Grease it up!

I venture that it is intuitively obvious that an ointment would be a better lubricant than a watery liquid, but perhaps it is not.

Often, I tell my patients that the best thing that they can do if they have a tear film problem, which I argue that most patients do, is lubricate their eye with an ointment. I tell them that ointments are much better lubricants than drops. So, for the purpose of treatment of tear film issues, ointments are best.

So why don’t I recommend ointment all day every day? Well, it’s a little difficult to see through a patina of ointment over the cornea. For all the improvement to the ocular surface that can be delivered, there is an equal amount of frustration over blurred vision.

It is important to note that that frustration, however severe, is quite temporary. So I encourage my patients to get that greasy ophthalmic ointment on their eyeballs as much as possible!