Pain with IPL and expression

[socratese]

I go to Dr toyos in memphis for IPL every month with small amounts of improvement. Sometimes none. Some IPL treatments are so painful I can barely stand it- After each light burst I usually jerk with the pain. The gland expressions were extremely painful first time but I can usually handle the pain ok.

anyone else have SEVERE pain with IPL? im going to talk to my other doctor about getting some pain med to take BEFORE the treatment.

[jimi51]

Hi,
I have gone to Dr. Assil 5 times for IPL and expression and yes it can be very painful. The first four sessions, they would give me 2 Advil and I would have to wait about 20 minutes, also, it is very important (for men) to shave very closely as well as the hair will burn. The Dr. Assil told me that they found out that Advil actually has a negative effect on the treatment and we should use only Tylenol, so much that he thought my initial treatments might not have been as effective. I find the expression to most painful but I would go home and use ice pack on my eyes and it helped calm things down quickly.
The bottom line for me is if it worked I can take anything they throw at me but in my case, being post LASIK, was minimal at best.
Brad

[Lfarls]

The expression was painful, but not as severe as what your explaining. My doc did say that he doesnt believe that the expression makes or breaks the treatment, that if it was too painful he wouldnt do it at all.

[odydnas]

Yes, I get severe pain with IPL. With each IPL zap, it feels like a big burn and I also jerk with each zap. Dr. Toyos said that the pain comes from closing up the blood vessels, so if you have many blood vessels it will hurt a lot more.

I also find the expressions to be very painful, not entirely due to the squeezing of my glands but due to the q-tip touching my eyelids.

Brad, thanks for the tip about advil vs. tylenol. My question is does the adverse effects of advil only appy right before and after IPL treatments? Or should we not take advil during the entire course of IPL?

[bp77]

I had my glands expressed by the doc 5 days ago and no IPL. I had so much pain that i stopped him,so he did maybe half of my lower lid only in the right eye. I still have pain in that eye and my lid hurts.the eye is much much dryer as a result. Is this normal?? i know that other people get relife from this or they get this done often.Any one had this type of pain? why more dryness? I am scared..

[odydnas]

I think that expression itself can be very painful. I've had bruises around my eyes from this. An expression can be very aggravating and you might feel worse afterwards for a while. I know I feel worse for over a week after an expression.

[patrick]

manual expression

hi,

i had my glands expressed 14 days ago. my optometrist decided to do this procedure because after a good year of lid hygiene,warm compresses and taking flaxeedoil my glands were even more clogged than initially. so obviously i lost all confidence in this time consuming and annoying daily regimen. but that is besides the point.
she warned me before the procedure that this could become painful and she asked me if i wanted to take a painkiller before she'd start expressing the glands. i decided to give it a try without the painkiller and just see what would happen. to make a long story short,i was waiting for the pain to kick in,but it just never happened!. ok,the feeling is far from pleasant,but pain? no,not at all. the whole procedure took about 10 mns. and i left there with not one single gland clogged. the relief was instantly!
only thing is that nobody knows when the glands will be all clogged up again. my optometrist told me that this will happen for sure. i have another check up in a couple of days to see how the glands are doing....

patrick...