oil problems?

[pete0085]

I'm wondering if anyone else has the same problems as me. I've been told by more than one doctor there are problems with the oil glands in my eye lids. Basically they are blocked or clogged and oil is not getting on my eye lids and the tears quickly evaporate.

My last doctor prescribed a medicine for 2 weeks to get rid of any bacteria first, called azasite (anyone heard of it?) and also had me start to take omega-3 and the typical hot packing at night.

Anyone have similar issues or tried something similar? Any idea to why the omega-3 would help and same goes to the hot packing, what does that more or less help do?

Haven't been on restasis yet and they really don't want to do that unless it's the last option.

[Lucy]

I'm wondering if anyone else has the same problems as me. I've been told by more than one doctor there are problems with the oil glands in my eye lids. Basically they are blocked or clogged and oil is not getting on my eye lids and the tears quickly evaporate.

My last doctor prescribed a medicine for 2 weeks to get rid of any bacteria first, called azasite (anyone heard of it?) and also had me start to take omega-3 and the typical hot packing at night.

Hi Pete: Azasite is an antibiotic, I believe. There has been many posts about it on this forum just recently. I've never used it, but some have given it great reports. This drop will help get the inflammation down so you can start to unblock your tear ducts of the packed oil.

Anyone have similar issues or tried something similar? Any idea to why the omega-3 would help and same goes to the hot packing, what does that more or less help do?

Yes, just about everyone on here has similar problems and have tried antibiotics, along with the hot packs and Omega-3's. The hot packs are to loosen the oil in your clogged glands. Omega 3's are thought to help us with our dry eye problems in the long term and this has been highly supported by docs in the past few years.

Haven't been on restasis yet and they really don't want to do that unless it's the last option.

Restasis is expensive and doesn't work in all cases. It can take up to six months to know if it's working or not. As you can see, it's best to start the basics going first and see if you have improvement.

Looks like your doctor is on the ball, as some get nothing more than a brush-off when they visit a doc for dry eye. Good luck with your routine. Lucy

[dianat]

Hot compresses are important and will serve you well. Check out this page first off:

http://www.dryeyezone.com/encyclopedia/hotcompresses.html

There's plenty of digging you can on this site also.

Diana

[pete0085]

Thanks. That was really helpful. My symptoms have never been called a specific disease or term, but everything fits, same with the treatment.

[Rebecca Petris]

My symptoms have never been called a specific disease or term.

Ask your doctor for a specific diagnosis. From your description of what he said it sounds like meibomian gland dysfunction, and from the treatments, blepharitis.

[pete0085]

Ask your doctor for a specific diagnosis. From your description of what he said it sounds like meibomian gland dysfunction, and from the treatments, blepharitis.


Sorry, but what is the difference between the two? They seem to be related from what I read.

The link to MGD seemed to describe my symptoms and the picture of the oil glands was the same image my doctor took to show me. Said it would be easier to understand if I could see what was happening.

I recently went to see a second doctor because I moved and they told me nearly the same thing and offered different treatments, the omega-3 and azasite was new.

[Rebecca Petris]

Sorry, but what is the difference between the two? They seem to be related from what I read.
Certainly, and the terms are often used interchangeably. The way I look at it (not necessarily the most accurate, but anyway) is MGD is a descriptive term about chronic blockage of the oil glands - which can be caused by several different things. I think that posterior blepharitis is basically a synonym for that. Anterior blepharitis (what's typically referred to as blepharitis) usually involves visible inflammation etc of the lid margins - which in turn RESULTS in blocked glands. This is the kind that is often treated with topical antibiotics and such.

[brd888]

Hello,
You are just chasing your tail trying to differentiate between blepharitis and MGD!
In medical terminology an -itis suffix means "inflamed" or "infected". So bronchitis is anything causing your bronchia to be inflamed. Appendicits is an inflamed appendix etc etc.
"Bleph" means eye lid. So "Blepharitis" is an inflamed eyelid.
MGD is meibomian gland dysfunction or disorder. So anything wrong with your meibomian glands can be called MGD.
Strictly speaking therefore a meibomian gland dysfunction such as blocked glands can cause eyelid inflammation which is blepharitis. And vice versa.

In addition to Rebecca's last post I think anterior blepharitis is "classic" blepharitis in which the eye lid margins are red, flaky and look infected and this IS caused by bacterial infection. Anterior blepharitis is not as common as posterior which is not caused by bacteria.
Anterior means "in front" and posterior means "behind"