70% of Americans now suffer from serious ocular surface disases, such as dry eye syndrome. In 2000, dry eye syndrome was reserved for a limited group of post-menopausal women and Sjogren’s Syndrome sufferers.
But, the evolution of smart phone use has caused a silent epidemic to emerge. The U.S. now has 40 million dry eye sufferers and virtually all smart phone users will experience discomfort caused by dry eye symptoms.
Peeq Pro has a solution. The number one way to solve this problem – wash or “peeq” your eyelids.
Peeq Pro was founded by two optometrists, Dr. Cheryl Chapman and Dr. Chris Wolfe, because they realized that people do not clean their eyelids. The company is built on the belief that every person with a smart phone should wash their eyelids as frequently as they brush their teeth.
Blink Rate Is the Problem
Humans have changed their behavior over the last twenty years. We have stopped blinking at a “normal” rate. When a person looks at a smart phone, they blink about 30% of their normal rate. This has had devastating consequence on the viewer’s eyes.
70% of adult Americans have dry eye. This represents tens of millions of people. In 2000, there were only about 3 million sufferers. The biggest cause is the evolution of smart phone usage.
Specifically, not blinking is directly linked to a broad array of categories called ocular surface diseases. The two largest diseases – dry eye syndrome and meibomian gland dysfunction – get short-handed in real life as “dry eye”.
Dry eye now affects millions of Americans. In fact, 70% of adult Americans have dry eye. Dry eye’s primary symptom is general eye discomfort. As of 2021, the number one reason for going to see the eye doctor is no longer blurry vision – it is discomfort. While not all discomfort is caused by dry eye, dry eye incidence has increased from essentially non-existent in the general population to virtually every one in twenty years.
Peeq Pro follows a clinically approved approach to dry eye treatment as a general starting point – often referenced by eye doctors as TFOS DEWS II.
The steps are to wash eyelids every day, use a warm compress daily, and use eye drops to help relieve symptoms as they appear. The goal is to ultimately improve the functioning of the eyelids without moving to more aggressive treatements – such as surgery or prescription drugs.
These problems affect almost every American today, and yet, there is very little discussion about the problem.
Changing Society
Peeq Pro wants to change that. The founding doctors have worked with their spouses to build a company that is now selling products across North America, including their patent-pending novel product, the Peeq Waiva.
Co-founder, Tom Chapman, the CEO, recently returned from Techstars in Fort Worth, Texas. He told mug.news: “Peeq Pro wants to transform the way people think about their eye health. It starts with eyelid hygiene. Every person should peeq their eyelids.”
“People think about their habits as they exist today, not how they started. The reason that people brush their teeth is because their parents forced them to when they were young.” Chapman believes that the opportunity around peeqing eyelids is a multi-billion dollar one. This is why the experienced entrepreneur is focused on building Peeq Pro into a global brand that dominates the ocular hygiene industry.
Peeq Pro is one of the most exciting startups to emerge in Nebraska in the last couple of years. Mug.news has covered this company a number of times, so check out some of our other coverage.
To purchase products from Peeq Pro – check out their website at https://peeqpro.com.
