blepharitis is the inflammation of the eyelids and eyelid margins and it's actually really common to
see it in the clinic in fact if you have itchy red dry eyes there's a good chance that you actually
have blepharitis right now so in this video we're going to go over exactly what blepharitis is
and also the best treatments for it because some of the treatments may only scratch the surface
let's focus in hey howdy everybody this is Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, with the channel to keep
your eyes healthy and your vision clear and this video is a part one introduction video in a series
of videos about blepharitis it's so common that you might be diagnosed with blepharitis right now
or know somebody that has it so this series of videos is designed to help you manage your
blepharitis with your doctor so make sure you check out the top link in the description below
to that series of videos so it can help you out now blepharitis is broken down into two different
categories anterior blepharitis and posterior blepharitis so let's head over and go over
anterior blepharitis first anterior blepharitis is in the name it's more anterior or the front part
of the eyelid margin at the base of the eyelashes and just like this eyelid muddle here you might
get a buildup on the base of the eyelids and eyelashes and it can look like little flakes
or dandruff kind of like getting dandruff from your hair sometimes people use the analogy that it
looks like sugar coated churros yeah the base of the eyelashes that's kind of a gross analogy but
it kind of does look like that now this build up is usually a combination of your own dead skin
cells and bacteria your natural flora bacteria that's in there and some people just have more
dead skin cells and so they might be more prone to getting anterior blepharitis and all of this can
cause your eyelids to get red it can cause lid inflammation almost make it have a crusty scaly
appearance and can also cause your eyes to get dry your own eyeballs to get red and inflamed as well
now with the name posterior blepharitis it's more posterior or on the back eyelid margin
of the eyelids and this usually involves the meibomian glands in the eyelids now we have
about 25 to 30 oil glands called meibomian glands in each one of our eyelids now the words posterior
blepharitis and meibomian gland dysfunction are sometimes used interchangeably because there's
a lot of overlap in those two conditions now usually when you have posterior blepharitis you
likely have meibomian gland dysfunction as well now if the meibomian oil glands are inflamed
they have a harder time secreting oil every time you blink and that oil is very very very important
at helping you have a healthy tear film if the oil is not there then your tears will
evaporate really fast and cause dry eyes redness inflammation on the eyes and so now you can kind
of see how everything's linked and overlapped a lot of times posterior blepharitis can be
associated with rosacea as well with these excess skin cells bacteria will sometimes create a matrix
on the surface of your eyelids called a biofilm and in this biofilm it can involve one or many
types of bacteria and this biofilm is actually a perfect environment to actually reproduce
more bacteria so it's almost like creating a colony or a city or a village right on the
surface of your eyelids and can be really tricky to get rid of because it's pretty much on there
attached onto the surface of the eyelids in this biofilm now here's a little video that i took of
my own eyelids and eyelashes i also suffer from blepharitis i actually purposely didn't clean my
eyelids and lashes last night so you can actually see this film but on here you can actually see a
mild amount of that biofilm kind of that scaly shiny look to it sometimes it's actually kind of
gross to actually look at a really close-up video or a picture of your own eyelids or eyelashes but
i just wanted at least give you an example my own example and that biofilm is exactly what
can actually clog or block your meibomian oil glands it can sometimes contribute to the oil
glands getting a little bit harder and coming out a little bit thick and also can contribute
to anterior blepharitis with more bacteria and more skin cells just building on top of that
biofilm and this is the challenge with blepharitis treatment sometimes certain treatments can't get
rid of that biofilm adequately or enough and so sometimes there's a little bit more or better
treatments out there so let's go over treatments now remember i have a playlist of videos going
over specific treatments for blepharitis but i do think there are a few things i want to mention
in this video you can break the treatments down into classic treatments that have been around for
years and now more advanced treatments that target blepharitis specifically in the past a
classic treatment might be baby shampoo when we'd wash our face we wouldn't wash our eyelids and
eyelashes because we didn't want to burn our eyes with the soap and so doctors would recommend the
non-burn baby shampoo but what they found is the preservatives in the baby shampoo sometimes could
do more harm than good so yeah we're going to move on from baby shampoo other classic treatments that
you actually might be doing right now would be warm compresses to loosen those oils make those
oils more liquid also eyelid scrubs eyelid scrubs have been around for a while to try and clean the
eyelids clean the dandruff and debris off the eyelashes also sometimes if it got bad enough
a doctor would prescribe an antibiotic or an antibiotic ointment or maybe a steroid ointment
