warm compresses causing more dryness?

[dryeyes2]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had the experience of the warm compresses actually causing their dry eye to feel worse? I don't mean gritty or anything like that, but feeling more dry? I have been trying serum tears for close to a month and a half. They seem to work ok. Not great, not a cure all, but ok. At this point, I am not sure they are worth the expense and hassle. I still need the moisture chambers and depending on the environment I am in (low humidity or high air circulation) I still have problems. I talked to the doc and she said to try the warm compresses. I have done those before with little or no effect, but since I have an appt coming up, I thought I would try again. I don't know if it is coincidence, but since then, my eyes feel worse - more dry. There might be some more oil coming out, but not sure.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.
Thanks.
dryeyes2

[GinaJ]

How often are you doing this? How hot are you making them? I think balance is key and varies from person to person. For me too much of anything makes things worse and inflames. A lot is trial and error. Sometimes it is hard to know what is working and not cause sometimes things are in a flare or better and not related.

[dryeyes2]

Hi,

I was only doing the compresses once a day. I heated up my rice bag (homemade) about one minute. It may be too hot. I am going to try cutting down on the time and see, but in the past I have not had much luck with this method. I am only trying again because the doc suggested it and I am running out of options.

Thanks for your reply.
Best wishes,
dryeyes2

[y-gwair]

I've wondered about this too. I had a hot bath last week which really seemed to set off burning eye pain badly, despite the humid air in the bathroom. Wondering if I have ocular rosacea, on top of severe aqueous dryness; if so, heat probably won't help at all.

I do use compresses at night but always let them cool in my hands first (if it feels hot to hand touch I reckon it's too hot for the more delicate eye).

[dgreen97]

i feel the same way every time i use warm compresses on my eyes the next day they feel like they're more dry. i don't know if they actually are or if thats just the feeling but consistently after i use warm compresses this happens. anybody know why this is? my doctor told me to use warm compresses for my mild MGD but i'm seriously thinking of just doing lid scrubs and use a drop once in a while.

[indrep]

I have spoken with cornea specialist who say that too many lipids, the secretions from meibomian glands, can be toxic to the epithelium cells. I did not go into details to find out why. My thinking might be that just as a hypertonic tear film is detrimental to epithelial cells so is extreme hypotonicity.

Hypertonic tears cause cell death by pulling water from the cell, hyptonic tear film would cause cells to absorb too much water and die. Either way cell death creates an unstable ocular surface further exacerbating dry eye symptoms.

[dgreen97]

so if too many lipids are getting into the tears then isn't it advisable not to use the warm compresses if they are making your symptoms feel worse? like dryeyes2 it seems whenever i use the warm compresses my eyes feel worse the next day and maybe your theory is why. however how do you liquify the meibomian glands then to make them unclog? should we do less time with the warm compress and not as hot? for me at least i know its one of two things causing my eyes feeling worse because i just had these sensations like a week ago as well. its either the warm compress or the drops i'm using and since i just switched the drops to a different type but didn't switch out the warm compress i'm most oriented to say its the warm compress thats making it feel like this.

[jenny2008]

everytime i get my compress too hot my eyes feel so dried out the entire day!! Now, if i let the compress cool down to wear it just feels very warm in my hand my eyes do great.. My doc said warm compresses are the way to go to keep the glands open-along with the massage...

[y-gwair]

My glands became really badly blocked and inflamed this week, I ended up doing a hourly warm compresses (not hot), which did help initially, but then the lid glands all just seemed to dry up completely for a while. I wonder if it was a reaction to the heat, as I'm increasingly suspect I may have ocular rosacea, and heat is one of the worst triggers for this. The lid margins are less dry now, but my eyes have become very sticky (which is really unusual for me); I don't know if the discharge is the glands opening up after being over-stimulated, or related to the initial infection.

Also realising that other kinds of heat may be aggravating the condition e.g. hot baths, eating hot meals, drinks etc.

[drrd2005]

heat can aggravate I believe . did your doctor suggest doxycycline tabs . ask the doctor about those .

[dgreen97]

so if heat aggravates the condition how do you go about melting the oil in the glands then? can just doing lid scrubs help the problem without doing the compresses?

[advocate]

My experience has always been that heat worsens the problem. Cold compresses are much better at providing temporary relief.

You don't need to melt the "plugs" because the glands aren't really plugged. Yes, the glands are filled with a thick substance, but it comes out just fine on its own, without heating. Just put a contact lense on your eye and you'll see all the plugs express themselves in less than 5 seconds.

Read the guide that I just posted in this forum for more details.

[indrep]

dgreen
I think the lid scrubbing can act as eyelid massaging and cause the secretion of some lipids. As each individual blockages are different some may need heat to loosen them up.

[dgreen97]

well i know it takes a couple weeks to even start seeing the effects of the lid scrub/warm compress treatment so we'll have to see. i think im going to try using just warm compresses (not hot as in steaming like I had before). I think i put it in the microwave too long because when I pulled it out I saw steam coming off of it so this could have been the problem. We'll see what just warm compresses for 3-5 minutes does and if it makes it better or not.

[chimera]

warm compresses just made me feel worse too...I had to stop doing them. I feel better after I do lib scrubs with ocusoft foam/pads.