Dry eyes is a condition when your tears don’t provide a sufficient amount of lubrication to your eyes. In most people, dry eyes can last from few weeks to months. But, if left untreated, dry eyes can lead to several complications. In this article, we are going to discuss some of the probable complications of dry eyes.

1. Corneal ulcer
A corneal ulcer is one of the complications of dry eyes. It is an open sore that, as the name suggests, develops on your cornea, which is the outer protective layer of your eyes. As mentioned above, when tears are not properly formed, your eyes may not be able to wash away debris and dirt that may subsequently scratch the surface of your cornea. Things can worsen if bacteria get into the scratch, which may further lead to a corneal ulcer.

2 . Difficulty in doing daily activities
There are several day-to-day activities, which you might find hard to do if you leave dry eyes untreated. Such activities include driving or reading. With untreated dry eyes, you may develop blurry vision, or worse, you may even develop double vision. Often, people misconstrue blurry vision caused by dry eyes with loss of vision.

3. Conjunctivitis
If left untreated, dry eyes can soon lead to inflammation of the conjunctiva, which in medical terms is called conjunctivitis. More specifically, the conjunctiva is the layer of cells that covers the inner surface of the eyelids and the white part of the eyeball. Common symptoms include sensitivity to light, redness, and feeling gritty in the eyes.

4. Blindness
Permanent blindness is one of the long-term complications of dry eyes. As discussed above, untreated dry eyes can cause a lot of damage to the cornea. This can soon lead to vision loss, and eventually, you might even become blind. The blindness due to dry eyes can also be attributed to the fact that it also ups the risk of attaining infections.

5. Inability to wear contacts
There is a connection between contact lenses and tears. For your contact lenses to feel comfortable, your eyes need to produce enough amount of tears. In the absence of adequate tears, your contacts can become dry; this may further lead to redness, irritation, and a gritty sensation. Dry contacts may stick to your eyeballs, and then it can become difficult to remove them. In the long run, if you don’t get dry eyes treated on time, you might have to say goodbye to contact lenses forever.

Tears are necessary for the health of your eye. They help wash away the debris that causes eye irritation and lubricate your eyes. Considering the complications, if dry eyes persist for an extended period, you should not delay a visit to an eye specialist.