Nighttime dryness and oinments

[Member]

Hi!

Long story short, I have dry eyes as many of you guys have, and I am not sure what the main cause is. But I am trying therapies reccomended from my doctors, and one of the medications is a nighttime oinment called Simplex. It contains parafin and vaseline.

The first time I used it, my eyes were really red and I was afraid I could not tolerate it. I have been using the oinment for 4 days now, and I seem to tolerate it better and my eyes feel more moist, and at night, my eyes does not bother me that much. However, I still feel a stinging sensation that bothers me still.

Does any of you guys that use nighttime oinment notice the stinging, and does it eventually go away?

Wishing everyone a good day!

[PhoenixEyes]

If you also use artificial tears then I would pop some in before adding the ointment, sometimes the eye stings and reacts badly to things when it is too dry / raw. I pop in some Thealoz Duo then follow it up with VitA-Pos ointment.

[Hokucat]

What also can help with night time dryness is wearing night protection while sleeping like goggles, bubble bandages, etc., if you are not already doing that in addition to the night ointment. Many people sleep with their eyes ever so slightly open, which can cause or contribute to dry eyes. The goggles I personally found works best for me is EyeSeals 4.0...when I wake up in the morning my eyes are not as dry as when I don’t wear the goggles, and there’s a lot of condensation in the eye cups which tells me it provides a tight seal against the night time air, like artificial eyelids. Some people find using bubble bandages or taping their eyes shut provides a better seal and/or stays on better if they move around a lot while sleeping. I also put a few drops of serum tears in my eyes in the couple hours leading up until I go to bed and right before I put my goggles on. When I had absolutely no tear film a few years back, ointments that contained petroleum jelly really bothered my eyes, so I had to instead use thicker gel drops like Genteal Severe Dry Eye Gel. There’s a lot more gel drop options today, so you might also look into those in conjunction with wearing night protection.

Night protection goggles, bubble bandages:
https://dryeyeshop.com/collections/nights

[Member]

Thank you for replying.

Yeah, that was my first thought too, that maybe my eyes were super dry, and reacted to the medicine because of that. Its been 8 days now, and my eyes are really more moist throughout the day, so this is definitively a positive direction.

I am a little more worried about how I can use scleras in the morning after using oinment in the night.

I will look into the eye seals, thank you for the tip. I cant seem to find Genteal Severe Dry Eye Gel in my country, but I do use gels, but find that they do not provide effective relief at night.

[Hokucat]

If the night ointment is working for you now, that’s great! I had to use the Genteal Gel because the night ointments actually made my eyes feel worse, and you’re right that the gels typically do not work as well as ointment for most people. The Genteal Gel comes in a tube, it’s more like an ointment and not liquidy like other gel drops. Yeah, Genteal Gel may not be available in some countries outside the U.S., like in the U.K.

I wear sclerals. When I used to use the gel at night, I would rinse my eyes with preservative-free saline a few times in the morning to get out the remnants of the gel. Then right before putting on my sclerals I would put a few drops of serum tears or artificial tears in my eyes, and put a few drops of both in my sclerals along with the saline. I actually still do something like this today...put serum tears in my eyes before putting on my sclerals and a few drops of artificial tears in my lenses with the saline. For more cushion and a seal in your sclerals you can use a couple drops of a thicker preservative-free artificial tears like Refresh Celluvisc or your favorite thicker drop that says it’s suitable for contact lens wearers. Of course best to check with your scleral specialist.

[Member]

Yes, I am quite positively surprised that I seem to tolerate the oinment better after a week. I really hope I can still use the oinment at night, and scleras during the day. I guess I have to talk with my optician. Thanks for the tips, I guess one just have to try out what works best.

[gilles]

If the night ointment is working for you now, that’s great! I had to use the Genteal Gel because the night ointments actually made my eyes feel worse, and you’re right that the gels typically do not work as well as ointment for most people. The Genteal Gel comes in a tube, it’s more like an ointment and not liquidy like other gel drops. Yeah, Genteal Gel may not be available in some countries outside the U.S., like in the U.K.

I wear sclerals. When I used to use the gel at night, I would rinse my eyes with preservative-free saline a few times in the morning to get out the remnants of the gel. Then right before putting on my sclerals I would put a few drops of serum tears or artificial tears in my eyes, and put a few drops of both in my sclerals along with the saline. I actually still do something like this today...put serum tears in my eyes before putting on my sclerals and a few drops of artificial tears in my lenses with the saline. For more cushion and a seal in your sclerals you can use a couple drops of a thicker preservative-free artificial tears like Refresh Celluvisc or your favorite thicker drop that says it’s suitable for contact lens wearers. Of course best to check with your scleral specialist.

Hokucat Did you stop using night ointments (e.g. vitapos)? If so, why did you stop using the ointments?
I've read somewhere on this forum (I think it was a post by Rebecca) that the ointments could potentially clog/block the glands, which is why I am asking in the first place.

[Hokucat]

gilles I was able to stop using gels/ointments at night because I got back a thin layer of tear film, when I previously had virtually no tear film for years, my eye doctor said the surface of my eyes were like sandpaper. This was mainly from opening up my glands through probing (I had scar tissue in most of my glands) PLUS finding the right diet changes. So getting some tear film or some improvement in the quality of the tears, even if just a little, can make a difference in how the eyes feel at night and during the day. I think having some tear film also helped heal the surface of my eyes. With the thin tear film, things that didn’t help much before like sclerals, warm compresses, serum tears, night goggles without ointments, lid scrubs, etc. now are part of a comprehensive regimen along with diet to help me manage my condition. So now I no longer need to use ointments at night, and very rarely use artificial tears during the day.

I can see how it’s possible ointments and thick gels could contribute to clogging the glands. But if without it your eyes are in pain, you could get a corneal abrasion, etc. I guess you have to weigh the costs vs. benefits for your situation. It might help first thing in the morning to do lid scrubs and warm compresses.

[LindaDawn]

I use VitAPos and fortunately have no problems with stinging or discomfort using it.

[gilles]

I started using vitapos every night since reading this topic (before, I only used the eyeseals 4.0 mask), and have to admit that I also had the same reaction to the eye: more dilated (red) vessels which you can also feel a bit (sand like feeling). All in all very mild though.
Doing some research on this forum I came across other people experiencing the same symptoms and one of the potential causes could be that your cornea is too isolated to oxygen, which in result would dilate the vessels to get more "chance" in getting oxygen. It sounds far-fetched, so I would blame a reaction to the product ingredients more or the fact that the surface of my cornea is slightly "eroded" by being dry, although I used to test with swimming goggles without ointment before and had the same experience.
Will try without eyeseals mask (only vitapos ointment) for the oxygen and instill eyedrops as recommended in this topic in order to cover the surface on my eye, and if it still persists I will try to lower the dose by adding less into my lower eyelid.
I want to stress the fact that this is mostly recommended for people who have a bad eyelid seal, although it would not hurt that much for people to test if it helps.

[Member]

Update:

I now have a “tear film”, since closing all my tear ducts (plugs and cautery). Before this, really everything I tried, stung and made my eyes red. Now, I can see the benefit of a lot of treatments that made no difference/worse before. Ointments at night works fine, and I have begun to use tear drops with lipids. It works a lot better now. From my understanding, dry eye is multifaceted, and is about finding the balance that works for you.