Cornea & Dry Eye Care

A pharmacy drop wets the surface for twenty minutes and treats nothing. We first measure why your eyes are dry: whether the oil glands have blocked, whether tear production has genuinely dropped, or whether inflammation is driving it. Treatment then follows that finding, which might be gland expression and IPL, anti-inflammatory drops, punctal plugs, or a change to your existing medication. Many people who have been buying drops for years find their actual problem was never a lack of lubricant.

In the large majority of cases, yes. Cross-linking stops the cornea from getting worse, and vision is then managed with glasses, rigid gas-permeable or scleral contact lenses. Ring segments or a phakic lens implant help selected eyes. Transplantation is reserved for corneas that have scarred or become too irregular for any lens to fit, and the earlier you are diagnosed, the less likely that is to be you.

It depends on which layer was replaced. After endothelial keratoplasty such as DSEK, most people see a clear improvement within four to twelve weeks. After a full-thickness PKP, vision improves gradually over six to eighteen months as the sutures are removed, and glasses or a rigid contact lens are usually needed at the end. Drops continue for a long period in every case, and follow-up does not stop once the eye feels normal.

Sometimes, but not before the dryness is treated. LASIK temporarily reduces corneal nerve sensation and makes dry eye worse for several months, so operating on an untreated dry eye reliably produces an unhappy patient. We treat the surface first, re-measure, and then decide. If dryness is severe, or if topography shows any suspicion of keratoconus, we will advise against laser altogether and discuss an implantable lens instead.

Long-term exposure to ultraviolet light, dust and dry wind is the main cause, which is why it is so common among people who work or commute outdoors here. Removal with a conjunctival autograft brings the recurrence rate down to a small percentage, compared with a high rate after simple excision alone. It is not zero, and recurrence is more likely in younger patients and those who go straight back to full sun exposure without protective glasses.

Yes, and keratoconus in children tends to progress faster than in adults, so it is treated more urgently once confirmed. The pattern to watch for is a child with allergic eye disease who rubs their eyes constantly and needs a new spectacle power every few months. Dry eye in children is usually screen-related or allergy-related rather than glandular, and it responds well to blinking habits, screen breaks and treating the allergy properly.

You often cannot, because dry eye, allergy, blepharitis, an early corneal infection and a raised eye pressure can all begin as redness and discomfort. The signs that it is not simple dryness are pain rather than irritation, vision that drops, light sensitivity that stops you opening the eye, or symptoms in one eye only. Any of those need examination the same day, not another bottle of drops.

It is one of the most common patterns we see. When the surface dries out it becomes irritated, and irritation triggers a flood of reflex tears that are watery, poor quality and drain away immediately. So the eye waters and stays dry at the same time. The other possibility is a blocked tear duct, which we check for, because the treatment for that is completely different.

From registered eye banks, donated after death by consent, and screened for infection before use. Rejection is possible at any point in the life of a graft, though it is much less likely with partial-thickness procedures such as DSEK or DALK than with a full-thickness transplant. The warning signs are redness, pain, light sensitivity and a drop in vision. Reported within a day or two, most rejection episodes are reversed with intensive drops.

Corneal transplantation, pterygium surgery and repair of corneal or scleral injuries are covered by most health policies and by the government schemes we are empanelled for. Cross-linking is covered by many insurers but not all, and dry eye treatment, IPL sessions and specialty contact lenses are generally out-of-pocket outpatient costs. Our insurance desk checks your specific policy and tells you the exact figure before you commit to anything.