If your eyes burn by mid-afternoon, water in the wind, or blur and clear as you blink — you're in the most common category of patient we see. Dry eye is everywhere, and the Lowcountry makes it worse.
The recipe for dry eye is sun, wind, air conditioning, and screens — and island life serves all four daily. Add the natural changes of age (tear production declines, especially for women after menopause) and certain medications (antihistamines, blood-pressure drugs, antidepressants), and it's no surprise half our exam conversations end up here.
The frustrating part for patients is that over-the-counter drops usually don't fix it — because the drop treats the symptom, not the cause.
Real dry-eye care starts with figuring out which kind you have. Aqueous-deficient dry eye means you don't make enough tears. Evaporative dry eye — far more common — means your tears evaporate too fast, usually because the meibomian glands along your lids aren't producing enough oil.
During the exam we evaluate your tear film, image the meibomian glands, watch your blink pattern, and stain the ocular surface to see exactly where it's breaking down. The cause determines the treatment.
Dr. Carrie has built her protocol around treatments that are safe for daily, long-term use: targeted lid hygiene, warm-compress routines that actually reach the glands, preservative-free lubricants matched to your tear film, and omega-3 supplementation with real dosing behind it. In-office treatments come in where indicated.
The result isn't a sample bottle — it's a plan, with a follow-up to confirm it's working. If your eyes have been quietly miserable for a year, book the conversation. It's the most solvable chronic complaint in eye care.
Every topic in the journal is a conversation we're happy to have in person. Book a visit or just walk in.
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Read →Burning, grittiness, watering (yes, watering), fluctuating vision, and eyes that feel worse at the end of the day or with contact lenses. If drops aren't fixing it, the cause is usually the oil glands, not the water.
Medical insurance typically covers dry eye visits because it's a medical condition — Aetna, BCBS, Humana, Cigna, MetLife, and Medicare among them. Call us with your card and we'll verify in minutes.
Most patients feel meaningful improvement within four to six weeks of starting a targeted plan — lid therapy, the right drops, and omega-3 support — with continued gains over several months.
