Good Eyelid Hygiene Can Help Mitigate Dry Eye Symptoms: Nicole Bajic, MD

Nicole Bajic, MD, ophthalmologist and assistant professor at Cleveland Clinic's Cole Eye Institute, discussed the means of treating dry eye at home, including using artificial tears, warm compresses, and making sure the area around the eye is clear of any substance that can block the glands around the eye.

The transcript was lightly edited for clarity; captions are auto-generated.

Transcript

What methods are there to treat dry eye?

We're very fortunate to be living in 2025 when there are a wide array of options for dry eye treatments. However, it is nice to start off with the bread and butter stuff. First and foremost, I think having good eyelid hygiene is really a good foundational place to start. Make sure that if you wear makeup, you should be washing your makeup off each night. I like the double cleansing method, where you use a makeup remover or micellar water to get the eye makeup off first, and then you use a facial cleanser after, to really make sure that you're removing all the makeup. Again, also with makeup, do not put it on the water line. If you're putting eyeliner on the water line, you're basically suffocating all the oil glands that need to be excreting oil into your tear film. That's a perfect setup for dry eye.

Additionally, you want to make sure that you can be doing warm compresses. As we get older, sometimes those meibomian glands we talked about with the oil, they can atrophy or shrink with age and they don't work as well as we get older. The oil can get stuck in the glands, or certain skin types can be more prone to this too. Doing warm compresses regularly can help make sure that you're making the oil more liquid so that it's easier to get into your tear film. Then artificial tears are a great adjunct, too. These are over the counter, and they're meant to be very similar to our natural tears just to help lubricate and provide more moisture and comfort and optimize our vision as well. Those are the mainstays that people can start off with at home if they think that they're having dry eye symptoms. Remember, stay away from the red eye drops. Start off with the basics first.

After that, I think it's really worth seeing an eye doctor to diagnose you, make sure that there's not something else going on, because that can make a big difference. And then even if it is still dry eye, there are so many good prescription options. But to have the best success, you need to get to the root cause of which part is the problem that's causing your dry eye.