Tear film profile was studied in 100 consecutive patients with dry eye along with 100 age and sex matched controls. The frequency of abnormal tear function tests observed in patients with dry eye and controls was: marginal tear strip 93% and 11%, rose bengal staining 89% and 0%, lissamine green staining 87% and 0%, BUT 79% and 14%, Schirmer test 79% and 3% and fluorescein staining 69% and 0%, respectively. No significant difference was observed between tear pH of patients with dry eye and that of normal healthy subjects. A new, simple and effective objective criteria of confirming and grading dry eye based upon a points scoring system derived from the results of various tear film tests is suggested.