Mg home expression tools.

[hosanna13]

I use the same tweezers myself and they are rather helpful, my biggest problem is that they slip and snap if I squeeze too hard. Hosanna13 have you found any particular techinque for doing the upper lid glands?

P

The upper lids are definitely harder than the lowers. I haven't been expressing my uppers.

[hosanna13]

I don't think I have clogged glands, so I just do it ~3x/week. I think it's also a bit irritating for my lids.
Gina

[patientpatrick]

I use the same tweezers myself and they are rather helpful, my biggest problem is that they slip and snap if I squeeze too hard. Hosanna13 have you found any particular techinque for doing the upper lid glands?

P

[irish eyes]

Hi Hosanna13

How often do you do this?

[hosanna13]

I've had success expressing my MG's using small plastic tweezers like the ones shown here: http://www.amazon.com/Contact-Lens-M...ipped+tweezers

They're meant for contact lenses, but they work just as well for gently applying pressure to the lower eyelid. One prong goes inside and the other goes outside of the lid.
I do a warm compress for ~2 minutes and then squeeze with clean tweezers.

[Peppermint]

Thanks for the reply! I am always interested to what he has to say. So he didn't prescribe any drops or anything? What did he say was wrong?

He said I had ocular rosacea & asked me a lot of questions regarding allergies. He thinks there is an allergic component involved. He gave me a sample of Lastacaft & a prescription for it.

So frustrating that there are so many opinions on the right way to do this (or not to do it at all by some).

One of the reasons for the difference in "opinion" is that our conditions are different and, consequently, what is beneficial for one person is not necessarily beneficial for another.

[Faith1989]

Thanks for the reply! I am always interested to what he has to say. So he didn't prescribe any drops or anything? What did he say was wrong?

[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.

[Faith1989]

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

[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.

[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).

[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.

[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.

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.