Dry Eye FAQ: Answers From Melbourne's Dry Eye Experts

Dry eye disease, also called dry eye syndrome, happens when your eyes don't produce enough good-quality tears to stay properly lubricated, or when your tears evaporate too quickly. It's one of the most common eye conditions we see at our Melbourne dry eye clinic, affecting people of all ages but becoming more common after 50.

Dry eye has many possible causes, including meibomian gland dysfunction (blocked oil glands in the eyelids), ageing, hormonal changes such as menopause, certain medications, prolonged screen use, contact lens wear, previous eye surgery, and underlying conditions like blepharitis or autoimmune disease. A Dry Eye Assessment helps identify which of these is driving your symptoms.

Common symptoms include gritty or sandy-feeling eyes, burning or stinging, redness, sensitivity to light, blurry vision that improves with blinking, eye fatigue and, somewhat counterintuitively, watery eyes. Symptoms often build gradually, so many people put up with them for years before seeking treatment.

It sounds contradictory, but watering is one of the most common dry eye symptoms. When your eye surface becomes too dry, it triggers a reflex where your eyes over-produce watery tears to try to compensate. These reflex tears lack the oily layer needed to stay on the eye, so they run straight off without properly lubricating it. A Dry Eye Assessment can confirm whether this is what's happening for you.

For most patients, dry eye is a chronic condition rather than something that's cured outright, similar to how conditions like hay fever are managed rather than eliminated. The good news is that with the right combination of in-office treatment and consistent at-home care, most people achieve significant, lasting symptom relief.

Diagnosis goes beyond a standard eye test. At our clinic, a Dry Eye Assessment uses specialised imaging to measure your tear film stability, tear volume, meibomian gland structure and ocular surface health, giving us a clear picture of what's actually driving your symptoms rather than guessing.

Both can cause redness, irritation and watering, which makes them easy to confuse. Allergies typically involve itching as the dominant symptom and often come with sneezing or a runny nose, while dry eye tends to cause more grittiness, burning and fluctuating blurry vision. Since the two can also overlap, a proper assessment is the most reliable way to tell them apart.

Yes. An unstable tear film scatters light unevenly across the eye surface, which can cause vision to blur and clear again as you blink, particularly during reading, screen use or driving. This is different from a refractive vision problem, and it's a common reason people are referred for a Dry Eye Assessment after a standard eye test comes back normal.

Temporary dry eye is common after LASIK and similar procedures, since the surgery affects the corneal nerves that help regulate tear production. For most people this settles within a few months, but some patients have underlying dry eye that becomes more noticeable afterwards. If you're considering refractive surgery, it's worth having a Dry Eye Assessment beforehand to check your ocular surface health.

Many patients notice symptoms are worst on waking, since tear production naturally slows during sleep and the eyes can dry out overnight, especially if the eyelids don't close completely. A warm compress such as The Eye Doctor Hot Eye Compress first thing in the morning, alongside gland treatments like gland expression, can make a noticeable difference to how your eyes feel through the day.

Costs vary depending on what your eyes need. A Dry Eye Assessment is the starting point and determines your treatment plan; from there, in-office treatments like IPL, LLLT, Blephasteam, gland expression and Zest each have their own session fee, while at-home products range from affordable lubricating drops to prescription medicated therapies.

Some elements of dry eye care, such as consultations and meibomian gland expression performed by your optometrist, may attract a Medicare rebate, while others, like IPL, LLLT, Blephasteam and the Zest Lid Procedure, are typically private fees not covered by Medicare, though private health extras cover may contribute depending on your policy and provider. We recommend checking with your fund directly, and we're happy to talk through what applies to your visit.

No referral is needed. You can book a Dry Eye Assessment directly with our optometrists at Eyecare Concepts in Kew East, Melbourne, whether it's your first visit or you've been managing dry eye elsewhere and want a fresh assessment.

A Dry Eye Assessment uses specialised imaging to measure your tear film stability, gland structure and ocular surface health, alongside a discussion of your symptoms and history. It typically takes longer than a standard eye test and results in a personalised treatment plan rather than a generic recommendation.

Dry eye disease has many possible underlying causes, and getting it right requires both the diagnostic technology to identify what's driving your symptoms and access to the full range of in-office treatments, rather than just eye drops. As Melbourne's destination Dry Eye Clinic, we've built our clinic specifically around this, so your treatment plan targets the actual cause rather than a generic recommendation.