Hello and thank you for joining me for the May/June edition of Optometric Management. I'm Dr. Pam Theriot, and in this issue, we talked about the use of lubricating drops to help our patients see more clearly. Having a clear tear film helps their vision stay more crisp and clear when we're doing a refraction and even affects how they see throughout the day. One other point I'd love to make for this article is that we can now use medications called neurostimulators that are on the market that help our patients make more of their own natural basal tears. The 2 medications that are FDA approved are Tyrvaya varenicline nasal spray and Tryptyr acoltremon ophthalmic solution.
Both of these medications are neurostimulators, and they work to stimulate via the trigeminal nerve to the brain and back down to the lacrimal functional unit, which includes the lacrimal gland to give us aqueous, the goblet cells which produce mucins, and the meibomian glands which release meibum or oils into the tear film. When we stimulate the lacrimal functional unit, we get a full basal tear, and that means our patients are going to have more tears in their eye. With more basal tears, they'll also have more of that oily layer, which will coat the front surface of their eye and provide them crisp and clear vision.
So, when your patients are struggling during their refractions—maybe you're asking them to blink their eyes to clear their vision—it might be time to take a break and quickly look at their tear film in the slit lamp to know whether their tear layer is low. Then we can recommend these neurostimulating medications to help our patients have more tear volume. Both these medications, Tryptyr and Tyrvaya, were shown in clinical trials to improve patients’ tear production by 10 mm more than their basal with a Schirmer's tear test, so we know our patients are getting more tears in their eyes, which translates to happier patients.
Thanks again for checking out this edition of Optometric Management.
