Mg home expression tools.

[patientpatrick]

I've been looking for tools to do MG expression at home. I ordered a pair of those silicone tweezers and so far i've noticed a lot more gunk coming out than if i were to use my fingers or a cotton swab.

I saw the following and was wondering if anyone has had any success with anything of the sorts.

The rollers seem especially interesting.

http://www.guldenophthalmics.com.pre...plate-s-s.html
http://www.guldenophthalmics.com.pre...essor-kit.html
http://www.inami.co.jp/english/surgi...vations/m2071/

[DCRdryeye]

What silicone tweezers did you order patrick? do you have a link? Are they the curved looking tweezers http://www.guldenophthalmics.com.pre...essor-kit.html please be careful not to damage your eyelids.

[patientpatrick]

One of the nurses at a clinic ordered it for me. Yes they are the curved kind. Plastic frame with silicone covered tips. Showed me how to use it and everything. I works ok....... It seems like expression with fingers and cotton swabs aren't aggressive enough at expressing oil in my case.

[Katewest]

I've been expressing my lids for about 5 months now and there is def more oil coming out. Time does help I think. Then again, I dont know if its helping my symptoms all that much. I started serum last week but I think its only 25% so I may need to talk with my doc about that. Sounds like 100% really helps more. I also bought some Gunnar comp glasses and they just arrived yesterday. Too early to tell though. Back to the tools, I would agree with DCR about not doing any further damage and being very careful. When I saw Dr. Latkany a couple months ago he told me to stop expressing but was vague about why. There has been some talk about damaging the eye with massages and expressing. But I think he was referring to me "obsessing" too much. Which is annoying b/c its hard not to when they hurt so much.

[patientpatrick]

I must admit, I'm feeling somewhat better after more expression of my MGs, but so far it's minimal and I've only been doing it every other day for now. The first time I did it my lids hurt, I think I was squeezing too hard but when I did it softly and with more frequency it stopped hurting. I'm just not sure how thorough expression is because I know when I used my fingers and a cotton swab nothing came out. I used the tweezers and all of a sudden I saw gunk expressed. That's why I was wondering if there's perhaps a more effective home tool that would work yet still be gentle, hence the rollers.

If anyone out there has experience please let me know.

[patientpatrick]

Btw Kate are you still in contact with dr latkany? Seems weird why he would tell ou to stop the expression if its helping you. There was a guy on the forum "wantism" who got a mastrota paddle and did them himself at home. He said he feel better from doing it.

[patientpatrick]

I went for a check up last Friday. The doc did a TBUT test and was surprised to find that went from a 5 sec time to close to 11 sec. When asked if I have done anything different I said I've been doing at home expresion every other day or so. So I'm guessing its been helping. The strange thing is if my TBUT doubled I should be feeling a lot better but I feel marginally better. I wonder if the test was done wrong.

[NotADryEye]

The strange thing is if my TBUT doubled I should be feeling a lot better but I feel marginally better. I wonder if the test was done wrong.

patientpatrick, the answer is you haven't yet tackled other issues that are causing symptoms. You have to address all of the co-morbidities. Expressing may help with oil secretion but there can still be many other things going on i.e. co-morbidities. The co-morbidities are diverse, but they cause similar symptoms so it is hard to tease out on your own what to do. For example, you might have mites, bacteria, conjunctivochalasis, blocked glands, aqeous tear deficiency, and on and on. But any of these would be difficult to self-diagnose because we can't look at our own eyes via slit lamp.

[NotADryEye]

There has been some talk about damaging the eye with massages and expressing.

In my case, two weeks after starting lid massage, not with a tool just my own fingers, I was unable to open my eyes. I suspect my mg's were already blocked and massaging them pushed the thick meibum further back into the glands, like squeezing a pimple too soon. So before you express the glands, you just need to be sure that your mg's aren't blocked. It's also why some people don't have good results with Lipiflow. If the meibomian glands are blocked with fibrous tissue, for example, expressing can make things worse.

[irish eyes]

When I first started expressing the glands (as some consultants advised me to do) i removed a lot of hardened oil - so much so that it was almost granular. I tend to express the glands less now because I think I was overdoing it and making the lids very sore. If anything, I concentrate on the lower lids. I think a gentler approach is suiting my eyes better these days and they don't seem any the worse for easing off a bit.

My current consultant is against gland expression but tells me to carry on if it helps although not to be too aggressive. This is counter to what other consultants have advised - so yes, it is confusing.

[browneyesblu]

I went for a check up last Friday. The doc did a TBUT test and was surprised to find that went from a 5 sec time to close to 11 sec. When asked if I have done anything different I said I've been doing at home expresion every other day or so. So I'm guessing its been helping. The strange thing is if my TBUT doubled I should be feeling a lot better but I feel marginally better. I wonder if the test was done wrong.

I also wonder about the accuracy of these tests. I had a Lipiview test a few weeks ago and from the numbers my tear film should be normal (similar to your result) but I also notice only a small improvement. But progress is progress! You seem to be on the right track, I would keep doing what you're doing. Have you ordered any of the expression tools you posted about? The roller one (not the one with the photo of the woman wearing way too much eye makeup, the other one) looked really interesting.

The danger Kate mentioned has to do with damage to the cornea not the lids, I was told. My doctor told me it's OK to express as long as you put no pressure on your eyes. But it has to be ZERO pressure. He said for example that I could pinch my lids (from the outside). Sounds like what you are doing is OK as long as you are careful. He also told me to be gentle and not to squeeze too hard.

[Peppermint]

Hi Blu-
this is so confusing. When I went to see Dr. Latkany, he showed my how to express my lids with a q-tip and I was pressing what I thought was pretty hard against my eye. I actually wasn't pressing hard enough, and Dr. L assured me that I needed to press harder to do the expression properly. So frustrating that there are so many opinions on the right way to do this (or not to do it at all by some).

[Katewest]

I know! In his book Latkany said the white part of the eye is really tough and you can press hard on it. But when I saw him back in May he told me to stop expressing.

[Faith1989]

Peppermint, what did dr. Latkany tell u to do for your ocular rosacea?

[Peppermint]

Peppermint, what did dr. Latkany tell u to do for your ocular rosacea?

Hi Faith-
He told me to do less than what I've been doing. He said I was doing the warm compress for too long. I've been doing it for 8 minutes and he said I was way past that point. He said to only do it for a minute and to follow with a cold compress. He emphasized using a lot of cold. He also said I was overdoing it with the sterilid. I asked him if I would get to the point where I would only need to do the WC a few times a week and he said yes. He also was pretty focused on allergies being part of the issue.