Are there curable and incurable kinds of blepharitis?

[Ariel]

As I understand MGD and DES can often be caused by blepharitis as it is in my case.

Blepharitis is assumed by doctors to be an incurable condition and if it is, so it will be the DES and MGD resulting from it.

But as far as I know blepharitis is only incurable when its cause is unknown as it is in most cases. It comes and goes and there is nothing we can do about it. But what happens when we know the element causing it and such element can be eliminated as in allergy-induced blepharitis?

I would think that whenever blepharitis is an a allergic reaction there is the possibility of making disappear by simply eliminating the element causing it.

Get rid of the blepharitis and say goodbye to the MGD and DES that were caused by it. So if blepharitis can be an allergic response in some cases as it can also be a response to certain medication we can stop using, why doesn't every eye doctor try to eliminate this as a possibility before assuming we're affected by blepharitis of unknown origin for which there is no cure?

Why send us home with eye drops for us to take for the rest of our lives when there may be a possibility of eliminating the need for us to use them?

[Guest]

Why send us home with eye drops for us to take for the rest of our lives when there may be a possibility of eliminating the need for us to use them?

I totally agree... I've seen several people post here who have found a way to successfully treat their bleph... so obviously there must be hope of ridding oneself of the condition for at least some of us. Dr. L. mentions a lot that one has to find the cause of one's dry eye in order to know how to fix it... I think he's right on with that line of thinking. The only trouble is, for some of us, science just hasn't progressed far enough to figure out why WE have it... hence so many of us who haven't found solution yet...


If I recall correctly, in his book, Dr. L. mentions that ophthamologists don't get much training in dry eye. So for all we know, they might only get 1 or 2 lectures on it during their training. I suspect that's why most of them don't know much about it and assume that it's a "no big deal" condition that can be "easily" managed with OTC artificial tears.

So ultimately, for most of them, I suspect the fault lies not so much with the docs themselves as with the lack of education they received on dry eye during their training. For sure there are a lot of insensitive "yahoos" out there, but I think there are also a lot of docs who just feel helpless in trying to treat us.

I think this will change in time though... now that refractive surgery has become so popular, there will likely be a huge increase in patients complaining of dry eye... plus, a significant number of currently asymptomatic post-refractive surgery patients who will likely develop dry eye as they get older... the more patients showing up in doc's offices complaining about dry eye, the more attention it will get in years to come... more new drugs will be developed, more continuing education seminars put on for docs to teach them about these drugs and treatment of dry eye etc.

Fast-forward 5, 10, 15 years from now, and I think docs will be more and more in tune with dry eye treatments etc.