Advanced dry eye treatment Vancouver BC

Effective Treatment OPTIONS EXIST!

Ocular surface disease is chronic disease and if left untreated causes on-going damage to your ocular surface. It is best to treat dry eye disease when the symptoms are still mild to prevent long term damage to your eyes. Complex and severe cases of ocular surface diseases sometimes call for more advanced approaches to manage the delicate tissues of the eye surface. The tears, glands, conjunctiva and corneal surface all have to maintain a delicate balance for the entire system to remain healthy. Listed below are some advanced dry eye treatment options that can help treat the chronic inflammation and manage the disease.

Meibomian Gland Expression

This is an in office procedure following thermal heating of the glands, where the doctor manually expresses the upper and lower meibomian glands to allow secretions to flow easily. This prevents the glands from clogging and leading to atrophy and helps to clear up clogged glands.

This procedure is recommended every 3 to 4 months to allow the glands to properly flow and allow proper secretion to maintain a proper balance of the tear film structure.

Blepharitis Management

This in-office procedure is used to remove bacteria and demodex mites from the eyelash base, and hardened tissue from the eyelid margin.

This procedure is a highly effective in treating blepharitis.

Proper maintenance following the procedure will ensure a healthy ocular surface.

There is no downtime and no side effects from the procedure. Patients suffering from blepharitis often report an immediate relief from their symptoms after this procedure.


Radio Frequency (RF)

Radio Frequency is a dry eye procedure that requires 3-4 initial treatments and use subdermal heat to clear obstructed meibomian glands and stimulate collagen and elastin production. This improves the function and health of the oil-producing eyelid glands, ultimately restoring a healthy tear film with less tear evaporation. As a side benefit, it also reduces fine lines and eyelid wrinkles!

Punctal Plugs

Punctal Plugs are small devices that are placed painlessly into the tear drainage ducts and are designed to reduce the rate of tear drainage from the eye. This keeps the surface of the eyes more moist and well lubricated, thereby reducing the frequency by which artificial tear drops are needed.

They are available in a 3 or 6 month dissolving format, or a semi-permanent silicone plastic format designed to last many years.

Amniotic Membrane (Prokera Or Bio-D)

Amniotic membranes are biologic corneal bandage devices used by eye doctors around the world to heal and treat ocular conditions such as keratitis, moderate to severe dry eye disease, recurrent corneal erosions, filamentary keratitis, persistent epithelial defects, neurotrophic corneas, herpetic ulcers, and many other ocular surface diseases such as chemical burns and Stevens-Johnson syndrome.

These bandage devices are made from placental tissue and are rich in growth factors to help heal the corneal surface