How often can you have lipiflow?

[Milo007]

Lena11

Do you see any yellow cappings on your lid margins along the line of marx (or just below it)?

The cappings look like yellowish or sometimes colorless lipid filled globlues. I am excited when you say yellow droplets because my cappings are mostly yellowish in color and I pop them regularly to release the meibum. I find significant relief after puncturing such cappings and performing a lid margin debridement.

[Guest]

Milo007

Oil wise I can never see anything at my lid margins, though my eyesight was made near-sighted after blotched lasik. I never believed the doctors saying they could see oil coming out my glands but now I've seen the pictures.

How often do you do the debridement? I got this nulids device that I thought was helping then got worried it might be inflaming my eyelids. I think the inflammation was actually a mix of the cleaners I was using and just dryness. If I wear goggles rather than moisture chambers the burning eyelids is massively reduced.

[Milo007]

Milo007

Oil wise I can never see anything at my lid margins, though my eyesight was made near-sighted after blotched lasik. I never believed the doctors saying they could see oil coming out my glands but now I've seen the pictures.

How often do you do the debridement? I got this nulids device that I thought was helping then got worried it might be inflaming my eyelids. I think the inflammation was actually a mix of the cleaners I was using and just dryness. If I wear goggles rather than moisture chambers the burning eyelids is massively reduced.

I have to perform the debridement almost daily (I perform it very gently though) . Otherwise the tiny cappings form back quickly and block the flow of meibum significantly exacerbating my symptoms. I used to perform the debridement using a dry q-tip but now I do it using single use sterile needles. I use the sharp edge of the needle's top end to gently scrap the surfaces of my lower eyelid margins along the line of marx to remove possible epithelial coverage over the meibomian gland orifices and use the pointed end of the needle to puncture the visibly noticeable cappings. I see lipids flowing out of the orifices in good volume after a blocked meibomian gland orifice is cleared of obstruction. My symptoms are almost instantly relieved.

I think nulids is a very smart move by you. But I would advice you to perform it only when required since too frequent debridement can result in repeated trauma to the lid margin surfaces before they can heal. This can result in lid margin scarring and further blockage of the meibomian gland orifices with scar tissue. Once in 3 days would be safer with the nulids device.


I am trying to figure out why the cappings develop. Need some expert's insights on the topic.

[MGD1701]

MGD1701 My doctor told me MMP-9 is pretty useless. E.g. she has no dry eye and tested it on herself and her score was really high, whereas a friend with really bad dry eye had a very low score. They've stopped using it.

Everyone tells me my glands look quite good but yes I think 25 is accurate - I've had it measure with another machine that said 30. My eyes have a tbut of about 4 and feel very dry.

Hi Lena
MMP-9
well, TFOS 2017 report does recommend MMP-9 and all experts in USA I know recommend it too.
My doctor, a professor, said it can detect more things.
Besides, one has dry eye does not mean her/his MMP-9 should be positive and vice versa, right?

[mbperso]

I have done Lipiflow twice this year, IPL with manual expression for uppers and lowers (4 total), and finally just recently IPL with by ILUX.
Finally I had IPL followed by ILUX and that is definitely superior.
I will be repeating this every 4 months and alternate the manual expression with ILUX.

Does ILUX device is equivalent to heat and massage ? is it better and effective?

[CJ L.]

Hi Lena11 ,

How long after having Lipiflow did you notice a difference? Thanks!

CJ

[CJ L.]

Hi Lena11 ,

How long after having Lipiflow did you notice a difference? Thanks!

CJ

[farmgirl]

Unfortunately though even with normal TBUTs, I still have horrible eye symptoms. So I cant really say in my case fixing the oil issue made a difference.

http://www.tearfilm.com/ilux-device/

Chema, i would suggest you need to take a close look at what you are putting into your eyes. I have pretty much quit all eye drops and use mainly non preserved saline in the 5 ml nebulizer tubes and now use way less drops and have way less irritation. Turns out I was sensitized to almost all drops. I do use a OTC drop occasionally if I feel I need something with more 'body' but I also try not to use the same one back to back.