The Schirmer’s test is used determine if your tear glands produce enough tears to keep your eyes adequately moist.
Before the test, you may be given numbing eye drops to prevent your eyes from tearing due to irritation. Small strips of non-toxic filter paper are placed within the lower eyelid of both eyes. You will be asked to keep your eyes gently closed for 5 minutes. At the conclusion of the test, the paper strips are removed from each lower eyelid and the amount of wetting on the paper strips is measured.
Wetting of less than 5 mm is indicative of low tear production. However, this is not necessarily diagnostic of Sjögren’s disease as the results need to be correlated with other findings to determine if you have a dry eye syndrome.
