Dry Eye Clinic
Austin air can be brutal.
Your eyes shouldn't suffer for it.
Cedar season, constant air conditioning, endless screen time, and some of the most aggressive pollen in the country — Central Texas is genuinely hard on eyes. If yours feel dry, gritty, burning, or just perpetually irritated, you’re not imagining it. And drugstore drops are probably not fixing it.
Dry eye is a medical condition. It usually comes down to poor tear quality, blocked oil glands in your eyelids, or chronic inflammation — and the fix depends entirely on which one you’re dealing with. We figure that out first, then build a plan around what your eyes actually need.
You might have dry eye and not know it.
Most people don’t walk in saying their eyes are dry. They say their eyes are bothered by wind. That they blink constantly at a computer. That air conditioning makes them miserable. That they can’t wait to take their contacts out at the end of the day. That their eyes are just always a little red.
Some patients say their eyes water constantly — which sounds like the opposite of dry eye, but paradoxical tearing is one of the most common dry eye symptoms there is. Your eyes water because they’re trying to compensate for a poor tear film. It’s dry eye. It just doesn’t look like it.
Other signs people
don't always connect:
Blurry vision that comes and goes throughout the day
Eye fatigue or heaviness by afternoon
Eyes that hurt or feel crusty in the morning
Stringy or mucousy discharge
Contacts that used to feel fine but don't anymore
Finding the source.
We don’t guess. We look — at your eyes and at the bigger picture.
- Tear film quality — not just quantity, but stability and composition
- Meibomian gland function — the oil glands that keep tears from evaporating too fast
- Blink rate and completeness — incomplete blinking is a major and often overlooked cause
- Inflammatory markers — chronic dry eye involves inflammation that artificial tears don't touch
- Hormonal factors — perimenopause, menopause, thyroid disease, and birth control are all common dry eye drivers that often go unconnected
- Systemic conditions — Sjögren's syndrome, ocular rosacea, and other autoimmune conditions frequently manifest as dry eye
- Post-LASIK changes — dry eye after LASIK is common and very treatable
- Nocturnal lagophthalmos — sleeping with your eyes slightly open causes significant overnight drying that patients rarely suspect
- Contact lens fit and material — sometimes dry eye is actually a lens problem in disguise
How we treat it.
- Low-Level Light Therapy (LLLT) — red light therapy that reduces inflammation and stimulates meibomian gland function. One of our favorite tools and not something most practices offer.
- Meibomian gland expression — hands-on treatment to clear blocked oil glands and restore healthy tear film
- Zocular Zest — a plant-based in-office treatment for lid irritation, blepharitis, and demodex
- Scleral lenses for dry eye — for patients with significant dry eye, scleral lenses create a fluid reservoir over the cornea that provides all-day relief where drops and drops alone can't
- Prescription therapy — anti-inflammatory drops including Restasis, Xiidra, and Miebo, tailored to your specific condition
- Omega-3 supplementation — not all supplements are equal; we recommend specific formulations with clinical evidence behind them
- Warm compresses and lid hygiene regimens — targeted at-home care to keep things in check between visits
What about allergies?
A lot of patients come in saying they have seasonal allergies. Then we ask what season. The answer is usually — all of them.
Eye allergies and dry eye often overlap, and treating one without addressing the other rarely works. We evaluate what’s actually driving your symptoms — whether that’s environmental allergens, contact lens reactions, or something else entirely — and manage it accordingly. For patients whose allergies go beyond what we can best address in-office, we refer to the right specialist. But we stay involved, because your eyes are still our department.
Your eyes shouldn't be red all the time.
That's not just something to live with.
LOOK + SEE Vision Care's Dry Eye Clinic provides comprehensive dry eye treatment and ocular allergy care in Austin, Texas.
We evaluate and treat chronic dry eye syndrome, Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD), aqueous deficient dry eye, evaporative dry eye, blepharitis, demodex, ocular rosacea, Sjögren’s syndrome, post-LASIK dry eye, hormone-related dry eye, perimenopause and menopause-related dry eye, thyroid eye disease, nocturnal lagophthalmos, and allergy-related eye irritation. Our in-office treatments include Low-Level Light Therapy (LLLT), meibomian gland expression, Zocular Zest lid treatments, and scleral lens fitting for dry eye, alongside prescription therapies including Restasis, Xiidra, and Miebo. We also fit scleral lenses for patients with significant dry eye who need more than drops can offer. If you’re searching for dry eye treatment in Austin, relief for watery eyes, help with contacts that no longer feel comfortable, or answers for eyes that are just always irritated — we’d love to help. We see patients from South Austin, Central Austin, East Austin, Westlake, Buda, Kyle, and across the greater Austin area.