Clearing oily eyes?

[jorgec3]

Hi guys,

Been struggling more in recent days with vision and dry eyes seem to be getting worse at work especially.

On a normal day I put in eye drops every 3-4 hours, with 2x warm compresses.

But at work (9-5 computer use) it's gotten bad, constant "oily patches" and stickyness in my eyes that I don't know how to clear?

Happens mainly after heat treatment, but randomly during the day too.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[littlemermaid]

Do you normally have oily skin or some acne? Is this more like sebaceous blepharitis with obstructed meibomian glands? By oily patches, do you mean that your vision looks oily, or that you are aware of gunk in your eyes?

You do need a proper assessment of tear film, dryness and meibomian glands, a thorough vision check, and a regular ophthalmologist for treatments before this affects your ability to work. Have you got a good eg Moorfields appointment lined up? You don't want to be dismissed as 'yet another computer vision syndrome dry eye' if they can sort out the meibomian gland dysfunction by paying careful attention to it.

If it's affecting work and you need to fast-track, consider http://www.drfosterhealth.co.uk/consultant-guide/ just for assessment, with NHS follow-up.

[jorgec3]

Hi littlemermaid,

My skin I think is usually okay on the body, but I do get flaking around the bridge of my nose and excessive dandruff on my hair/eyebrows.

I'm waiting for a specialist (It's taken 6 weeks to get one since I spoke to my GP :|) to check my eyes. Moorfields and Westerneye A/E told me Bleph with really blocked glands and to keep at the compress and drops.

Vision tends to look oily from time to time, as if the oil is leaking or something? But goes away with time.

Thanks!

[littlemermaid]

Some of us are dealing with concomitant skin signs like a bit of seb derm, dandruff flaking, yellow crusty flake eg between eyebrows etc - check behind your ears because it might be a bit red and flakey there - what we're thinking is that naturally occurring dermatophytes like malassezia and even demodex might be proliferating more than normal because they thrive on sebum and dead skin. Please don't freak out because these are all naturally occurring but we are preventing overgrowth here and they are now thinking dandruff itself might basically be a malassezia. The joys of microbiology.

These are standard treatments for eg seb derm or acne rosacea but some eye docs will give the old snort of derision, inc possibly Moorfields still, but anyone who hangs out with dermatologists and old wives, like me might:

- use antidandruff shampoo a few times during the week, alternating with something extremely gentle and hypoallergenic and organic for hypersensitive types. We are letting this pass over the eyes, unless we feel it's making them sore.

- consider using 1 part in 60 organic tea tree shampoo extremely carefully on base of the lashes, maybe every day tapering to once a week (this is an uber-eyedoc formulation rather than something I got off the internet, ahem)

Another thing that looks like it does a good job on malassezia without any bad effects is dilute honey...

Now this needs tailoring to your particular eyes and skin so nothing's gospel, but that kind of approach is useful in possible seb bleph, if that's what it partly might be. If eg antidandruff shampoo or TT makes anything at all worse, stop right away. People use this only for bleph with seb derm signs, not eg dry eye inflammation from computer overuse.

Type up your detailed history - dates, symptoms, treatments, difficulty seeing and working - to save time in your ophthalmology appointment. That way, there will be opportunity and time to ask all your questions (start typing them up now).

Does your vision seem to leave a patch for a while that fades on refocussing, or does the 'oily' look move around? They should be looking for debris in your tear film, and they can see what oils you have moving around on it through the ophthalmoscope after they put the fluorescein dye in.

Have you found a high street optometrist who is interested in this meanwhile? eg Vision Express are advertising for blepharitis and dry eye these days. We need local optometrist regular support if we can find it. Plus they are great for referrals. Careful they don't just want to flog yet more random eyedrops and eyelid scrubs though.

[angyeo]

Hi jorgec3, have you considered using Cliradex? Dr. Tseng and his fellow scientists have done a lot of research on tea tree oil, and they have developed this new lid cleanser with only the active component in tea tree oil. I have found it very helpful for my rosacea and blepharitis.

www.cliradex.com

[Klee]

One word yes. Its my worst symptom.