SEATTLE - If you're thinking about getting corrective eye surgery, dry eye syndrome can complicate recovery.

Left undiagnosed, it may even disqualify you from getting the procedure.

But a few small drops can make a big difference in detecting the problem.

Imagine sandpaper scraping across your eye. That's how dry eye syndrome feels to Mary Liggett.

"It's kind of a grittiness and an itchiness. But then if you rub, it's kind of a grittiness and there will be like a discharge in your eye," she said.

Mary has Sjogren's Syndrome, a condition that affects the body's moisture-producing glands.

"I might be crying and boo-hooing up a storm, but I just didn't have enough moisture to produce tears," she said.

Ophthalmologist James McCulley uses a lissamine to detect dry eye syndrome.

"It stains cells that have either died or dried out," he said.

He believes this stain is the key to detecting dry eye early, before the problem gets worse.

If it is an early dry eye, the part of the ocular surface to stain is the white of the eye near the nose. The next stage in development of severity is to add to that staining of the white of the eye out toward the ear. And the third is the cornea.

"It's just a momentary sting when they first put it in. But it's interesting, because the world changes colors," he said.

Artificial tear drops are the most common treatment for dry eye. If untreated, dry eye can lead to infections and vision problems.

Symptoms of dry eye syndrome include crying without tears and always feeling you have something in your eye. More than 10 million Americans lack sufficient moisture in their eyes.