Managing eye allergies

We’ve all experienced that moment of awareness that we definitely have eyes in our head, because we can suddenly ‘feel’ them in there. There’s a physical discomfortwhen we blink – they feel swollen and gritty, like there are sheets of sandpaper covering our eyeballs.

What do most of us do when this happens? We get our hands in there to give them a good rub. Then we head over to the medicine cabinet to look for any ‘leftover’ eyedrops, which is mistake number one, because you should never use eyedrops that have been open for longer than a month.

Failing that, we head to the shops, to grab something off the shelf, because all eye drops are created equal right? Wrong.

Eye allergy causes and solutions

Fact is, there’s a lot at play when we suffer from irritated eyes. For instance, did you know that many of the cold and flu medications we use to dry up a runny nose, will also dry up our tear layer, drawing out all of the moisture there too. So, when we blink, the eyelid closes over a dry eyeball, which is where that gritty, sandy feeling comes from.

The drier air of wintertime also exacerbates allergies – from outdoor allergens, such as pollens from grasses and leaves, to indoor allergens, such as pet dander, dust and mouldspores, even cigarette smoke, perfumes and the like – all can result in itchy eyes.

Taking an oral antihistamine can help relieve sinus and allergies, while we can get some relief for our eyes through long-acting eyedrops geared to allergy relief. There are many very effective products out there, where you simply pop a drop into the eyes both morning and night. This avoids bombarding the eye with all sorts of drops, all day long, that don’t actually get to the root of the problem.

Don’t self-diagnose, rather test

Yes, ‘Dr Google’ is great, but at the end of the day, you may think you’re dealing with a drywinter eye, when it’s actually an allergy. Or you might think you’ve got pressure on the eye,when it could be sinus related. We recommend having a general eye test done. Let anoptometrist have a look to assess things like, how stable is your tear layer? What is the realcause of you experiencing an unbearable itch, severe redness or constant puffiness? There areso many ways to tackle these problems, there’s really no need to feel uncomfortable.

Eye discomfort is a lot like having toothache – it can become all-consuming and really affect your day, your mood, your productivity, all of it. But it doesn’t need to be that way. We can help restore your comfort. So, pop in, let us take a look, see what we’re dealing with, and help make it better.

At linksfield, we’re all about finding the best vision solutions for our patients. Give us a call or book an appointment with us.