Tear Film/Corneal Question

[cabinman]

Hi All,

The past year has brought me some new eye related problems. I am a 29/yo male and last Oct I started to get floaters. In May of 2009 I started noticing blue field entoptic phenomenon.

Recently I've been having very bad glare, halo's starbursts. When I blink (day or night) I get what looks like a slight double vision and large streaks of light reflected downward. This can be mid-day when my pupil's are constricted or at night when they aren't. My eyes are much more sensitive now to bright lights and glare and any direct light causes me to look away or intefere's with my vision.

I know the floaters, BFEP and sensitivity aren't related to tear film, but even the slightest closing of my eye lids cause these large streaks to form. It's like any slight blink whatsoever, or tilting my head up or down causes it.

Could this be a tear film problem? Out everything this is by far the most annoying and troubling symptoms.

I've had retinal exams by retinal specialists, seen by corneal specialists and had a corneal topography done and everything is said to be "normal".

My hope is to find a Dr that may specialize in tear file makeup and see if mine is not what it should be. My eyes are constantly dry and irritated as well (in front of a computer all day for work). My schermer test came back OK, but they still feel dry and irriatated all the time.

Does anyone have any information on this? Thank you all!

[SimonHurst]

Did you ever find an
Answer for this

[JohnHaganMD]

Why don't you make a new post. This is 8 years old

[tlow93]

Hey, did you ever find out what it was? I have the exact same thing you described and I'm worried because after 4 months of warm compresses over my eyes and still no change.

[JohnHaganMD]

Why don't you make a new post. This is 8 years old

[PaulF123]

Hi are you or anyone else having these problems stil. I am having the same oroblens also which seemed to start 2 months after lasik. Eyes seem really dry and irratated especially through night and in the morning but not showing to be very dry when tested . I have no refraction error and vision is 20/20 but the starburst and light steaking seems to be getting worse. Can anyone help?

[cabinman]

I don't know for sure if it could be or could not be - I have seen stories of people with tear film issues where the surface of their cornea starts to break down prematurely. In my case my refraction was fine and my cornea looks good. Schirmer test results were also good.

My starbursting is the same. As I start to close my eyes the suddenly appear, and appear big. From the source of light all the way down to the bottom of my vision in all angles. Sames goes for the vertical double vision. Halo's are there all the time at night and eyelid movement does not affect that.

[VC89]

I have really long rays starburst when looking at street light and disappears with my eyes wide open. The ghosting double vision on top of the original object disappears with eyes wide open and blink. Could this be a tear film issue??
Also seeing halos

[cabinman]

Turns out my glare, halo and starbursting are related to an un-diagnosed neurological or systemic issue.

Just had my eyes checked up again last week and we're still "normal".

[VC89]

did u find any cures for it?

[coxblox]

The problem is that there are not many doctors that deal with dry eye symptoms. I've come to the conclusion that opthalmologists are practically useless when it comes to these issues (they seem best versed on problems of the retina only). Optometrists fare better of the ones i've seen but even then, their knowledge mostly extends to dispensing refractive glasses.

I'm not sure if there are dry eye specialists in the UK, maybe a corneal specialist maybe able to help me better? I'm not entirely sure though based on your previous experiences with one.

The tear film as far as I know is made up of three layers of which the most important component is the oil layer to provide a smooth surface for better optics. I want to leave the tetracycline antibiotics as a last resort so I will do a 2 month stint of 3000mg/day of flaxseed oil as I've read that it can be as effective as doxycycline (similar to tetracycline) for treating dry eye conditions without all the side effects of strong antibiotics. If that fails to yield any positive results then I'll try the antibiotics as I find it highly coincidental that all this started when I picked up an infection.

[cabinman]

Thanks coxbloc,

Any idea on a type of doctor that would specialize in tear film makeup? Wonder if it would be a type of opthamologist or a different type of doctor as it may be how your body handles the makeup of the tear film.

Does anyone know what makes up tear film? Is it an oil, collagen, etc?

[coxblox]

cabinman, it would appear your symptoms started exactly the same as mine with an onset of floaters. Also, yes I have to agree that of all the symptoms i' have which includes, constant eye soreness, floaters, afterimages, etc...the most disturbing by far is the ghosted vision and with it starbursts (traffic lights at night just look like giant honeycombs about 10x the size of what i remembering them look like).

For months now after checks, tests etc I am now 100% positive this is a tear film problem (not so much break up time but general composition) as on rare days I will wake up with crystal clear vision the way i remember it but then with each blink the ghosting starts shifting around and it may take several blinks to get it back to perfect focus but then i blink again and ghosting starts moving about!

eye drops don't work so i'm at a loss as to what this all means i just know, i'm pretty sure it;s reversible. i might try and get some tetracycline antibiotic eyedrops as i'm sure this all started with an infection i picked up that gave me a slight rash on my shoulder.

[cabinman]

Hi Dr. O.

I believe I had one at my last appt at the cornea Dr. He said I had no refractive error, if that's what you are referring to. Basically they had me look into a machine at a picture for a few seconds, per eye and that was the refraction test. Does that sound like what you're referring to?

Thanks you.

[Ray T Oyakawa, MD]

Did your get a refraction?  This could be related to a change in refraction.

Dr. O.