I actually get this question quite a bit is it okay to do my meibomian gland expression
at home this is where someone takes some forceps and squeezes the oil out of their oil glands and
their eyelids to help them with their dry eyes now I wanted to go over why doctors
actually do this and if it's something that you should be doing at home let's focus in
now just a quick review the oil glands on the eyelids the meibomian glands play a huge role
in dry eye symptoms dry eye disease in fact people that have dry eye disease 86 percent
of them have a component of meibomian gland dysfunction poor functioning oil glands how
the oil glands are supposed to work is every time you blink some oil is secreted out of those oil
glands and then it's spread over the layer of your tears and that oil becomes the lipid layer of your
tears protecting the tears from evaporating and drying out and as you can imagine if that oil
is poor functioning it's not getting spread out then people tend to have more dry eyes because
their tears can evaporate faster and the list of causes to meibomian gland dysfunction it's a long
list it can range from demidex eyelid mites eyelid inflammation blepharitis rosacea environmental if
you tend to work on the computer all day long we have a reduction in blink rate and that can cause
changes to the meibomian glands hormonal changes diet Cosmetics allergic conjunctivitis if you have
allergies that can change the function of the oil glands and the list goes on and on and on
all these changes will affect the function of these oil glands it can cause them to atrophy
they'll actually shrink down you can cause them to be capped or clogged by either biofilm some
bacteria or keratinized or Scar Tissue will clog the oil glands and when they get clogged
the oil just gets trapped in there it becomes stagnant and rancid and then it'll just stay in
there the oil gland just stops producing new oil and just stops working altogether and because of
this the meibomian glands have gained a lot of attention in the past with a lot of research a
lot of treatments and protocols a lot of doctors trying to figure out what's the best way to treat
it and awaken those oil glands clear out the oil glands and so that's why there's a lot of
attention a lot of people asking how they can best treat their meibomian glands the mainstream home
treatment usually involves warm compresses where you can heat up those oil glands heat up the oil
so they can come out easier eyelid massages where you can gently massage the oil glands to express
the oil out of those glands keeping the eyelids clean eyelid hygiene has become a big thing with
hypochlorous acid solution eyelid wipes different devices that can clean your eyelids and eyelashes
better and the list goes on now a lot of people ask okay what about meibomian gland expression
where you actually have a forcep tool and squeeze the eyelids squeeze that oil out of the oil glands
is that something that we should do at home now you will be finding more and more doctors
doing meibomian gland expression usually it's followed by some type of thermal expression or
thermal treatment to those oil glands where they can heat up the oil glands and the oil and then
do a meibomian gland manual expression they'll use a force tool like this and actually squeeze
the oil glands individually to get that oil out there's actually a lot of debate surrounded by
doing meibomian gland expression in the office by doctors are we doing more harm to the oil glands
than good by expressing or pinching too hard will we be damaging the oil glands we could possibly
damage the opening pore of the oil glands we could be pushing the oil deeper down in the
tissue the opposite way that we want to go and so there's a lot of questions about that are we doing
it successfully where it's actually going to help the patient are we applying enough heat before we
do the expression are we doing it too much are we doing it too little there are a lot of questions
that doctors have and differing opinions like I said a lot of debate around it now this brings
me to the big question is this something that you should be doing at home for a treatment for your
dry eyes because people can get their hands on these meibomian gland Express or forceps
but does that mean that you should be actually squeezing your eyelids at home to get that oil
out and I would definitely caution people on doing this at home because of the possible damage that
can be done to the oil glands and possibly cause caused the meibomian gland dysfunction to be worse
in the long run this is something that's likely best done in the doctor's office by the doctor
under the microscope so they can actually see if it's being helpful see if it's something that's
actually being productive to those oil glands and you might find some doctors that just don't want
to do my bohmian gland expression at all there are some doctors that prefer meibomian gland probing
where they actually take a probe and actually break down that keratinized tissue or that scar
tissue if it's been clogged and built up for a long long time that could be the way to go
to actually get those oil glands working again again any treatment at home where you're trying
to help those meibomian glands especially with eyelid massages where you gently use your finger
or a Q-tip you still want to be careful there that you're doing it properly and so meibomian
gland expression with forceps maybe a step too far I think there's actually going to be a lot
more studies in research and treatments that will come out for meibomian gland dysfunction
just in the next few years just because a lot of attention is put on the oil glands just because it
is so prevalent and so hopefully in the next few years we'll even have better treatments I'll come
out with a new video that can hopefully help with the meibomian glands but in the meantime
definitely check out my playlist on how to treat meibomian gland dysfunction blepharitis to help
you with your eyelids and dry eyes right there I'm Dr Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, stay focused