Blocked glands

[EllMitcho]

Hi

Occasionally I get blocked Meibomian glands (even though I use a rice baggy 3 times a day!) - I can see the little 'lump' on my eyelid. They tend to dissapear after a couple of days.

My question is this - is there any way of removing them immediately? If they are 'wax' can I melt them somehow? Should I pick at them with my fingernail? Or as I suspect leave them alone!

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Ell

[clairvoyant]

You can express them by using a quetip. Run it under hot water, pull your lid down, or up if it's your upper and clean it.

I just try to keep running it across till my eyes feel a clean sensation or a lifted, if you will, sensation. Dr Lantkey's book explains the process pretty well.

[Rebecca Petris]

If they are very stiff plugs, I would advise getting your eye doctor to manually express them. (If they give you a blank look, time to find a new eye doctor. )

[Rojzen]

degree of force

I sense that there must be varying degrees of force with which doctors express meibomian glands, because the procedure I once experienced left the treated lid swollen and misshapen, not a result that one would wish to pursue. .

About 7 years ago, I saw a doctor specifically for lid expression, as he had published about the procedure in scientific journals. The result was devastating, and I feel lucky that the resulting lump ultimately shrank down. For 4 months or so post-procedure, the lump constantly abraded my ocular surface, and I was advised that I might need lid surgery to correct the problem. . .The abrasive lump made my original MGD symptoms, which were debilitating, seem like a picnic. . .I actually longed for the good old days of plain old DES pain. . .

Nonetheless, this is only one anecdote, and I have to assume that the docs who do lid expression these days are not using great force.

And I do so hope that there are docs doing some kind of lid expression, for those with MGD who get no result from heat, lid scrubs, and gentle expression at home.

[Jade9923]

Scrub your hands and fingernails, then use your fingernail and scrape it off. It's a breeze and doesn't hurt at all.