My first IPL treatment

[Lfarls]

I had my first ipl treatment last week and I haven't felt any relief yet. I believe that my doctor put the machine on the lowest setting because I'm so fair skinned. After, he did the expression he said the expressions were like silly string...ugh. I know that it can take up to four treatments to get relief, but I was wondering if any one else had any relief after the first treatment? I know everyone is different and not every case is the same. Im 24, Ive had ocular rosacea/ MGD for three years..just wondering trying not to lose hope..

[Rebecca Petris]

From what I have heard from several people who are getting IPL, I would not expect results early on... it really takes patience.

[socratese]

I've been through my 5th treatment. Still lots of pain. my secretions are better now... its taken like 5 treatments for me to go from silly string to toothpaste...

lets keep up with eachother since we pretty much seem to have the same issue and same age-group.

[Spoon]

The fact that the 'stringy' secretions came out is a good result in my opinion. This seems to be where the ultimate benefit lies - in simply evacuating the meibomian glands to allow them to start functioning over time. Best of luck

Can anyone reading this who has had IPL tell me how close to the lid margin the IPL hand piece went. and also how the lids were expressed - using any tools etc or just a q-tip?

[socratese]

The fact that the 'stringy' secretions came out is a good result in my opinion. This seems to be where the ultimate benefit lies - in simply evacuating the meibomian glands to allow them to start functioning over time. Best of luck

Can anyone reading this who has had IPL tell me how close to the lid margin the IPL hand piece went. and also how the lids were expressed - using any tools etc or just a q-tip?

barely touched the bottom eyelid couple centimeters past the bottom part of the orbital. dr toyos just uses a qtip to express i think it gets the job done but i would like to see how this new expression device works.

[bp77]

barely touched the bottom eyelid couple centimeters past the bottom part of the orbital. dr toyos just uses a qtip to express i think it gets the job done but i would like to see how this new expression device works.

r u goin to toyos? I hope this works for all of u. I do not know why my doc tells me not to do this.

[Sammy B.]

Lfarls,

I've had two IPL's with Dr. Toyos. After the first one, I had about a two week period (not immediately following, but about a week after) of bliss. Then, the second treatment didn't seem to "do" anything, but I was using Xibrom afterwards and the Xibrom really irritated my eyes.

I have my third IPL treatment on Feb 9th. I can let you know how it goes after that.

I went from "toothpaste" to "butter" from the first to second treatment. I'm hoping for "olive oil" at this next one.

I have post-LASIK irritation w/ MGD.

Rose

[socratese]

yeah i didnt like xibrom either... everything i try seems to make things worse. The ip works like every few times for me..

[Lfarls]

Yeah I think that I didnt get any relief because of the setting on the machine. I'm seeing a doc trained my toyos , but I decided to email toyos to ask his thoughts about the settings and which setting is appropriate. He asked me to send him a pic of myself, and he told me the setting should be higher and to tell my doc to get closer to the lid margin. I'm nervous also because my upper lids are far more worse than the lowers and I know they can't directly treat my upper eyelids. He did the expression with a qtip on the lower and just pushed slightly on my upper eyelids with his finger. I was given Durezol after, pretty much just a regular steriod drop..didnt do much since my lids are chronically inflamed any way. My next appt is Feb 23..I will def keep everyone updated..and please keep me updated as well on everyone's progress. Thanks everyone.

[Rebecca Petris]

I went from "toothpaste" to "butter" from the first to second treatment. I'm hoping for "olive oil" at this next one.

LOL... you crack me up, Rose.

[odydnas]

Hi I've had 7 IPL treatments with minimal symptomatic improvement (caveat: i've been diagnosed with corneal neuralgia/neuropathy by dr. rosenthal of bfs). The only improvement I think I have is that the burning I guess from the inner surface of my eyelids is reduced. Other than that, I feel like how I felt before all the IPLs.

It took 6 treatments to open my glands up and I am now secreting butter. Dr. Toyos told me that I would only need 2-3 treatments based on my age (i'm in my 20's). But it turns out that it's taking me about 5-6 treatments to get the improvement that other people get in one treatment. My TBUT is barely a 1.

I am going to stick with it because its the only thing that has been able to get my glands open again. I hope that once my glands start secreting normal oil, I will feel better.

My next IPL is in mid-February

[jimi51]

Hi,
I have had 5 treatments with Dr. Assil, I can't really say if I have had any improvement as far as how I feel. I still had the toothpaste at number 5 so $3500.00 later I gave up. I just got back from the Doheney Eye Center at USC today where I saw a young Dr. from BFS. We tried several scleral lenses but she concluded that I am not a candidate and I have to say, they were a quit a bit painful to wear. She basically thinks I have cornea nueralgia due to my lasik two years ago. (sigh) I guess that's it, I think I have tried everything. This Dr. says that while my tearfilm is not great, my symptoms don't really go with what she sees, this is the same thing my regular Dr.s says and since the scleral lenses don't seem to help, I probably am in the extremley low percentage of poor lasik outcomes.

I am thinking about another IPL only because a few weeks ago my Dr. saw an increase in Tbut but it might of been just the day as I had very low tbut's this morning but it might be worth a try. That's my story..

Brad

[Rebecca Petris]

(sigh) I guess that's it, I think I have tried everything.

Brad, I am really sorry - that is a rough situation.

Do you get any relief with wearing moisture chambers regularly?

Do not give up hope of spontaneous improvement. People with LASIK dry eye can improve for an amazingly long time after surgery. We have had people on the board here who were still in suicidal-level pain at two years and have improved greatly since. Though identifiable conditions like MG troubles probably still need to continue to be treated over time.

[Sammy B.]

Brad, I am still suspicious of those plugs... Anyway I don't think you can say you've tried everything so don't feel like you're out of options.

There are so many combinations of things out there that we can try, you'll find your combo, don't worry.

Rose

[lzer]

I had my first ipl treatment last week and I haven't felt any relief yet. I believe that my doctor put the machine on the lowest setting because I'm so fair skinned. After, he did the expression he said the expressions were like silly string...ugh. I know that it can take up to four treatments to get relief, but I was wondering if any one else had any relief after the first treatment? I know everyone is different and not every case is the same. Im 24, Ive had ocular rosacea/ MGD for three years..just wondering trying not to lose hope..

What is IPL?