Setting up dry eye assessment appointments

A dry eye assessment needs its own appointment type, separate from a routine eye exam: more time, a symptom questionnaire completed beforehand, a structured look at the tear film and eyelids, and a clear home care plan the patient can follow. Ask patients to come without eye make-up and without using eye drops for a few hours beforehand, if that fits your protocol. Book a follow-up a few weeks later to see whether the plan works, and refer to an ophthalmologist when the findings go beyond what you manage. A dedicated slot turns a vague complaint into a plan the patient can act on.

Dry eye symptoms — grittiness, burning, watery eyes, blurred vision that clears on blinking — come up during routine exams, but there's rarely time to investigate them properly in a standard slot. Patients leave with a bottle of drops and no explanation, and come back unhappy. A separate, longer appointment lets you find likely causes, explain them, and agree on a plan.

Go through the questionnaire together, then examine the eyelids and lashes, the glands along the lid margins, the tear film and the surface of the eye with the tests you use. Look for contributing factors: blinking habits at the screen, lens wear, environment. Explain what you see in plain words, including what you can't be sure about.

Give a short written plan the patient can actually follow: which drops or gels and how often, lid hygiene if relevant, screen breaks, humidity at home or at work. Keep it to a few steps; a long list tends to be abandoned within a week.

People who spend long hours at a screen blink less and less completely. Suggest simple habits — regular breaks, looking into the distance, adjusting the screen height and the air flow at the desk — and check whether their glasses suit screen distance. Small changes at work can matter as much as drops.

Dry eye and lens wear can go together. Review the lens type, the wearing time and the care solution; a change of lens material or a switch to daily lenses may help. Agree on reduced wearing time while the plan takes effect, and check again at the follow-up.

Refer to an ophthalmologist or the patient's doctor when you see signs beyond your scope, when symptoms suggest an underlying condition, or when the plan hasn't helped after a fair trial. Send your findings with the referral.

Book a follow-up a few weeks later, long enough for the plan to have an effect. Repeat the questionnaire, re-examine, and adjust. Patients whose symptoms have improved may then need only occasional reviews; those who haven't improved may need a change of approach or a referral.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page. Create a dry eye assessment service and a follow-up service, and open slots for each at their length, one place per slot; repeat them each week on chosen weekdays until a date. Patients book online without an account and receive a confirmation email. Put the preparation instructions in the service description, so they read them before booking. At the end of the assessment, book the follow-up yourself from your calendar: first and last name are required, email and phone optional.

Durations and prices are examples: set your own. Patients can't move bookings online: they contact you, you reschedule or cancel from your bookings list and tell them yourself, since Book doesn't email clients about changes. Book handles appointments only; it doesn't store clinical records or take payments. It costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.