OT  focuses on… Dry eye

Improving compliance

A new company, TearRestore, is aiming to simplify the treatment of dry eye through warm compresses with the launch of new open-eye reusable heat packs.

The company was founded to address the challenges of treating dry eye with warm compresses, particularly when it comes to maintaining heat and ensuring compliance. The company highlighted that using warm compresses can be a time-consuming task, suggesting that when performed daily, a patient could spend almost four full days a year “blindfolded” while performing the treatment. To address this, TearRestore heat packs target the meibomian glands, while still allowing the users to see throughout the treatment.

The product is available for optometrists and practitioners through an online portal, as an affiliate or through distribution partners. TearRestore also emphasised its aim to partner with eye care professionals.

A suite of tools

Topcon introduced its Myah tool in Europe, aiming to support practices in building, managing and growing both myopia and dry eye services in practice.

In addition to axial length measurement, corneal topography and dynamic pupillometry to support myopia management, the Myah device incorporates a suite of dry eye assessment tools. These include non-invasive Tear Break-up Time, Meibomian gland imaging with the area of loss analysis, tear meniscus height analysis, blink analysis, real fluorescein imaging and video acquisition, and video review of anterior corneal aberrations between blinks.

The Myah device recently won the 2020 Silmo D’Or Award in the Material/Equipment category, recognising its versatility and ease of use.

The company comments: “The all-in-one Myah provides all the critical instrumentation needed to support myopia management while also offering an evolving platform to add or grow dry eye management.”

Improving symptoms

Positive Impact has highlighted its punctal plugs as an effective strategy for IP-qualified optometrists in reducing tear drainage, helping improve dry eye symptoms and retaining patient loyalty. The company offers two types of plug: The Silicone Punctal Plug Parasol and The Painless Plug.

The Silicone Punctal Plug Parasol is available in four sizes and features a non-dilating design. The company suggests its size range, and novel hollow nose ensures ease of fitting.

The Painless Plug, meanwhile, is shaped like a bulb and stretched over an inserter, minimising the need for dilation. When released from the inserter, the bulb expands into the punctum, securing it in place.

Maxine Green, managing director for Positive Impact, highlighted that punctal occlusion can be an effective strategy for contact lens induced dry eye, adding: “We have found that patients fitted with our removable punctum plugs take out their contact lenses on average less than once a week due to dryness compared to several times a week prior to being plugged. Patients were also far less reliant on eye drops to relieve their dry eye symptoms.”

Broadening service

This autumn, Essilor announced it had taken on sole distribution of the IDRA dry eye diagnostic tool by SBM Sistemi. The device performs a full assessment of the ocular surface, through a series of tests including assessing the quality of tears and analysis of the meibomian glands, in order to classify the type of dry eye disease.

Speaking on the announcement, Tim Precious, managing director at Essilor, highlighted that dry eye is a “clear growth area” for practices, adding: “Practices looking to broaden their services should consider a dry eye clinic to help existing patients and attract new customers through the doors.”

The company suggests the IDRA could be used alongside Essilor’s TearStim Dry Eye treatment for a complete diagnosis and treatment service for patients living with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD).