How to produce moisture chamber eyeglasses for the dry eye patient.

BACKGROUND: Moisture chambers are prosthetic devices coupled to eyeglasses that slow the evaporation of the tears from the ocular surface. The need for moisture chamber glasses is most evident when a patient suffers from Sjögren's syndrome. This disease creates a pathologically dry eye from tear anomalies. Other ocular and systemic conditions can also cause a painfully dry eye.
METHODS: The concept behind a moisture chamber is to significantly minimize the air flow over the ocular surface. The chamber provides a vapor barrier that functions passively to prevent tear evaporation. This is achieved by using a polyurethane plastic to produce a chamber contiguous with spectacles.
RESULTS: The chamber provides a humid environment behind the eyeglass lens and in front of the eye surface. Before deciding to produce a moisture chamber, one should consider the extensive time consumption involved in the production of these facially contoured customized devices.
CONCLUSIONS: It may take 3-6 hours for a technician who has not previously made a moisture chamber to construct the first one. As the proficiency increases, one may be able to streamline the process to approximately 3 hours. This approach was investigated because of the paucity of available information about the production of moisture chamber glasses and the acute need and benefit by pathological dry eye patients for these special glasses.