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Medical Author:

Andrew A. Dahl, MD, FACS

Andrew A. Dahl, MD, FACS

Andrew A. Dahl, MD, is a board-certified ophthalmologist. Dr. Dahl's educational background includes a BA with Honors and Distinction from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, and an MD from Cornell University, where he was selected for Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honor society. He had an internal medical internship at the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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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.

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