Your eyelids and eyelashes are nasty! In fact the number one problem i see with most people's eyes
is the fact that they don't wash their eyelids! so in this video i'm going to break down how bad
eyelid hygiene leads to eye diseases like anterior blepharitis and dry eyes. plus i'm going to share
five pro tips on blepharitis treatment at home and how you can clean your eyelids properly.
let's take. a look hello and what's up this is Dr. Allen here from the Doctor Eye Health show
helping you learn all about the eyes vision and finding the best vision products now part of my
job as an eye doctor is always examining the eyelids looking for any sort of deformities
irregularities anything that could be leading to disease and it's very common
for me to see people of all ages especially at teenage years and older starting to develop
really nasty eyelids and eyelashes and usually what i see behind a microscope is an extra buildup
of skin oils dead skin cells and even nasty signs of bacteria and even mites on the eyelashes
yes i did say mites in the eyelashes that is a real thing and i hate to say it but
ladies who wear a lot of eye makeup and usually the ones who don't wash off that makeup very
well your eyelids are probably the nastiest. see when either an ophthalmologist or an optometrist
sees this building up on the lashes we call that having anterior blepharitis. and that's when you
have this extra buildup of all this different skin oils and dead skin cells and then bacteria
and these microorganisms such as demodex mites, end up eating those oils and dead skin cells and
then they basically cause inflammation in your eyelids and your lashes and that then contributes
to not just pain burning sensation irritation but that also causes an irregularity in your tear film
leading to dry eye disease in fact this is such a contributing issue to things like dry eye. i know
many dry eye specialists who for every single one of their patients they automatically start them on
some sort of eyelid cleaning regimen. i once heard the analogy that it was like a nasty swimming pool
and people are just adding lubricating artificial tears like filling up the pool with water but they
never bothered to clean the pool out in the first place but to be honest i think part of this issue
is eye doctors faults that we haven't done a very good job in educating our patients the
importance of cleaning their eyelashes and their eyelids on a daily basis, but it kind
of makes sense because even if you are washing your face twice a day most people try to avoid
getting soap and water into their eyes because it stings it burns it's not fun but thankfully now
we do have several different safe easy ways to clean your eyelids that you can just do at home
many of which your doctor will probably recommend to you at some point so let's break down five easy
ways you can start cleaning your eyelids at home preventing blepharitis and dry eyes now all of
these treatments are usually available through your local eye doctor's office so you can always
call up your local clinic and ask what they have and what they think may be working best for you
otherwise all of these different treatments are available over the counter and i'll put links
in the description below if you want to find them yourself and try them out number one is
to clean and wash your eyelids and lashes daily with some form of an eyelid cleanser or shampoo
historically eye doctors have recommended using something like baby shampoo to clean the eyelids
because regular shampoos obviously sting and irritate the eyes but baby shampoo the no
tear formula wouldn't cause this problem however anecdotally myself when i would do this in school
i would know that my eyelids would dry out and in fact it would make them feel worse
and in recent years many eye doctors and dry eye specialists have been concerned about the
preservatives in things like baby shampoo and is now no longer really recommended because there
are studies linking many preservatives found in these products to causing problems with the oil
glands of the eyelids and even causing oil gland death presumably making things like dry eye and
blepharitis worse so instead it is recommended to look for some other form of eyelid cleansing foam
or wash for cleaning the eyelids daily there are many different brands available for this most of
which do contain a little bit of tea tree oil in it and that's because it is really good at
killing microorganisms namely demodex mites most of these cleaning products are very safe to use
but you'll notice ones that have higher amounts of tea tree oil may cause more of a burning stinging
sensation at most local pharmacies you'll be able to find an eyelid cleansing product like this
that's next to all the other eye drops in kind of the eye care aisle otherwise again there are many
companies that make them and are available online another great option is that of eyelid cleaning
wipes which are basically the same type of eyelid cleaning products but infused into a moist
towelette which you open up like a little wet wipe and then you clean your eyelids and lashes with
that every day just like with the eyelid cleansers and foams there's a lot of different competing
products on the market for these most of which all work the same except some of them do require
you to wash your eyelids with water afterward while some other products which i usually prefer
are ones that you can just clean the eyelids and then forget about it you don't have to wash off
your face or anything like that this one is just happens to be one of the newest eyelid wipes on
the market that i've been trying out from tear restore they also make a dry eye kind of eyelid
mask that i've reviewed in previous videos but at least with trying this one for the last few weeks
i do find it very refreshing it doesn't cause any stinging or irritation and in fact it leaves my
skin feeling very clean and healthy again many different options for cleaning wipes it's nice
usually that you can carry them around if you need to otherwise again lots of different options i'll
leave links in the description below now to get better results from your eyelid cleaning regimen
you don't just want to get some sort of eyelid cleanser to the lids to wipe away the skin oils
but you also want to agitate the lashes and really massage the oil glands of the eyelid
that's going to result in more oils from the meibomian glands of your eyelids to excrete
oils and start to stabilize your tear fill one product that i've reviewed in previous videos
and that i do personally use on a daily basis is that of a new lids device the new lids device
