Siepser Dry Eye Model

The Siepser Dry Eye model provides the opportunity to finally get your patients to touch, see and feel the ravages of dry eye disease (DED). This model helps patients to understand why their eyes feel gritty, blurred and irritated. By asking the patient to rub their fingers over the lower part of this cornea model they immediately understand how the rough surface they feel with their fingers is analogous to how their eyes feel when they blink. The loss of clarity that occurs with Dry Eye Disease is easily explained with the “corneal haze” part of the model cornea. Now surgeons can explain to patients why their post cataract vision might be affected by the haze that develops with DED. Any type of ocular surgery exacerbates the symptoms of DED. Cataract, LASIK, or infection all cause more symptoms and blurring. The hyperemic conjunctiva is associated with the roughness and irritation and restoring a normal surface to the cornea can reduce conjunctival inflammation and hyperemia. A picture is worth a thousand words, a model communicates in another dimension, squaring the mathematical model!