Testing for Dry Eye Disease

TearLab® Osmolarity Testing

Dry eye disease the most common reason that patients go to the eye doctor yet it is shockingly underdiagnosed.  Your eyes require a healthy and balanced tear in order to nourish and protect the cornea. Changes in the quantity or quality of your tears can lead to damage to the cornea. 

One way of testing the tear imbalance is to measure the level of salt in the tears called the tear osmolarity.  When the osmolarity of the tear film is measured to be elevated, this is an indication of Dry Eye Disease.  Tracking the osmolarity of the tear film can be a good way of measuring the progress of treatments. 

Doctors For Visual Freedom is an Accredited Dry Eye Center of excellence.  As a part of your evaluation, you will receive a questionnaire of your symptoms which may suggest Dry Eye Disease.  Then, if indicated, your tear osmolarity can be checked with the TearLab® Osmolarity Testing.  The symptoms of dry eye may not be dry eye at all.  TearLab® Osmolarity Testing can help us better understand and treat you symptoms. 

TearLab® Osmolarity Testing requires only a tiny sample of tears from each eye and generates your osmolarity number in a few seconds.  It is quick and gives us a meaningful metric of the health and stability of the tear film.

Fill out and bring a copy of the Test to your next appointment and ask, “What is my number?”