Dry eye management - The TheraTears way

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There are currently four Theratears products available, the original Theratears lubricant Eye Drops, Theratears Liquid Gel, Theratears Nutrition and Theratears Sterilid. I will now detail the properties of each in turn.

Standard Theratears drops are both hypotonic and electrolyte balanced. In dry eye, especially evaporative dry eye, tear tonicity increases. In dry eye, water is then lost from the ocular surface to the hypertonic tears by osmosis. The conjunctiva is the first to suffer, with a reduction in the amount of mucous secreting goblet cells. An intact mucous film is required to hold the aqueous component of the tears in place. The hypotonicity of Theratears drops has been chosen to restore the tear tonicity to a level that encourages goblet cell repopulation of the conjunctiva. This effect is greater if the patient has punctal plugs fitted as the optimised tonicity is maintained for much longer (see figure 1a,b).