Dry eyes for dental hygienists and dentists

Dental hygienists and dentists often get dry, tired eyes because the work combines hours of close, magnified focus through loupes, which cuts down blinking, with bright operatory lights, masks that push exhaled air upward, and eyewear that traps warm air. A lubricating drop between patients, after gloves come off and hands are washed, plus deliberate blink breaks and good loupe fit, can make long clinic days more comfortable.

Why dental work is hard on the eyes

Few jobs ask the eyes to hold one focal distance as precisely as chairside dentistry. Scaling, probing and restorative work keep your gaze locked on a small, bright, wet field a short distance away for most of an hour, then the next patient sits down and it starts again. Concentration lowers the blink rate, and the blinks you do make tend to be partial, so the tear film isn’t refreshed as often or as completely as it would be in conversation.

Loupes and magnification

Loupes make the field bigger and let you sit up straighter, which is good for your neck. They also fix your working distance and your gaze direction, so you stare through the same window for long stretches. Through-the-lens loupes put the optics close to your eyes, and the frame can limit airflow around them.

• Have loupes fitted to your real working distance and declination angle, so you’re not straining or leaning to find focus.
• Look up from the loupes between steps, at something across the room, and blink fully a few times.
• Clean the lenses with the method the maker recommends; smudges make you squint and concentrate harder.
• If you change prescriptions, have the loupes checked too.

Masks, shields and warm, moving air

OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens standard, 29 CFR 1910.1030, requires masks together with eye protection, such as goggles or glasses with solid side shields, or chin-length face shields, wherever splashes, spray, spatter or droplets of blood or other body fluids may be generated. In dentistry, that’s most procedures. The protection is essential, and it changes the air around your eyes.

A mask that doesn’t seal across the bridge of the nose sends warm exhaled air up behind your glasses or shield and across the eyes with every breath. Over a full schedule, that steady flow can dry the surface. A mask with a moldable nose wire, pinched to fit, keeps more of that air down. A face shield over loupes adds another layer of trapped, warm air.

Operatory lights and screens

The overhead operatory light is bright by design, and the loupe headlight many clinicians wear adds more. Bright light at close range encourages squinting, and a squint is a half-closed eye that doesn’t blink cleanly. Between patients, many offices now have you charting at a monitor, reviewing X-rays on screen or updating a periodontal chart, which is more focused screen time with fewer blinks. Screens and your tear film explains why that matters.

When to use eye drops on a clinic day

Never with gloves on, and never in the operatory with a patient in the chair. The sequence that fits a clinic’s hygiene routine is simple:

• Finish with the patient and remove gloves and eyewear following your office’s protocol.
• Wash your hands with soap and water, or use hand sanitizer as your protocol allows, and let them dry.
• Step to the staff area or a restroom, away from the aerosols of the operatory.
• Put in your drop following the label, keeping the tip from touching your eye, lashes or fingers.
• Give it a moment, then put on fresh PPE for the next patient.

Quell’s directions are Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye, so plan them around natural gaps in the day: before the first patient, at lunch and near the end of the schedule. The label’s handling line is Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination, which is second nature in a clinic but worth remembering when you’re rushing between rooms.

Where to keep the bottle at work

Not in the operatory, where it can pick up spatter and aerosol, and not near the sterilization area, where autoclaves and dryers run hot. The label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F). A staff locker or a bag in the break room usually fits that range. Keep your bottle labeled with your name, and don’t share it with coworkers; a multi-dose tip that’s been near one person’s eye shouldn’t go near another’s.

What Quell is and isn’t for

The label lists Quell’s Uses as For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. It’s designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, and its active ingredients are Glycerol (1.0%), Polysorbate 80 (1.0%) and Light Mineral Oil (0.5%). It isn’t eyewash. If something splashes into your eye during a procedure, such as a prophy paste spray, an etchant or a disinfectant, flush with the eyewash station right away and follow your office’s exposure protocol. The label doesn’t cover contact lenses or use with other eye drops; ask your own eye doctor or a pharmacist if either applies to you.

Read the full Drug Facts before you start, including the caution about egg or bird allergies. If dryness keeps up on your days off, or your eyes hurt or your vision changes, stop and get it looked at: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours. Eye symptoms that need a doctor lists what not to wait on.

Small habits that add up

• Run a desk or counter humidifier in the break room in winter, if the office allows.
• Point the operatory’s air vents away from your side of the chair.
• Use the time while a patient rinses to close your eyes for a couple of seconds.
• Drink water through the day; masks make it easy to forget.