Fibrotic Tissue?

[Aster]

How long does it take for fibrotic tissue to develop if you have MGD? Is it the moment you start feeling the dry eye component e.g. the evaporation or when you see the gland orifices cap?

Or does it take years?

Is "NOT A DRY EYE Foundation" a trustworthy source?

It states that Lipiflow cannot remove obstruction, in particular fibrotic tissue. Is this true?

I thought Lipiflow was made to clear the obstruction.

[Rebecca Petris]

I don't know the answer to the question, but I do know that medical opinions vary a great deal about dealing with obstructive MGD, so I'm a little cautious with everything I read about it. There are different philosophies. In recent years I've found it very interesting to see the 'relative' positioning of both Lipiflow and probing in medical practices as there are now many practices which utilize both (depending on the patient) - sometimes on the same patient - so there's a lot of discussion at the conferences about which devices are most effective in which situations.

Not a Dry Eye Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit patient-run organization. I'm not familiar enough with their content to comment. On a purely medical topic, wherever you're reading (including on any of our sites) I would look to cited medical references they mention and check pubmed cross references. I checked out TFOS DEWS II about this but there is nothing on fibrotic tissue specifically in their treatment/management sections... which is one of a great many indications that this is an area of emerging medicine.

Here's a very apt (in my opinion) quote from a recent review of MGD treatments:

"There is no gold standard treatment for meibomian gland dysfunction, but rather a diversity of options. "
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31494111/

[Aster]

I don't know the answer to the question, but I do know that medical opinions vary a great deal about dealing with obstructive MGD, so I'm a little cautious with everything I read about it. There are different philosophies. In recent years I've found it very interesting to see the 'relative' positioning of both Lipiflow and probing in medical practices as there are now many practices which utilize both (depending on the patient) - sometimes on the same patient - so there's a lot of discussion at the conferences about which devices are most effective in which situations.

Not a Dry Eye Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit patient-run organization. I'm not familiar enough with their content to comment. On a purely medical topic, wherever you're reading (including on any of our sites) I would look to cited medical references they mention and check pubmed cross references. I checked out TFOS DEWS II about this but there is nothing on fibrotic tissue specifically in their treatment/management sections... which is one of a great many indications that this is an area of emerging medicine.

Here's a very apt (in my opinion) quote from a recent review of MGD treatments:

"There is no gold standard treatment for meibomian gland dysfunction, but rather a diversity of options. "
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31494111/

Hi Rebecca,

Thank you so much for this.

I'm only 19 years of age and I'm suffering immensely. Not many doctors even know what I'm talking about and it really sucks.

I don't know how I can continue my education at this point and I'm honestly having a lot of negative thoughts.

Since I'm a student, I don't have the income for expensive uninsured procedures.

My future feels like it's just going to be pain forever.

[Seb233]

Same man. Im only 23....I wore contacts for only 3 months... in pain every since... I am going to try lipiflow with fingures crossed theres no fibrotic tissue....iv had manuel expression but its hard to find a doc to look at each gland individually and confirm that it is dysfunctional