Dear Colleagues:

Every one of us is all too familiar with the various ocular surface disease states with which our patients routinely present. Whether it be allergy, conjunctivitis, dry eye or keratitis, eyecare practitioners are constantly faced with the task of sifting through the available literature and data in an effort to find the best approaches to treating and managing these conditions.

The four of us agreed to come together to talk about our experiences, cases and pearls for several different ocular disease states, starting with allergy, in an attempt to reach a consensus on the most effective ways to address these conditions in the typical optometric practice. Our discussion regarding new paradigms in the understanding and management of ocular allergy, summarized here and updated since the original release of this series in 2008, is heavily evidence-based with the thought that it may serve as a useful reference for the busy clinician.

We had the greater good of the profession in mind while compiling this information and we hope you find the end result to be beneficial. Finally, we would like to thank Bausch + Lomb for providing the support needed to put this project together.

— The Authors