Tried all treatments, here is what worked

[phenix01]

Guys,

I have been posting quite a bit on this forum for the past three years, as Lasik made my MGD symptomatic and left me with a bit of corneal neuropathy.

I have tried all treatments you can possibly imagine (IPL (10+ times), Probing (2x), Lipiflow, antibiotics, warm compresses, supplements, placenta-based drop (Regener Eyes)). I feel MUCH better today, I can work in front of a computer normally, go outside, do whatever; and I feel like it is my duty to share with you what is worth it and what is not.

What I would do as a dry eye sufferer which I believe gives you the best shot at feeling much better:

1) Find a dry eye doctor that offers both IPL and Probing to get an unbiased opinion and seek one of those treatment as first line of defense, based on your severity (probing for most severe cases, IPL + gland expression for medium to mild cases). I believe it is important to unclog the glands when those have been blocked for a while, before starting other treatments. For very severily clogged glands, Probing will unclog it. For milder patients, IPL + manual expression might do the job.

2) Once your glands are unclogged, you need to help those stay unclogged, with warm compresses followed by gentle eye-lid massage (google how) to help your glands get rid of old oils and get back to life. But just as important is to keep inflammation in check and send growth factors to stimulate your glands (placenta-based drops). The Regener Eyes drops have worked well for me. Using only six bottles of Regener Eyes can generate a very noticeable improvement.

So that's it. Probing or IPL + Regener eyes or similar product.

Things to avoid in my opinion:
- Lipiflow: waste of money, honestly if you have MGD, a lipiflow won't change anything, it is too weak of a treatment.
- Antibiotics: only use it if your doctor is confident you need it based on your own situation.

Lastly: IPL does great for the first three treatment, after that in my case I started plateauing.

[Aster]

Thank you so much for coming back and sharing this information.

When you did IPL, was it only for the lower eyelids?

There are a lot of videos for eye-lid massage, which method do you prefer?

How severe was your MGD? Any Atrophy or Dropout? Were your glands visibly blocked or was it only noticeable that the meibum was thicker?

[jack1988]

Guys,

I have been posting quite a bit on this forum for the past three years, as Lasik made my MGD symptomatic and left me with a bit of corneal neuropathy.

I have tried all treatments you can possibly imagine (IPL (10+ times), Probing (2x), Lipiflow, antibiotics, warm compresses, supplements, placenta-based drop (Regener Eyes)). I feel MUCH better today, I can work in front of a computer normally, go outside, do whatever; and I feel like it is my duty to share with you what is worth it and what is not.

What I would do as a dry eye sufferer which I believe gives you the best shot at feeling much better:

1) Find a dry eye doctor that offers both IPL and Probing to get an unbiased opinion and seek one of those treatment as first line of defense, based on your severity (probing for most severe cases, IPL + gland expression for medium to mild cases). I believe it is important to unclog the glands when those have been blocked for a while, before starting other treatments. For very severily clogged glands, Probing will unclog it. For milder patients, IPL + manual expression might do the job.

2) Once your glands are unclogged, you need to help those stay unclogged, with warm compresses followed by gentle eye-lid massage (google how) to help your glands get rid of old oils and get back to life. But just as important is to keep inflammation in check and send growth factors to stimulate your glands (placenta-based drops). The Regener Eyes drops have worked well for me. Using only six bottles of Regener Eyes can generate a very noticeable improvement.

So that's it. Probing or IPL + Regener eyes or similar product.

Things to avoid in my opinion:
- Lipiflow: waste of money, honestly if you have MGD, a lipiflow won't change anything, it is too weak of a treatment.
- Antibiotics: only use it if your doctor is confident you need it based on your own situation.

Lastly: IPL does great for the first three treatment, after that in my case I started plateauing.

I've heard probing can damage the meibomian glands?

[anteloper]

Things to avoid in my opinion:
- Lipiflow: waste of money, honestly if you have MGD, a lipiflow won't change anything, it is too weak of a treatment.

This has not been my experience at all, I did warm compresses for 5 months and my MGD was hardly cured until I finally did Lipiflow. I was extremely skeptical of Lipiflow from reading forum posts like these but I really regret not doing it sooner. It is important to acknowledge that, like other treatments, Lipiflow results vary a lot by patient, and for some patients, it is a really important treament.

Really not sure what you mean by "too weak of a treatment". I really wish there were other products/treatments on the market that heat the inside of the eyelids, but unfortunately, Lipiflow is currently the only one (I know of). I would definitely not describe it as weak, though it didn't not feel super warm to me the first time I had it, when my MGD was most severe. It may not feel "hot" but that doesn't mean it's not working.

In addition, unfortunately Lipiflow results may vary depending how the doc places the applicator inside your eyelids, and how well the applicator fits your individual eyelids. I have had it done at two clinics and one did it much better than the other.

[lipino]

Lipiflow is a lot of money for a low success rate. The other doctors I've talked to since doing it have told me it's not effective. At the office where I had it done, when I went to pay I could see on the face of every employee there that they felt bad for me that I was about to shell out $800 for this. They looked like they desperately wanted to tell me not to do it. I asked if any patients found it helpful and one of them hesitated and said "um...SOME patients do." But I was desperate so I paid up.