Dry Eyes Support Group

Dry eyes is an eye disease caused by decreased tear production or increased tear film evaporation. Symptoms include burning and a sandy-gritty eye irritation that gets worse as the day goes on. The symptoms are often caused by a loss of water from the tears that results in tears that are too "salty" or hypertonic.

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hattie886 07/22/2009

I'm booked for a ductal plug in August and wonder what people's experience has been? The ophthalmologist said at best they would allow me to use gel and drops every few hours instead of several times an hour. But at $100 per plug I want to know what the odds are that they'll work.
thanks.

tmckenzie 10/02/2009

I had severe, severe dry eye after Lasix surgery. The doctor did put in plugs and it did help. Still, I had to put drops in every 20 minutes for 5 months (I'm not kidding). I've had them for 4 years now and my dry eye is better but not gone. Only drawback to the plugs is that when you watch a sad movie & cry, your tears come spilling out because they don't drain. It's not bad having them implanted so don't worry about that.

brennabear 02/24/2010

My eye doctor actually closed my ducts without plugs, he cauterized them with a really hot pointy thing (temporary) to see if it would work, and once that showed to help he did it with this electric machine that like "buzzed" them shut. I don't know the exact names for these things, but I'm sure I could find out for you, if you'd like. I'm neurotropic so he was afraid the plugs would move and I wouldn't feel it.

But, I had one eye done about 10 years ago and the other about 5 years ago. Both are still shut. Yes, when I cry my face gets SOAKED lol but other than that I've had no other problems.

hattie886 02/24/2010

Thanks for your response. I had the plugs, they worked, they fell out. Now I've had the lower ducts cauterized, which helped a bit, although at the moment I'm typing with my eyes closed because theyl're so dry. I'll probably go back and get the two upper ducts cauterized as well. I'm now using gel full time instead of drops because they last longer. Expensive, though.

deleted_user 03/20/2010

I had the plugs put in and they help a little, until I could get the Restasis to work a little better (it takes 2-3 months). They didn't make my symptoms go away completely, but helped somewhat. It was worth the $ I guess.

deleted_user 08/24/2010

hi i had a temporary plug on both eyes on top n bottom. it was good for 1 wk it helped but i still need to put resasia. i can not be in computer or see a movie cauz my eyes start to feel very extremely dry and they hurt so bad.

singles 03/25/2011

Thanks for all the comments.
Its sounds like it could go either way.
I know my sister had them for a while and then they fell out.
I like the idea of the tears staying in the eye and not draining.
My doctor said my eyes don't make the oily tears at all so for me the other watery tears are made in excess.
There are so many my eyes are always watery and draining thru my nose. This causes me to have a runny nose all the time.
I wonder if it would cut back on that.
Please help if you know about this.

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