Dry Eye Syndrome Symptoms

If you have DES, you may also experience the following symptoms:

• Dry, gritty/scratchy, or filmy feeling in the eyes
  
  
• Burning or itching in the eyes
  
  
• Redness of the eyes
  
  
• Blurred vision
  
  
• A sensation of having a foreign body in the eyes
  
  
• Light sensitivity

Symptoms seem to worsen in dry climates, in windy conditions, with higher temperatures, with lower humidity, with prolonged use of your eyes (for example, reading, watching TV), and toward the end of the day.

Sometimes a symptom of DES may actually be intermittent excessive tearing with DES. When your eye becomes slightly dry and irritated, it may initiate reflex tearing with production of a large amount of tears all at once to try to get moist and comfortable again. Unfortunately, your eye can only handle so many tears at any one time; the rest pour over your eyelids and down your cheeks. Those tears that pour down your cheeks do not help your eyes and are wasted. A short time later, your eyes will become slightly dry and irritated again, and the whole process may repeat itself.