyes — even if you've tried things before and they haven't worked — we'd love to see you. Dry eye care has come a long way, and there's more we can do than ever before.

Schedule your appointment today and let's get to the root of it