MADE - who knew "Mask Associated Dry Eye"

What a year!  and now we are adjusting to face masks being part of our new routine.  Whether it's a washable and personalised mask, or the standard disposable blue keeping us all a bit safer, they do affect our eyes. 

The increasing reports of more problems for people with dry eyes when wearing masks has started to catch the attention of the dry eye researchers.  Findings that not only people who already have dry eyes are worse, but there are also new dry eye sufferers.  The problem is the tear film that lubricates the front of our eyes, drying out faster.  The symptoms of dry eyes are sore, irritated, stinging, burning and sometimes watery and red eyes.

Wearing a mask keeps your breath close to you, but it still has to go somewhere - that fogging up of your glasses shows where the breath is going - upwards, and over the surface of your eyes, like a gentle breeze. Along with air conditioning, or screen time on your phone or computer when we blink less, the faster rate of evaporation of the tear film on the front surface of our eye makes them dry.

Those of us who wear glasses have worked out that a tighter fitting mask over our nose is a big help in reducing the fogging, and also helps dry eyes.  But we may also need to use lubricating eye drops to replenish our tear film. There are a range of lubricating eye drops that we can advise on, depending on how mild or severe the drying is.

So along with fixing the fogging up glasses problem, a tightly fitted mask over the top of your nose, will also help your dry eyes.