lipiflow is one of the most advanced dry eye treatments that someone can get at an eye clinic
people have had amazing results to help them with a dry condition but the tricky part
is that it can be a costly procedure with no insurance coverage
so the question is is lipiflow worth it let's focus in
hey howdy everybody this is Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy with a show that keeps your eyes healthy
and your vision clear and i make videos all about the eyes like this one to help you with
those tough decisions you have to make about your eyes so consider subscribing for my future videos
when they come out now let's focus on lipiflow lipiflow is one of the most advanced fda approved
dry eye treatments that you can have done at your eye doctor's office if they have it it targets and
treats the oil glands in your eyelids specifically if you have meibomian gland dysfunction the oil
glands in your eyelids are called meibomian glands and they run vertical up and down your eyelids top
and bottom now they're responsible for pumping and pushing out oil over the top layer of your tears
if you don't have enough oil or the wrong type of oil then your tears will evaporate
leaving your eyeball exposed to the air causing them to get dry and inflamed and causing dry ice
symptoms that you might expect now if your oil glands are clogged or they're shortened
or they're at your feet or you don't have the right type of oil or their plane not functioning
very well then you have what's called meibomian gland dysfunction and it's one of the most common
core issues to dry eye problems and that's exactly what lipiflow treats it treats the core issue it
treats meibomian gland dysfunction now the actual lipiflow procedure is ran by a computer console
and single use activators now before you actually do the procedure your eye doctor might do a little
bit of prep work usually they'll put in an anesthetic eye drop to numb your eyes first
and then they may also debride your eyelids or clean off any capped hardened oil from your
oil glands and that will make the procedure more effective then they'll place the actual
activators between your eyeball and your eyelids top and bottom now what's kind of neat about the
activators especially the white bowl that you see here is that it serves two functions the inside
will protect your cornea from the actual procedure the outside is where all the heat is applied and
that's applied to the inner layer of the eyelids and that's part of what makes this procedure
so effective is that it's applying that the heat to the inside of the eyelids and not the outside
so once your activators are in place the device is turned on and the activators are heated up to
exactly 42.5 degrees Celsius the heat that they found that works the best now each activator has
these little bladders on there that will massage your oil glands and they massage in a peristaltic
motion pretty much meaning that they start from the the beginning of the oil glands or the base
of the oil glands and then they'll squeeze and massage trying to remove and push any
obstruction or hardened oil out of the opening of the oil gland it's kind of like you're pretty much
just milking your own oil glands now with this combination where you have the heat
applied to the inside of the eyelids and that peristaltic massage that combination works really
well at cleaning and clearing out your oil glands to help them function better in the future now the
procedure lasts exactly 12 minutes you do both eyes at the same time and then when you're done
they're able to remove the activators really safely and then you're all finished
now what to expect right after the procedure you may experience some redness itchiness maybe some
more dryness or inflammation sometimes your eye doctor may prescribe a steroid eye drop to help
with the inflammation that you might have but they're pretty minimal doesn't last long so
usually really safe to do not a lot of people have any side effects after the procedure now like i
said in the beginning the video is that lipiflow is not cheap by any means the actual device costs
thousands of dollars the single use activators can cost hundreds of dollars so it's pretty expensive
just for the doctor to have in the clinic and then on top of that lipiflow right now is not covered
by any insurance companies so it's usually an out of pocket cost now depending on where you go you
may be looking at about a thousand dollars that's for both eyes to have done a thousand dollars
now what's nice is prices have been coming down a little bit the activators have been
getting a little bit cheaper and so you're slowly seeing doctors being able to lower that price now
the question of the video even with the cost of lipiflow do i think that lipiflow is worth it
yes yes i do but let's go over a few things now first things first is you want to make sure that
your dry eye condition is caused by or partially caused by meibomian gland dysfunction now the eye
doctor that has your lipiflow should be able to take pictures of your oil glands also check the
function of your oil glands to see if you have any atrophy or low functioning glands if so you'd be
a very good candidate for lipiflow so here's a quick example of what your oil glands might look
like with the top picture being more normal and then this middle picture being more moderate where
some of the oil glands have atrophied and some are gone some oil glands show some blockages in there
and then this bottom picture more severe where the oil glands are pretty much gone
and not functioning at all now usually what we tell people is once those glands are gone
there's no getting them back so the goal of lipiflow is not only to improve the function
of your oil glands but try and preserve them to keep them from advancing to a more severe stage
that will help your dry eyes in the future now that being said there are some small
studies that have shown some promise that after people have had lipiflow on a microscopic scale
there's some regeneration some of the oil glands have come back a little bit
so we'll have to see how those studies play out once they dive into it deeper now one thing
to consider is meibomian gland dysfunction is a chronic disease usually involving inflammation and
so you already need to have a dry eye treatment regimen put in place that can include lipid-based
artificial tears eyelid hygiene omega-3s fish oil supplements something that you're already doing to
help your dry eyes that will make the procedure more effective when you have it done now if
you're doing any dry eye treatments check out my video series on dry eyes to help you get started
now i'll put links in the description below for all my recommendations about omega-3s artificial
tiers also how you can check your own omega-3 levels at home now does lipiflow work yes is the
cost of lipiflow worth it yes is lipiflow the end all be all work for everybody unfortunately no now
like i said before a study showed 85 of the people that had this show improvement in their symptoms
there was one other study that showed 51 of the people got to the four year mark with improved
symptoms and not needing a repeat lipiflow as long as they were sticking with their eyelid hygiene
and their usual dry eye treatments that they were doing so very important keep on doing your normal
dry eye treatments if lipiflow is an option to you i strongly recommend considering it especially if
you have meibomian gland dysfunction it can treat your oil glands as well as preserve your oil
glands for the future hopefully slowing down the progression of your dry eye condition hey thanks
for watching the video i hope this helps you make a decision if you're considering lipiflow i'm Dr.
Neal Guymon Dr. EyeGuy focusing on you and your eyes stay focused and make sure you check out
my other videos clicking or tapping the screen right there and i'll see you in the next video