What Is The Purpose And Relevance Of Use Of Schirmer Tear Test Strips?

Eyes have to perform a lot of functions like creating tears, defining colors and making us see the world. Any problem in its functionality hampers our smooth life. Dry eye is one of the problems many people come across. They visit doctors to find cause of fewer tears and doctors use different eye strips to find the reason.

Before moving on to the purpose and relevance of schirmer test strips, it is important to understand what it is. Tear production is one of the normal functions of eyes, but when your eyes shows any imbalance in this process, doctors have to use these tear test strips to find the cause of too less or more tear production. These strips are basically used for the patients suffering from dry eye conditions.

You might hear ophthalmologists using various other names for schirmer’s test like dry eye test, tear test or Basal secretion test. Whatever is the name, schirmer tear test strips are the important tool used to diagnose eye conditions. Some of the major causes of dry eyes or fewer tears or excess tear, which the physician can find out with the help of strips include:

• Aging

• Infection

• Eye surgery

• Leukemia

• Sjogren syndrome

• Blocked tear ducts

• Ingrown eyelashes

• Conjunctivitis

• Reaction to certain medicines

How to use schirmer’s test strip?

A strip with plastic sleeve is first bent below a rounded tip within the packaging to avoid any contamination. The bent schirmer teat test strip’s rounded tip is inserted in the lower eyelid and left there for exact one minute. Dye migration down the strip visualizes tear production, which the doctors record as mm/minute.

If you wear contact lenses, you should remove them. And make sure you don’t use lenses at least for two hours even after the test is conducted. To prevent your eyes from watering in reaction to the test, the optometrist puts numbing drops in eyes, which might create temporary irritation or stinging in eyes.

Benefits of schirmer tear test:

Ignorance of irritation, inflammation and pain in the eye can create serious eye problems like damage to the cornea, corneal ulceration and even blindness. So early diagnosis of the problem with proper test strips, help optometrist find the problem and suggest right treatment. It also prevents further damage and helps you see the world clearly.

Once doctors find the missing component causing the tearing problem, they suggest different treatment options to ease the discomfort. If the problem is not very serious, simple eye drops and lubricants can be the solution, but for serious problems doctors might also ask you for eye surgery.

Some doctors might also suggest you change in your diet to balance the deficiency of components through proper food items rich in Omega-3s. The best technique to avoid any such problem is regular consultation with the optometrist and ophthalmologists.

The writer of this article has deep knowledge about different eye problems and ophthalmic surgical instruments. Presently he is associated with Ophtechnics Unlimited – a leading manufacturer and supplier of surgical instruments like ophthalmic blades, PVA sponge etc.

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