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When I was diagnosed with MGD in my city hospital, they referred me to gland-cleaning procedures done in the hospital by an assistant. Our hospital (in The Netherlands) uses Blephasteam device to do that. I'm glad I had a chance to try it in a hospital first before committing to buy. I think I will not be buying it just yet.
The goggles fitted okay around my eyes. The temperature (I believe Blephasteam works with 40 degrees) felt cooler than compresses I do at home. At home I usually use 50 degrees water and get probably around 42 degrees wet compress from it. The goggles just felt nice and warm, not wet actually, although they do deliver heat and moisture at the same time. As you can imagine, they leave traces on your face.
I had to lay for 15 minutes, and I don't know if it was from zero point, or had they already heated up the glasses for me beforehand? They put on nice relaxing music, and the whole 15 minutes actually went very well and chilling.
The assistant started on extraction, using some sterile metal instrument as a substrate under my lid, and a Q-tip for pressing against it. It did not feel comfortable at all, especially with my poor cornea, and I asked her to stop. I told her she pressed too hard, and she replied that's the way it should be. I said I had damaged cornea, so she agreed to stop and said "Ok, doesn't matter, the heat still did unclog the pores a little".
From how my hospital treats MGD this way, I see such procedure having a place somewhere in-between a regular Eye Spa and LipiFlow. Regular spa means self-made compress and massage, and a rather gentle massage, while LipiFlow (from what I've read, I didn't try it myself) is a higher temperature and higher massage pressure. The latter obviously delivers more long-term results, while home spa you need to do daily. Well, I do believe that Blephasteam is probably a half-way solution, especially if an experienced assistant applies harder pressure to clean glands.
While I don't see in 7x mirror that my glands are blocked or enlarged, the white-ish discharge on that metal instrument did show my glands are clogged indeed. I received a folder with at-home lid hygiene explanation and made an appointment for the second treatment over 3 weeks. I kind of regret being a chicken and not proceeding fully with assistance in extracting the little bastards. I'll try to go through the whole thing next time! For now, I just know what to look for when doing it at home.
At the end, I got an antibiotic ointment before going home. Usually I would close my pores after procedure by applying cold compress or cold drops, but they just went further with disinfection, I guess.
I am definitely not ready to buy the Blephasteam goggles at this point. While I find it smart how they managed to keep glass clean during steaming, I disagree with the "life goes on" claim: they claim you can read and watch TV in it, well, I find it really problematic, as the goggle is quite bulky and obstructive for that.
Do you guys use Blephasteam? How do you find it compared to other warm compress methods? I've tried a microwaved baggy, but it cools down so quick, I'm disappointed. So now I'm using hot-water-dipped bandage compresses, I dip and reapply them constantly for 10 minutes.
The goggles fitted okay around my eyes. The temperature (I believe Blephasteam works with 40 degrees) felt cooler than compresses I do at home. At home I usually use 50 degrees water and get probably around 42 degrees wet compress from it. The goggles just felt nice and warm, not wet actually, although they do deliver heat and moisture at the same time. As you can imagine, they leave traces on your face.
I had to lay for 15 minutes, and I don't know if it was from zero point, or had they already heated up the glasses for me beforehand? They put on nice relaxing music, and the whole 15 minutes actually went very well and chilling.
The assistant started on extraction, using some sterile metal instrument as a substrate under my lid, and a Q-tip for pressing against it. It did not feel comfortable at all, especially with my poor cornea, and I asked her to stop. I told her she pressed too hard, and she replied that's the way it should be. I said I had damaged cornea, so she agreed to stop and said "Ok, doesn't matter, the heat still did unclog the pores a little".
From how my hospital treats MGD this way, I see such procedure having a place somewhere in-between a regular Eye Spa and LipiFlow. Regular spa means self-made compress and massage, and a rather gentle massage, while LipiFlow (from what I've read, I didn't try it myself) is a higher temperature and higher massage pressure. The latter obviously delivers more long-term results, while home spa you need to do daily. Well, I do believe that Blephasteam is probably a half-way solution, especially if an experienced assistant applies harder pressure to clean glands.
While I don't see in 7x mirror that my glands are blocked or enlarged, the white-ish discharge on that metal instrument did show my glands are clogged indeed. I received a folder with at-home lid hygiene explanation and made an appointment for the second treatment over 3 weeks. I kind of regret being a chicken and not proceeding fully with assistance in extracting the little bastards. I'll try to go through the whole thing next time! For now, I just know what to look for when doing it at home.
At the end, I got an antibiotic ointment before going home. Usually I would close my pores after procedure by applying cold compress or cold drops, but they just went further with disinfection, I guess.
I am definitely not ready to buy the Blephasteam goggles at this point. While I find it smart how they managed to keep glass clean during steaming, I disagree with the "life goes on" claim: they claim you can read and watch TV in it, well, I find it really problematic, as the goggle is quite bulky and obstructive for that.
Do you guys use Blephasteam? How do you find it compared to other warm compress methods? I've tried a microwaved baggy, but it cools down so quick, I'm disappointed. So now I'm using hot-water-dipped bandage compresses, I dip and reapply them constantly for 10 minutes.
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