CARMEL — Dr. John Abrams said his goal was to hopefully make a difference ophthalmology before he retires.
37 years into practicing, he may have done it.
Dr. Abrams is hoping the Tear Film Imager will do just that and help get to the root cause of what causes people to have dry eyes. The state-of-the-art machine is now in his Carmel Office called Abrams EyeCare.
“Dry eye disease is a problem where we have never had good diagnostics to figure out what the problem is and why people have dry eye,” Dr. Abrams said.
He compared dry eyes to having a back pain, adding that there are a lot of things that can cause someone to have it, but no great diagnostic.
“Now we have this new technology and it’s a camera that actually gives us the layers of the tear film,” Dr. Abrams said.
Abrams said he helped co-found a company in Israel that developed the machine that’s now being used in his office. He said he’s been working on the product for about a decade.
The machine’s goal is to hopefully get to the root cause of what causes dry eyes. Abrams says roughly 40 percent of his patients suffer from dry eyes.
“This technology is our hope is that it will give us information to help with dry eye management and my hope is that we will be able to direct our treatment instead of taking a shotgun approach,” Abrams said.
According to National Eye Institute, dry eye can happen when your eyes don’t make enough tears to stay wet, or when your tears don’t work correctly.
“These devices aren’t ready for the average eye doctor’s office, it’s the only one in private practice in the world,” Dr. Abrams said.
Kylene Polhamus, an Abrams EyeCare optometrist, said she has been using the device on patients.
“We are able to identify and target which layer of the tear film, which maybe the most dysfunctional and help target our treatments from there to help manage these patients,” Polhamus said.
Polhamus has been a part of Abrams Eye Care for the last six months, but she has worked in the industry for nearly 10 years. She said that dry eyes can come from a wide range of factors, like fluctuation in vision, irritation and redness.
“It’s kind of that light bulb moment that this makes sense, this correlates with your symptoms,” Polhamus said.
According to National Eye Institute these are some treatments if you suffer from dry eyes.
- Try to avoid smoke, wind, and air conditioning
- Use a humidifier to keep the air in your home from getting too dry
- Limit screen time and take breaks from staring at screens
- Wear wraparound sunglasses when you're outside
You can find more information here.