basically looks like an electronic toothbrush that has an oscillating head to it that cleans
and massages the eyelids and the lashes and also sonically activates the meibomian glands coming
in at a price of about 250 to 300 us dollars it may be a little steep for a lot of individuals
but i do find it to be working for myself and for a lot of my patients i've had people just tell me
that this is the only thing that really brings them relief i know for some people financially
it may just not be the best option but at least for being an eye doctor and the science behind it
and kind of giving us some hope that we can get the meibomian glands to work a little bit better i
think it may be a great option for some people and at least with some of the pilot studies that they
have published it does show that increased tier break up time and reduced evaporation of the tears
is improved after about 30 days of continuous use now a fourth option for cleaning the eyelids which
looks like an eyelid brush is that of Myboclean and maybe an affordable kind of alternative
to something like the new lids device i don't think they're a direct comparison because the
new lids device really has added benefits of the sonic oscillation but at least with this you are
cleaning and brushing the eyelids Myboclean looks like this they're just little handheld surgical
grade silicone eyelid brushes they're very soft and they're kind of made in an ergonomical design
so it really fits along the eyelids and the lashes but they come in a pack of four so that you can
use one of these on both eyelids for about three months and then after the three months you can
toss them out and then get to the next one kind of like you would be changing out your toothbrush
for example the whole point is that you add an eyelid cleansing product to the brush and then
you massage and clean your eyelids for about 30 seconds or so in my experience i have been
finding them to be really useful especially for travel and just cleaning the eyelids really well
again i can't make claims that they're as good as something as the new lids device because i don't
really have any data or science to really support that they're activating the meibomian glands but
at least for cleaning the lashes and getting all of that crud and oils away from the eyelids
that does a really good job of that one thing i really like about maybelline is their eyelid gel
again i've been only trying it for about a month but it really makes my eyes feel good it's got
a manuka honey coconut oil and aloe vera kind of mixture which with additives like that it's
supposed to help reduce inflammation of your eyelid which again is the whole kind of issue
with blepharitis in the first place i've been liking this so much i've been using it for things
like my new lids device on a daily basis one other eyelid gel i've really liked for myself and using
things like the new lids device is that of zocular that is a type of eyelid gel that's designed by an
ophthalmologist that has proteoglycans in it and there's a lot of research into proteoglycans and
helping reduce inflammation naturally as well as helping with pain and i know a lot of other dry
eye specialists who are big supporters of that product so if you've never heard of mybaclean or
zocular those are maybe two you can check out as well the final and fifth way of cleaning
your eyelids that most eye doctors will probably recommend is that of something called hypochlorous
acid hypochlorous acid is an antiseptic spray that is safe for your skin in fact it's very
similar to something like bleach except that where bleach will cause damage to the surface of
your skin hypochlorous acid won't in fact it was invented as a treatment for diabetic foot ulcers
and then at some point they found that it was a really good at cleaning the eyelids in the face
it's used pretty easily just by either spraying it directly to your face or onto a cotton ball and
then wiping the eyelashes probably the most famous brand in eye care that makes hypochlorous acid is
that of Avenova. Avenova originally started off as a prescription only hypochlorous acid that
you could had to get through your eye doctor but since then it has now become over the counter and
is something that's just readily available you can purchase yourself but the whole point to the
cleaning solution is that you're cleaning your face and killing any sort of microorganisms that
can be contributing to blepharitis and further down the light dry eye since the Avenova product
many other companies are making hypochlorous acids sometimes they're cheaper if you've tried any
other different brands let me know in the comments section if you find one better than the other
i find a lot of these companies will kind of bad mouth each other saying somebody's not
fully like 100 pewter somebody else isn't making it the same way and that it's not as
effective it's tough for me to really know what's effective or not i've never seen any studies
directly comparing any of these products but i do know from talking with a lot of biochemists that
usually ones that are sold in a glass bottle are more stable and are usually going to last
longer on your shelf this just happens to be the brand i've used in the last few years from the i
love company this is their hydrate lid and lash cleanser but again there are many brands on the
market and you can certainly talk to your local eye doctor what they recommend now of course these
are not the only options for treating blepharitis and for cleaning the eyelids for people that this
really gets out of control as an eye doctor will often prescribe antibiotics and other cleaning
products even things done in the office to get things really back to ground zero please remember
that if your eyes are ever really burning causing pain you're having disturbance in your vision
do not just consult all my videos make sure that you talk to your local eye doctor about these
problems so that you can get properly diagnosed and treated but i do hope this video helps you
out and if you've learned something new today go ahead and smash that like button for me and
consider subscribing to the channel if you want to continue learning everything about the eyes and
ways to get your eyes just feeling better seeing better if you do want to know more about dry
eyes and how to treat the eyelids and any issues going on there go ahead and check out
some of our other videos on that same topic or if you want to learn something else cool
about the eyes here from the dr eye health channel click or tap the screen down over here
thanks again so much for watching again this is dr Allen keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you soon