Does anyone have this? Earlier this year my eyes started hurting a lot where when i woke up in the morning, it had crusts etc and i basically could not open my eyes… lot of pain. So each time i woke up, i had to go to bathroom and put water on my eyes so i could open my eyes. I also wear contacts and worn contacts for over 8 years. I basically couldn’t wear contacts b/c when i get the pain in my eye, i have to take off my contacts and wear my glasses. So ever night i would get the pain and its very painful and i would get a paper towel and wet it with water and wipe my eyes with it so i won’t get any pain. This happened everyday to the point where it hurt way too much and then i decided to go and see an eye doctor. I thought this was some temporary eye pain etc and then when i saw the eye doctor, i was told i had blepharitis… of course i had no clue what that is.
I was told by my eye doctor to do warm compresses with a towel in the morning and at night and i was given some eye drops. When i used those eye drops… the bottle was very very tiny but it seemed like the first few days i thought i cured this condition b/c i no longer got this eye pain after a few days. Then i ran out of the eye drop and then i started getting the same eye pain over and over. I was told that these eyedrops… u can’t take it long term so that isn’t an option.
I then researched a ton online and read that blepharitis isn’t cureable which got me very upset. Even the eye doctor said there isn’t anything you can do for it, basically no cure but you can do these things to keep your blepharitis from not being that bad. I then bought some ocusoft lid cleanser eye wipes and i did it at morning and night… after few nights, i didn’t have this eye pain anymore. Of course few days later on, it came back. I then used it for months and it does help but i still have blepharitis so sometimes i might not get the pain one day but then next day i would get it few times a day. I then tried ocusoft foam cleanser. Again this seemed to help out a lot but after few days still i would get the blepharitis pain again.
Its been close to 1 year already and well it seems like there is no hope for it. I read online about some ppl mention you use baby shampoo but many say it doesn’t work at all or made it worst. I then read an article about a guy who had blepharitis his whole life… but then he cured it with honey. I was going to try this but i read a few ppl mention you could cause a ton of pain in your eye if you do this so i haven’t tried.
I then recently read an article about a new solution called blephex where an eye doctor would use this pen and wipe/clean your eyelids and this procedure is pretty cheap… like $150-200 where the doctor cleans your eyes and you need to do this every 3-6 months or so and its a 15 minute and painful procedure. Has anyone tried this procedure and can give their opinion of it?
Has anyone here have blepharitis? I read a lot about dry eye syndrome and blepharitis is a form of dry eye syndrome. I never ever had anything like this until earlier this year and blepharitis has got to be one of the worst conditions you can have. I have gotten very depressed b/c of this condition and i read online lot of ppl who have it feel the same way. I basically can’t wear contacts anymore and have to wear glasses and even when i do wear it, a few times during the day my eyes would get really painful and i need to get a towel with water and wipe both of my eyes.
Medical advice is best suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Have you been continuing with the warm compresses followed by gentle rubbing-away of any eye “debris” from the lids? This appears to be a chronic condition in your case and needs to be managed as such. The warm compresses will help soothe the eyes as well as loosen up any “gunk” that accumulates.
Yes, I have blepharitis. It is chronic, and it isn’t going away. However, by keeping up the treatment regimen, I don’t suffer the symptoms.
Warm, moist compresses are necessary morning and night. “Artificial tears”-type eyedrops for when it’s particularly bad or when I get lazy about the regimen (I use GenTeal).
My blepharitis is due to my chronic acne, which is under control by medication. If I skip my acne medication, my blepharitis will flare up too. And it flares up if I get a breakout in the brow region.
I have no problem with contacts.
Pauly01, you mention several times in your OP that you’ve tried several different regimens for blepharitis, which work to clear up the symptoms, and which then stop working when you stop the treatment. The solution here is gobsmackingly obvious: don’t stop the treatments.
I have blepharitis and know quite a bit about the subject. I highly recommend checking out this forum which goes into causes and treatments of blepharitis. For example, do you have meibomian gland dysfunction?
The meibomian gland is how acne ties in to blepharitis – their sebaceous ducts get plugged up the same way that pores do from acne. Thereby leading to insufficient lubrication of the eyes (no sebaceum in your tears), which irritates the eye = blepharitis.
Man, it was like trying to read a newspaper through a shower curtain. I have tried baby shampoo because I’m a cheapskate, but it was not as all as effective as SteriLid. Still some reduction in clarity, but now I’m not just doomed waiting for the other eye to fog out and try to make a living reciting epic poetry door to door.
Hi Pauly01,
I have been suffering from blepharitis for years and I pretty much tried all the options out there.
I even did some essential oil treatments and homeopathic herbs after visiting a Chinese doctor in San Diego. Non of the regimens really worked for blepharitis and I ended up going back to warm compresses and baby shampoo.
I also did my on-line research and I am going to try the blephex scrub this afternoon.
My doctor told me that it is not painful but of course I am a little anxious.
I am going to post an update tonight and let you know more details about this treatment.
All right… I got my blephex treatment yesterday. I was sweating bullets over it the whole afternoon but the good news is that it was completely painless!
Before the cleaning the doctor put numbing drops in my eyes and told me that it will only take few minutes.
The device looked like a shiny pen and was really quiet when on. It felt almost like a nice massage on my lower lid, on the upper one it was much more ticklish due to my amazingly long lashes lol:D
My eyes were still numb from the drops when the treatment was over but I could tell that my lids felt not sticky and very light.
