Eight Reasons Your Eyes Need a Healthy Tear Film & Tears

Tears do more than telegraph your emotions to the rest of the world. They are essential for your eye health and vision.

Healthy tears and a stable tear film are essential to everyday eye comfort and wellness. If you’re not producing enough tears (or the right kind of tears) and you add contact lenses to the mix, your eyes can feel dry and irritated. Using moist heat therapy to help supplement routine eye hygiene can reduce discomfort and dry eye-related blurry vision, which is especially prevalent with increasing age and too much screen time.

Learning more about how your tears and tear film prevent dry eyes and blurred vision may motivate you to add regular eye care TLC for your to your daily routine.

Tears wash away foreign particles or irritants

Such as pollen, dirt, or bacteria that could cause damage to the surface of your eye, called the cornea. This is important because contact lens wearers are at greater risk for eye infections.

Tears help your eyes focus light so that you can see more clearly

But just having enough tears does not ensure you have good vision (called visual acuity). Too many tears or watery eyes can blur your vision. The same is true if you have too few tears (Dry Eye Disease), making it harder to see clearly. Beyond a healthy amount of tears, healthy eyes require a stable tear film.

How to get rid of a stye with moist heat

Moist heat therapy with a microwaveable eye compress such as Eyeleve is better than dry heat for treating styes.

A stable tear film consists of three layers: an oil layer, a water layer, and a mucin layer:

The outer oil layer seals in moisture and helps slow down how quickly your tears evaporate.
The middle water layer washes away particles and keeps your eye’s surface clean. It is a mixture of water, salt, and some proteins. This layer is the largest (90%) part of the tear film.
The inner mucin layer allows the watery layer to spread evenly over the surface of the eye. The mucin layer keeps your eye moist and lubricated. It also helps nourish the cornea and allows tears to stick to your eye’s surface.

Your protective tear film weakens if the mucin layer starts to break down. This is called tear film instability. There are many causes of tear film instability such as hormone changes, autoimmune disease, inflamed eyelid glands, allergic eye disease, and contact lens wearing.

EYE CARE TIP

Make your contact lenses more comfortable

Using a moist heat eye compress such as Eyeleve helps:

Tears help your contact lenses feel more comfortable for longer.

Whenever your tear film isn’t working correctly, you may begin to experience symptoms of dry eye. Wearing contact lenses can disrupt the protective outer oil layer of your tear film, causing the water-based middle layer to evaporate more easily, meaning you notice dry eye symptoms such as burning, stinging, blurry vision, or a scratchy feeling as if there was something in your eye. Your body compensates by producing more tears to help rehydrate the surface of your eye and your lens.

Tiny glands called meibomian glands also line your inner eyelids. These glands release natural lubricating oils that are a critical ingredient to helping your contact lenses feel more comfortable for longer. These nourishing oils slow down how quickly your tears evaporate, so you can enjoy the moisture-rich benefits of every tear your body makes. Research has shown that you can help boost your body’s natural defenses against dry eye symptoms by adding in regular use of a heated eye mask. Daily use of dry eye relief mask like the Eyeleve Contact Lens Compress helped contact lens wearer’s meibomian glands work better and extended their comfortable lens wearing time by three hours in one clinical study.

Healthy tears can help reduce symptoms of dry eye disease.

Approximately 50 million people in the United States (344 million people worldwide) suffer from the symptoms of dry eye disease (DED). Dry eye develops when your eyes don’t make enough tears to stay wet, when your tears don’t work properly, or if your tears evaporate too quickly.

Your doctor can help you find the best treatment options for the exact cause of your dry eye symptoms. However, there are also simple, at-home ways to help improve dry eye symptoms yourself. Relaxing with a moist heat eye mask daily can help your eyelid glands release the oils needed to properly nourish your tear film and soothe your eyes.

"Healthy tears and a stable tear film are essential parts of your everyday eye comfort and wellness."

Tears reduce the chances of eye infection.

Contact lens wearers are at greater risk for eye infections. Tears are the way your body washes away any harmful viruses, bacteria, or dirt that could cause infection. With regular blinking action and sufficient amounts of tears, the tear film is cleansed and replaced about every ten seconds. Tears also contain special infection-fighting antibodies and enzymes- part of our body’s immune system. An intact tear film forms a protective barrier over the surface of the eye.

You can further boost your eyes’ natural infection-fighting ability by following a regular eyelid hygiene routine as well. This could include hygienic eyelid wipes and hygienic antibacterial eyewash spray for cleaning your eyelids, such as the Bruder Hygienic Eyelid Kit, perfect for on-the-go lens changing needs.

Tears can heal damage to the surface of the eye.

Whether your eyes are stressed by dry eye disease, a foreign object like dirt, infection, or contact lenses, it can lead to damage and inflammation over time. tears help the cornea’s fragile surface heal by acting like a protective cushion between the eyelid and the ocular surface.

Don’t Let Lens Discomfort Make You A Contact Lens Drop-out

Are you considering tossing your contact lenses altogether? You are not alone.

Just like flossing regularly keeps your teeth healthy, following an eye care routine with a heated eye mask can help your eyes stay healthy, especially if you are a contact lens wearer. Contact lenses disrupt the nourishing effect of healthy tears. Contacts also destabilize the protective tear film your tears form over the surface of your eyes. Regularly using a heated eye hydrating compress such as Eyeleve is one way to keep your tear film healthy and your eyes feeling more comfortable for longer.

There are multiple reasons why we all need healthy tears and a stable tear film. The nourishing and hydrating power of your tears are critical to your overall eye health and eye comfort in today’s modern world. . You can support your body’s own healing and protective measures with regular use of a dry eye relief mask such as Eyeleve and a daily eyelid hygiene routine.