Eye Conditions

Dry eye disease occurs when your eyes do not produce enough tears to lubricate the outer layers of your cornea or when they evaporate too quickly. This can lead to swelling, eye pain, and vision problems. Symptoms often include a stinging or burning feeling in the eyes.

The tear film that covers your eye surface can be affected by multiple factors, such as dry weather, smoking, poor hydration, or spending too much time looking at a computer screen. Dry eye syndrome can also indicate autoimmune conditions, like diabetes and Graves’ or thyroid disease.

Eye floaters are the small black or gray specks that appear in your vision field and drift away when the eyes are moved. They often stand out more when looking directly into a bright surface like a white paper or a blank wall.

Floaters are caused by scattered clumps of cells or collagen fibers that form within the jelly-like substance that fills your eye (vitreous). These cells cast tiny shadows on your retina and drift through the vitreous, causing you to see floaters.

Astigmatism is a common refractive error that causes blurred and distorted vision. It happens due to an abnormal curvature of the eye's surface (your cornea), leading to uneven light focus on the retina. This focus error causes blurry vision, headaches, eye strain, and other symptoms.

Astigmatism can occur alongside other refractive errors, such as nearsightedness and farsightedness. Treatment ranges from refractive corrections and prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses to lens insertion surgery.

Nearsightedness, or myopia, causes distant objects to seem distorted or blurry due to a shape irregularity in the eye. This is a common refractive error, and its symptoms often include headaches and fatigue from squinting the eyes or looking away for long periods.

Regular eye exams and checkups with your eye doctor can help with the early detection of refractive errors, such as nearsightedness. Proper detection can help prevent vision loss and other complications. Treatment usually includes refractive corrections, such as prescription eyeglasses and contact lenses or lens insertion surgery.

Farsightedness, or hyperopia, causes eye vision to distort and blur when seeing objects up close. It usually happens because of a misshapen eyeball, where the cornea is too flat and short. This causes light to focus improperly on the retina.

In addition to blurry vision for things up-close, symptoms for farsightedness include headaches, eye squinting, and feeling tired when having to focus on objects up-close for prolonged periods.

Presbyopia is an eye condition that affects the ability to focus on nearby objects. It is related to the normal aging process of the eye that becomes noticeable around age 40. At this age, the eye's lens starts gradually losing flexibility and, with it, the ability to focus on objects up close. 

Unlike farsightedness, presbyopia is an average aging factor and can be easily corrected. Symptoms of presbyopia include difficulty reading, seeing in a dimly lit environment, and headaches when squinting eyes to focus on nearby objects.