When I got up this morning I didn’t have the usual mess around my eyes and for some reason I felt much more awake.
I am going back in ten days for re-evaluation and in the meantime I am supposed to wash my eyelids twice a day to maintain the effects of the in office cleaning.
Before I can do that I have to buy an eyelid cleanser at my local pharmacy store. I wish the doctor would have it at her office as a giveaway after the treatment. It would definitely save me some time and a few bucks.
I forgot to mention the most important aspect, the cost…it was $65 per eye, $130 total.
So far I am very pleased with the outcome but I will wait a while and then post an update.
matt where did you do the procedure? Is it san diego? Name of your doctor if you dont mind?
Yea i have read that the procedure is very painless… im surprised that you didn’t read about this previously? Because of youtube it mentions the procedure doesnt hurt just tickles and thats all.
Do you wear glasses or contacts? Yea i read its only $150-200 for the procedure and that sounds way too good to be true if this procedure if done once every x amount of 3 or 6 months helps a lot.
Do you have acne by any chance? I assume you probably dont? So during the day you would get the pain in the eye like i mention right? Because if this procedure means no more pain in the eye, then i would go do it asap. So the doctor said okay now since you did this procedure you have to wash your eyelid twice a day i assume to maintain it otherwise this procedure wouldn’t be effective?
Im curious but what eyelid cleanser are you buying? Currnet one i use is ocusoft eyelid cleanser and i put it on a paper towel and then wipe my eyelids with it.
You just did the warm compress or baby shampoo twice a day before doing this i assume? Did you ever skip a day? I assume you cant because if you do then the blepharitis would hurt more? Im curious how long have you had it for and do you know what could have caused this? Because for me i think my acne was a cause of this and someone here mentioned he knew his cause was acne.
Have you tried Cetaphil? That’s what I use to manage a very mild case. Had it since I was a kid, started washing my eyes morning and night with Cetaphil, and only now have problems if I go more than a few days without (like if I’m camping or something). I also wipe my eyes with almond oil each night just because it seems like a good idea, YMMV, consult your doctor etc etc.
Though to be honest with you guys I’m not even totally sure I have blepharitis, because my diagnosis was such a long time ago. Nonetheless I’m ruthless about my eye care and if I neglect it my eyes start getting just a bit crusty and gooey and sting a bit in the mornings.
In terms of what Lightray said above, I treat eye care like caring for my teeth. I have to do it, morning and night, forever. There’s never going to be a point when I can think “Ok thats done”. It just is.
Now go floss while you are thinking about it.
Anyone else?
I tried wet ones and it seemed to clear my blepharitis after using it for few months. However my blepharitis came back.
You found something that worked. The symptoms later recurred. Why haven’t you tried it again?
ETA: ***Wet Ones??? ***Are they safe for ocular usage? That sounds nuts! How about cleansing your eyes with something intended for eyes?
I was diagnosed years ago and my symptoms were a feeling of grittiness in my eyes. My eye doctor suggested a daily routine of cleaning my eyelids with a solution of water and baby shampoo using a Q-Tip. I never did that but did begin daily cleaning while in the shower by placing a small amount of baby shampoo on a washcloth and gently cleaning my eyelids. This worked for me to treat what I consider a mild condition.
I also recently switched to a dandruff shampoo and it certainly helped as well.
yes, I do.
I did try it again. It worked but then blepharitis came back yet again. Also i seem to have irritated my eyes with it so i stopped it for a bit.
As to why im using it, someone on a very popular messageboard told me they and someone else used this for many months and it made their blepharitis completely disappear. Many others have said the wet ones helped. When i used it for a bit, i felt like i didn’t have blepharitis anymore and then it came back.
I did use eye scrubs like ocusoft etc. It does help a bit but then it isn’t as effective as the wet ones b/c it has that special ingredient in it.
Blepharitis for some of us is a never ending battle. I’ve never found anything that gets rid of it forever and ever amen.
When I start to feel it (I get it about twice a year, with no rhyme or reason or predictability) I make a tisane (herbal tea) of echinacea, goldenseal and eyebright, and then a steep a black teabag in it. Let it cool a few minutes and then put the teabag on my closed eyelid for about 15 minutes. I also drink the tea, 'cause why not? I repeat that a few times a day and it soothes instantly and reduces my outbreak to a day or two instead of a week.
There are several possible root causes of blepharitis. You should see your doctor and ask which one you have, and what you should do for ongoing treatment.
I saw the eye doctor already. They don’t know what is the cause of it. The thing is they said it coudl be because of bacteria, or it could be because of acne or it could be because of sebhoric dermititus.
I have a lot of dry eye related problems, one of which is marginal keratitis (eye ulcers). After finally working out what the problem was, my doc prescribed % Carmellose sodium drops which I just use “as needed”, as well as artifical tears which are also used as required.
The other treatment I have is a thick ointment to use at night (I’m in the UK so the product name won’t necessarily mean much to you ) which needs to be cleaned off in the morning (with dilute baby shampoo and a cotton bud).
When I’m travelling, I also take sterile eye wipes and a tube of chloramphenicol anti-biotic ointment which would at least deal with the pain of a new ulcer while I was sourcing some kind of medical treatment.