Common people

Over the past two weeks, I have been gathering data from a range of patients who have one thing in common. At some point in the recent past, they have complained of their eyes feeling dry, gritty, tired or smeary. Here, I aim to go through the assessment routine I have been using and then present the results from three quite different patients.

History and Symptoms

Symptoms related to dry eye are so ubiquitous that many patients do not even report them unless specifically asked. It is easy to test this theory. If you ask ‘do you have any symptoms such as grittiness or dryness?’ most people with troublesome symptoms will respond positively. But not all. By changing the question to, ‘at what time of the day do you notice your eyes starting to feel gritty or dry?’ it is certain that more will report symptoms. Add a further question, ‘do you notice any dry or gritty symptoms when doing anything in particular, such as driving, outdoors, computing, cinema or outdoor activity?’ and more symptomatic patients might be identified.