When is IPL appropriate?

[Aaron77]

I'm thinking about IPL since some people seem to have had a bit of success with it. My question is: what conditions make it appropriate for dry eye?

I'm suffering from what my current doc calls mild blepharitis and lasik dry eye. The skin around my forehead and eyes is extremely oily, not sure if that means anything but I have heard that the IPL treatment should help with the condition of your skin as well as the eyes.

[Lucy]

Aaron, I think you are not far enough out from Lasik to try anything like IPL. Trauma on trauma. I wouldn't do it. Most of the few others who tried it are longer post-lasik.

The IPL helping with the condition of your skin would be completely separate from IPL done to your eyelids. Dermatologists and beauty clinics advertise IPL all the time. They "smooth" the skin on your face, arms and whatever. If you must, do your arms and stay away from your eyes. Lucy

[Gretchen]

Hi Aaron -

I have had 3 treatment from Dr Toyos with much success. I have my final treatment (of the initial round - maintenance will be ongoing as needed) on October 24 and I am going to post my entire experience following that. Let me just say that I have had about 50% improvement of my condition following my first treatment and 80% following the 2nd and since. Since the end of June my eyes have been very good.

I have ocular rosacea and resultant MGD/posterior & anterior blepharitis. My symptoms were were sore, burning, bloodshot eyes and my eyelids were red and barreled and my lashes had scurf and collarettes. I have not had lasik nor taken Accutane.

Dr Toyos' IPL treatment is targeted for people with ocular rosacea and resultant MGD.

My results with Dr Toyos have been very good and he is very happy with my results. According to Dr Toyos, the younger patients do better. I am no spring chicken - 39 - but suffered for only about a year before going to see him. Dr Toyos said that in his experience, he does not have as good of luck with older people that have suffered with MGD for a long time. He believes that that is because the meibomian glands basically atrophy after some time of chronic inflammation.

So if you have MGD, this may help you. I think that Lasik-induced MGD may be a bit more complicated as you have the concern of the corneal nerves, etc. Dr Toyos would have some ideas on this I believe - he is very informative and straight forward. He will definitely tell you what he thinks and what results he has had.

As for doing this too soon after Lasik, again, something to ask Dr Toyos. I can tell you that there is no "lasering" (IPL is NOT a laser, btw) of the eyeball, just the lower lid margins and the medial portion of the face. In my instance, my skin did not get red. Dr T said that my skin was very IPL tolerant.

I understand the urging of caution but I also think that sometimes the riskiest thing to choose is doing nothing. Especially when doing nothing means being stuck in an inflammatory loop that wreaks havoc on your ocular wetting structures.

If you really feel that you are at that place, going for a consult with Dr T is a good idea. I found him to be a good doctor, a terrible salesman and will tell you what he thinks.

HTH,
Gretchen

[irish eyes]

That's a great outcome for you Gretchen.

I'm just a little puzzled about what Dr Toyos said about people who were a little older and had suffered for an extended period of time. This is contrary to what he told me when I emailed me a few months ago.

Anyway, no matter. I agree with your final point about the risk of doing nothing at all.