Dry Eye Diaries

Dry Eye Guide

---

A beginner-friendly guide to understanding dry eye: what it is, what may be behind your symptoms, and how it can be diagnosed and treated. Written in plain language and grounded in the current TFOS DEWS evidence.

1. 01

   How Do My Eyes Work?

   Understand the system that keeps the surface of your eyes healthy.

   1. The Tear Film
   2. Meibomian Glands & Lipids
   3. Where Do Your Tears Come From?
   4. The Ocular Surface, Mucins & Glycocalyx
   5. Why Blinking Matters
   6. Your Corneal Nerves
2. 02

   What Can Go Wrong?

   Understand the different problems behind dry eye.

   1. Tear-film problems
   2. Lipid Deficiency
   3. Aqueous Deficiency
   4. Mucin & Glycocalyx Dysfunction
   5. Eyelid & exposure problems
   6. Blink & Eyelid-Closure Problems
   7. Lid-Margin Problems
   8. Ocular-surface & neural problems
   9. Ocular-Surface Damage & Disruption
   10. Inflammation & Oxidative Stress
   11. Neural Dysfunction & Altered Sensation
   12. Anatomical & Surface-Alignment Problems
   13. Dry Eye Is Often a Mixed Problem
3. 03

   How Do I Find Out What's Wrong?

   Symptoms, diagnosis and what each test can — and cannot — tell you.

   1. Diagnosis
   2. How Is Dry Eye Diagnosed?
   3. Dry Eye Symptoms
   4. Conditions That Can Look Like Dry Eye
   5. Understanding the tests
   6. What Does Each Test Actually Measure?
   7. TBUT & NIBUT
   8. Ocular-Surface Staining
   9. The Schirmer Test
   10. Tear Meniscus Height
   11. Meibomian Gland Expression & Meibum Quality
   12. Meibography
   13. Lipid-Layer Interferometry
   14. Tear Osmolarity
   15. Blink & Eyelid Assessment
   16. Corneal Sensitivity & Nerve Testing
   17. Understanding Your Test Results
4. 04

   Why Might This Be Happening?

   Conditions, causes, contributors and risk factors.

   1. Eye & eyelid conditions
   2. Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD)
   3. Blepharitis and Dry Eye
   4. Ocular Rosacea and Dry Eye
   5. Demodex and Dry Eye
   6. Eyelid & Exposure Conditions
   7. Systemic conditions
   8. Systemic Conditions and Dry Eye
   9. Sjögren's Disease and Dry Eye
   10. Diabetes and Dry Eye
   11. Thyroid Disease and Dry Eye
   12. Medications & medical procedures
   13. Medications and Dry Eye
   14. Eye Surgery and Dry Eye
   15. Lifestyle, environment & other factors
   16. Contact Lenses and Dry Eye
   17. Screens, Reduced Blinking & Dry Eye
   18. Environment, Humidity, Wind and Dry Eye
   19. Age, Hormones and Dry Eye
5. 05

   What Can I Do About It?

   Treatments organized by what they are actually trying to treat.

   1. Start with the target
   2. Treating Dry Eye: Start With the Target
   3. Meibomian glands & lipids
   4. Treating Meibomian Gland Dysfunction
   5. Warm Compresses & Heat for MGD
   6. Meibomian Gland Expression as Treatment
   7. IPL for Dry Eye and MGD
   8. Thermal Pulsation for MGD
   9. Radiofrequency (RF) for MGD
   10. Aqueous tears
   11. Treating Aqueous-Deficient Dry Eye
   12. Artificial Tears & Lubricating Eye Drops
   13. Punctal Plugs & Tear Conservation
   14. Stimulating Natural Tear Production
   15. Autologous Serum & Other Blood-Derived Eye Drops
   16. Inflammation
   17. Anti-Inflammatory Treatment for Dry Eye
   18. Ocular-surface protection & support
   19. Scleral Lenses for Dry Eye
   20. Moisture-Chamber Glasses & Environmental Protection
   21. Eyelids & exposure
   22. Managing Exposure & Eyelid-Closure Problems
   23. Nerves & pain
   24. When Dry Eye Symptoms May Involve the Nervous System
   25. Making treatment decisions
   26. How to Make Treatment Decisions

The guide is published a chapter at a time. A title without a link is still being written — it is here so you can see the shape the finished guide will take.