Dry Eye Treatment in Titusville Drops Buy Minutes. We Go After the Cause.

Do your eyes burn, sting, or water by the afternoon?

Your eyes feel fine at breakfast and scratchy by three. Screens make it worse. Drops help for a little while, then you are back where you started. Some days your eyes water so much that dry is the last word you would use, yet watering is one of the most common signs of dry eye.

You have plenty of company. A few common medicines dry eyes out, and so do the years after menopause and the hours we all spend on a screen. None of it means you have to live with it, and we would be glad to take a look.

What happens at a dry eye visit?

At a dry eye visit we measure how well your tears work and look at the oil glands in your eyelids, then we go over what we found and choose a treatment with you. The visit takes about an hour at our Downtown office, and you leave with a plan you can start that day.

Most dry eye starts in the small oil glands along the edge of the eyelids. When those glands clog or shrink, the oily layer of the tear film thins out and your tears evaporate too fast. So we photograph the glands themselves with infrared meibography and check your tear film under the slit lamp. That tells us which kind of dry eye you have, and the kind decides the treatment.

What we check:

• The oil glands in your eyelids, with infrared meibography
• How fast your tears evaporate and how much tear you make
• The surface of your eye and your eyelids under the microscope
• The drops and medicines you already use, and what has and has not helped

How do we treat dry eye?

By matching the treatment to the cause, starting with the simplest step that will work for your eyes. For some patients that is the right prescription drop or a better lubricant. For clogged oil glands we have in-office treatments, and we do them here in Titusville, so nobody is driving to Orlando for a light therapy session.

The treatments we offer at Downtown:

• Prescription drops for inflammation, and the right lubricating drops for your kind of dry eye, including preservative-free and nighttime options
• Lid care and supplements such as omega-3, when the glands need help from the outside in
• Punctal plugs, tiny plugs in the tear drains that keep your own tears on the eye longer
• Low-level light therapy with the Epic-C unit, a gentle warming light over closed eyes that helps the oil glands work again
• OptiLight intense pulsed light, for dry eye driven by rosacea and inflammation along the lids
• Optilift, a newer in-office treatment for the eyelid and gland function

Who treats dry eye at Aker Eye, and where?

Dr. Greg Aker and Dr. Amanda Aker, father and daughter, at our Downtown office, 338 S Washington Ave, on the second floor with an elevator. Dry eye is one of the few things we do at only one office, because the gland imaging and the light therapy equipment live there. If you usually see us at Playalinda, we can examine you there and send you Downtown for the treatment itself.

Does insurance cover dry eye treatment?

Usually the evaluation, yes: dry eye is a medical condition rather than a glasses prescription, so medical insurance tends to cover the visit. Some in-office treatments, such as light therapy, are often not covered and are paid for by the patient. We check your benefits before your visit and tell you what your plan covers and what it does not, so the cost is never news at the desk. Call us at (321) 269-2021 with your plan name and we will look it up.