Daily Regimen for MGD

[Eyeshaveit]

Curious what people are doing on a daily basis to combat MGD. I've had dry eye for nearly 4 years now. It took me out of contacts, and I really just started treatment five months ago. My glands are still working, luckily, and I'm hoping to get them back to full health. I've gone from having zero tear film to having pretty substantial tear film, but I haven't had a proportional amount of relief... yet. There's still a lot of burning, and I'm still quite contact lens intolerant (I can stuff lenses maybe once a week for 4-6 hours at a time... e.g. on dates! :P).

This is my daily regimen which I have done for the last 2 months. Wondering what else I can do or what I should do differently? My hope is that continued treatment of this sort will lead to continued improvement, but that it is a very long-term proposition. My dry eye doctor just told me to return in a few months after doing the following each day:

Morning:
- Omega 3 / fish oil / flax seed (Theratears Nutrition)
- Warm Compress (I normally do 2-4 minutes -- should I do longer?)
- Lid massage with fingers

Night:
- Warm Compress
- Lid massage with fingers
- Sterilid lens cleaner

Throughout day:
- PF vial drops when needed

Thanks for your thoughts!

theeyes

[Maria1972]

Minimize the contact wear as much as possible. I use them once in a blue moon for special ocassions and also for a few hrs only.

I have bad MGD and do compresses 4 times a day! 1st morning, 2nd I live close to work so I come home during lunch break and do it, 3rd after work, 4th before bed. But I do about 1 minute lower lid and 1 min upper lid.Benn doing this for 2 years.

Once a week I do a lid scrub with a Q tip (dr has to show you how) I've been doing this for 1 week only so don't know if it'll help.

make sure you don't skip or stop taking your Fish Oils. Even if you feel better....

[Eyeshaveit]

Thanks for the reply!!

I am lucky to be decently tolerant of O2 Optix contacts and wear them once every two weeks or so. I'm neurotic about keeping them clean, keeping my face clean, etc., etc. I've been to various doctors (as many of us have) before finding a dry eye specialist. Every doctor has said contacts are OK now and then but to mind my symptoms carefully.

Curious on the lid massage question -- do people get blurry vision, especially after doing lid massage? Does that mean the bad stuff is getting out? And, if so, where is all this bad stuff coming from? Why is it there every time?

[Randal]

Curious on the lid massage question -- do people get blurry vision, especially after doing lid massage? Does that mean the bad stuff is getting out? And, if so, where is all this bad stuff coming from? Why is it there every time?

Great question! I experience this, too, every time I use a heat compress on my eyes (especially my left one). I guess it's the oils being warmed up, thinned, and then expressed onto the eye's surface. But, yes, it results in temporarily blurry vision, like a film of grease or oil on a windshield.

Randal