to reduce the inflammation and kill the infection to destroy all the excess bacteria on the eyelids
now the classic treatments warm compresses eyelid scrubs are still good but may only be scratching
the surface with your blepharitis so now let's move on to the more advanced or the more specific
treatments for blepharitis that might do a better job at clearing out that bile film that's sitting
on your eyelids clearing off the debris cleaning out the excess bacteria and helping
really helping with your blepharitis now if you really want to get good results you really need
to be cleaning your eyelids and eyelashes every night you definitely still want to do eyelid
scrubs from the classic treatment it's still going to clean your eyelids and eyelashes but if
you want to step up your eyelid scrub game you can check out these eyelid scrubs that have been made
more specifically for blepharitis they might have other ingredients in there like green tea extract
tea tree oil tea tree oil can help with mites that might live on your eyelashes
demodex and so there are other ingredients in there that might help clean your eyelashes better
also help control the bacteria and actually moisturize your eyelids so definitely check those
out remember i have a link in the description of the series of videos i did a video about my
favorite eyelid scrubs and i'll put links to those different eyelid scrubs if you want to check those
out you can also check out eyelid cleaning foams that are also really good they might be a little
bit more gentle on the eyelids if you don't want to use the eyelid scrub pads another one that i've
mentioned in another video is to use something called hypochlorous acid solution which may
sound scary but it's actually really safe in fact you can spray this right onto your eyelids and
eyelashes in fact if you spray it every night you can let it air or maybe pat dry with a cotton wipe
and actually just leave it on there now this is designed to control or help manage the overgrowth
of bacteria on your eyelids and eyelashes this will help blepharitis from getting out of control
now hypochlorous acid solution is over the counter so you don't need a prescription
and i'll put links in the description below to my favorite ones but i actually use this one
quite a bit and i like it okay now let's step up our treatment a little bit like i said it can be
challenging to get rid of that biofilm that sits and cakes on the surface of the eyelids
so we're going to step it up a little bit and here are my recommendations for that the first
product that i'd recommend is actually a more natural treatment if you want to go that route
it's an eye drop or an ointment and it's called manuka honey and i actually did a specific video
about my experience with manuka honey and how it might help soothe your eyes and help control
the overgrowth of bacteria on your eyelids so definitely check out that video if you want to
go that route the second product i'd recommend is actually a cleaning system called mibo clean
it comes with a four pack year supply of these silicone medical grade scrubbers with these little
soft little bristles that help kind of clean your eyelids it has a nice shape to it so you can get
into the corners there and actually works really well and it comes with probably one of the best
eyelid cleansers that i've ever used made with organic ingredients including manuka honey coconut
oil aloe vera sea salt and you actually put it right onto the scrubber and then you can actually
start scrubbing your eyelids and eyelashes now this can agitate and get off that biofilm at least
a little bit better off the eyelashes and the eyelid margins so you can actually get in there so
this has definitely helped me so definitely check into this again i'll put the links in the
description now you can get the mibo clean system for about 86 again it's a year supply definitely
worth it the next product that i recommend the eyelid device called new lids and it can run
between 200 and 300 dollars but it's really nice because it actually has an oscillating silicone
tip on there so when you're actually cleaning your eyelids when you turn it on you clean your
eyelids it's actually scrubbing and turning and oscillating so it can agitate and hopefully get
off that biofilm even a little bit better but that is something that i would definitely look
into if some of these other treatments aren't really cutting it now even with those great
over-the-counter treatment options sometimes it's still a challenge to get rid of that biofilm and
so you may require an in-office procedure called micro bleph exfoliation now we actually offer this
to our patients this is called blephex similar to new lids where it has an oscillating tip it has
a sponge on the top that you actually soak in an eyelid cleanser and this actually spins at about 2
000 revolutions per minute now this will really agitate and does a great job at clearing and
cleaning off that biofilm plaque that's on the eyelids now your doctor might go over each eyelid
maybe multiple times might take five minutes per eye but this does a really great job at
breaking the cycle actually clearing off that biofilm plaque on your eyelids and so you might
need this if the other treatments don't work you might need it again in the future just to break
the cycle again and again so remember this is an option and you might want to check with your eye
doctor to see if it's offered in their office now if you learned something new from this video make
sure you hit that like button subscribe for my future videos and make sure you check out that
playlist to learn more specifics about blepharitis i'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, stay focused