Do I really need warm compresses?

Many patients go to see their eye doctors with ocular complaints such as burning, intermittent blurred vision, or tearing, and they are given a diagnosis of tear film dysfunction, which usually gets labeled as “dry eye.” The main treatment that they hear about and self-administer is lubrication via artificial tear eye drops.

Artificial tears are an important part of the treatment of tear film dysfunction, but one of the major components of the dysfunction is a lack of oily eyelid secretions. One of the purposes of these oily secretions is to sit top of the watery part of the tear film and decrease evaporation. That is why we often think about “evaporative tear film dysfunction,” which means that there isn’t enough oil to keep the watery tear film from evaporating away.

So, while patients are busy adding to the watery part of the tear film with artificial tears, a considerable part of that tear film is evaporating away. This is why warm compresses are an important component of the treatment; warm compresses increase the oily secretions. So, in a way, warm compresses and artificial tears are complementary. Together, they constitute the mainstay of tear film dysfunction treatment.