The moment we open our eyes, our environment constantly changes. Our eyes can face air conditioning, dust, pollen, irritants, pollution and chemicals.
If you’ve ever felt dry or red eyes on an airplane, or got tired eyes on the computer at work, you’ll know this.
A dry environment may also feel:
Dry eyes is an increasingly common symptom. We tend to spend a lot of time looking at digital devices. The downside is that we blink less often.
What about eyedrops? Shouldn’t you just put more drops in when they feel dry?
The normal tear film has three layers. They are the mucous, watery and oily layers. The oily layer is the most exposed to the environment. It’s role is to prevent evaporation. Each time you blink, more tears are spread across the surface of the eye.
If the tear film doesn’t spread well over the eye, you can have an inadequate oily layer, leading to gaps underneath.
This exposes the lower watery layer to evaporation.
When we hit encounter low humidity (e.g. air conditioning) or significant airflow, our tear film evaporates faster.
Our tears become more salty (i.e. hyperosmolar) and friction increases.
This leads to an inflammation reaction on the surface of the eyes. The more evaporation there is, the more inflammation over the eyes.
According toone study, normal drops for dry eyes don’t relieve this inflammation.
Inflammation causes more dry eyes, promoting a cycle of more inflammation. If this inflammation cycle isn’t reduced, dry eyes often deteriorates and can affect your quality of life.
Inflammation is the key to dry eyes that become worse, leading to pain and discomfort.
So what can you do to help prevent inflammation in your eyes?
You need to protect your eyes more.
That is, create a micro-environment around your eyes to prevent them from drying out.
Wearing normal glasses can help. But often there are so many air gaps that allow airflow. If you can feel air flowing on your eyelids, then they’re not being protected enough.
7Eye Airshield & Ziena help to enclose the space surrounding the eyes. They are wrap-around glasses that create a micro-environment around your eyes. They help to protect your eyes both indoors and outdoors.
In aclinical study, 7Eye glasses helped improve comfort for:
The added bonus was that 7Eye wearers also reduced the frequency of drops that they put into their eyes.
This finding was also supported by Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society’s Dry Eye Workshop II (TFOS DEWS II). Moisture chamber glasses were recommended to help reduce the effects of dry eye from the environment.
So how do 7Eye glasses work?
7Eye & Ziena glasses have a discrete foam or silicon padding. They reduce evaporation of the watery layer of your eyes. This helps to:
If you have allergies or hayfever, 7Eye & Ziena are great at reducing itchy eyes.
When should you wear 7Eye glasses?
7Eye glasses are great if you:
Can I get them in Prescription?
Yes, 7Eye and Ziena are available in prescription, including single vision and multifocal lenses. You can get them in Transitions/Photochromic, Tinted or Polarised for the Glare. You can also get them in clear with an anti-reflective coating for wearing indoors.
How do you clean 7Eye Airshield and Ziena gaskets?
It’s important to regularly clean the padded foam or silicon eyecup or gasket. This helps reduce a buildup of natural bacteria from your skin (e.g. staphylococcus epidermidis). These bacteria can make your eyes feel more dry and make dry eyes worse.
Make sure that you clean your gasket as directed. Replace your eye cup regularly to ensure that it doesn’t get too dirty and so that it continues to form a good seal around your eyes.
Dry eye treatment is more than just adding more drops to your eyes. It’s about reducing the cycle of inflammation in your eyes, and helping them feel comfortable.
7Eye Airshield and Ziena glasses are part of the plan to give you relief from dry eyes. They give you the freedom to do all the things you love again. My patients love theirs!
Dr Leigh Plowman
Optometrist
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