Is eye ointment bad for blocked Meibomian glands?

[eyes78]

The last two nights I've put in a tiny bit of (over the counter) eye ointment in my eyes before bed, and it really helped. My eyes don't feel painfully dry when I wake up. But I'm worried that the ointment could eventually make my MGD worse buy "clogging" the glands?

Has anyone's ophthalmologist warned you of this?

Thank you very much for your input.

[Rebecca Petris]

This theory was floated in an article six years ago (see link). I have never seen anything written up about any scientific attempts to verify whether it actually happens. There are certainly plenty of specialists who are cautious about ointment use but I think the mechanism by which it may cause problems is not well understood.

[eyes78]

This theory was floated in an article six years ago (see link). I have never seen anything written up about any scientific attempts to verify whether it actually happens. There are certainly plenty of specialists who are cautious about ointment use but I think the mechanism by which it may cause problems is not well understood.

Thanks Rebecca. I was afraid of that. I wonder if the gels would be better and also still help with my nighttime dryness.

[Rebecca Petris]

Genteal Gel is I think the only thing out there nearly as viscous as ointment while only being polymer based. It's pretty popular amongst the severe dry eye crowd. If you're not already, some kind of physical barrier product can also make a big difference (tape, goggles, shield etc). To me the ideal is, combine a shield with a lubricant strong enough to help but with a low likelihood of exacerbating anything.

Personally, FWIW, my attitude to ointments is: I dislike them on principle (if you slather grease on a surface, water does not penetrate, and i wouldn't want to starve my corneas overnight of the limited nutrition my few feeble tears can provide them), and in practice to a certain extent (all the people I've talked to or met here who improved after stopping ointments). BUT BUT BUT then there's all the people for whom it seems to be working fine with no apparent side effects other than the inconvenience. If I were one of those people, if I were being carefully observant of the big picture trends and found it really was working for me, heck, I'd be using it and I wouldn't let any solo article published years ago and not, apparently, explored further, scare me.

Bottom line though - be observant.

[eyes78]

Thank you so much, I'll try that Genteal Gel tonight.

[MGD666]

I am one who also finds Genteal to be the best of the ones I have tried (and I have tried many) but noticed today that Tears Naturale had the same amount of hypromellose at 0.3% in it. For those who have tried both, is it anything like Genteal Severe Dry Eye Gel?

Another one I have yet to try are these VisMed drops that contain Hyaluronic acid? These were mentioned as being available now via Amazon (seller in the UK of course).
And finally, Rebecca, I know we are all different, but did you find FreshKote™ to your liking? I never got to try Dwelle, but did use FreshKote for a month last year. It seemed to be pretty good though and am considering using it again. Tried Systane Balance a few times (recommended by Korb) and it burned badly and made my situation much worse.