Dealing with dry eye.

Just as the name suggests, this condition makes the eyes feel dry, scratchy, and gritty. Other symptoms include burning, stinging, itching, pain, sensitivity to light, redness, blurry vision, and the feeling that there is a speck of dirt in the eye. There may also be a stringy discharge from the eyes. And though it may seem strange, dry eye can cause the eyes to water. "This can happen because the eyes are irritated," says Carolyn Begley, O.D., a professor of optometry at Indiana University in Bloomington. "You may experience excessive tearing the same way you would if something got in your eye."