In this video
I'm gonna be going over how to do a warm compress
Correctly so that you can get the most benefits while doing them. Also stay tuned toward the end for some extra
Do-it-yourself hacks and pro tips to make them even more effective. So let's take a look
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Vision and if this is the first time we're meeting I'm dr. Joseph Allen
I'm a practicing optometrist - in the state of Minnesota and it's really my passion to help teach and educate everybody about the eyes
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Also at any point throughout the video if you check out the show notes in the description below you'll find additional
Resources and information about everything that we reviewed today. Otherwise, let's go over how to do a warm compress
So the best and most effective way to do a warm compress is with a heat'll eye mask and I use the Bruder moist heat
Compress it's designed as super well and made out of a soft hypoallergenic
Material has an adjustable head strap
So you can easily relax without having to hold it to your eyelids and when it heats up that
Patented Medi beads inside absorb moisture from the air and release it naturally making the compress more comfortable and effective
Plus if it gets messy
It's also washable and reusable you simply put the mask in the microwave for about 20 seconds then apply
I personally like the compress a little hotter so I crank it up to about 30 seconds
But I recommend you first test it out on the back of your hand just to make sure that you don't burn yourself then you
Adjust the head strap close your eyes and secure the compress to fit around your closed eyelids
additionally you can use the compress without the strap and either hold it or
Just let gravity do the work warm compresses actually work the best when doing them for at least 10 minutes at a time
That constant heat is going to be key to helping them be more effective
That heat actually helps melt the oils that are trapped inside the oil glands of the eyelids
We call those Meibomian glands and they run vertically on both the top and bottom
Portion of our eyelids and by doing these warm compresses, you're gonna help improve symptoms of dry eye disease
Irritation from blepharitis as well as help heal chalazion and styes
Now an extra pro tip would be that once you're done with the ten minutes go ahead and use your finger and gently massage
The top and bottom portions of your eyelids that's gonna help squeegee out all those old
Solidified excess oils out of those oil glands and that's gonna allow the oil glands to produce new
oils, those oils are supposed to sit on top of your tear film and prevent them from
evaporating so once you're done with this
You might even notice that your vision will fluctuate a little bit or look kind of blurry and that's because you're actually now
Looking through those old
Oils that have been squeegeed out and are flooding your tear film now repeat warm compresses at least daily for management of dry eye disease
Or blepharitis or at least four times a day in cases of a sty or chalazion
Or as frequently as prescribed by your doctor
Now the Bruder mask just happens to be the brand that
I like to use this video isn't sponsored in any way and there are other similar brands out in the market you can of course
shop around
however
If you do want to check out the Bruder mask I have provided some links in the description below and if you click those links
It will throw some change toward this channel and make future videos like this possible. So thank you for your support now
There are some budget and at home hacks do warm compresses that aren't as convenient as the Bruder eye mask
And I did want to go over them and mention some of their pros and cons the first most
frequently way as I've seen people do a warm compress and that's using a warm washcloth or a hot towel and
Doing that. It's pretty simple. You'd run a washcloth under hot water
once it's hot enough you wring it out and then you put it over the eyelids and
The big issue even though it's definitely the cheapest option
I think it's probably the least effective in my experience and that's because it simply cools off way too quickly
So after about 15-20 seconds
The washcloth is gonna end up going off and you'll have to take it off reheat it and then apply
And so you're not gonna really get that 10 minutes of constant heat. You're gonna have to keep reapplying and reapplying and reapplying
So it's gonna take a lot longer
also when I do it I end up getting water all over my face and my clothes and
I find it's just kind of a big waste of water
The other option that I know of is using a clean sock and putting about a cup of dry rice in there
Once you have that in you can tie it off put that in my her wave and then you could hold that to the eye
The downsides is that it's usually much smaller
it's only about the size of your fist so you can only get about
One I done at a time
So you're gonna hold it there for about 10 minutes and then you can have to switch to the other eye and do another 10
Minutes, you also don't have the convenience of the head strap. So you do have to hold it there with your hand the whole time
also
Personally, I had a bad experience doing this the very first time I learned about it
I was getting my doctorate and I went home and tried it because I have dry eye symptoms and
Even though I used a clean sock I ended up giving myself a sty an eyelid infection
The very first sty I ever got I got from doing these
So if you do go ahead with this method and try it out, I would recommend using a brand-new
Sock because even though you maybe have clean socks
You don't know what kind of bacteria or foot fungus might be living in there and one last quick tip
Is that when you're done doing the 10 minutes and in doing that gentle lid massage?
make sure you were again doing it soft and gently because people who really crank on their eye with a lot of pressure put
Themselves at an increased risk for what's called keratoconus. That's a coronal disorder
And if you push on the high really hard you could also increase the pressure of the eye and that can lead to glaucoma
So yeah be gentle so hopefully you found this tutorial helpful
And if you have any additional questions, make sure to check out the complete list info in the description below
I health question of the day. Why are you doing warm compresses and are they working?
Be sure to share your tips in the comments below because often times the best tips come from you and I health community
All right. Thanks so much for watching. Again. This is doctor Joseph Allen from dr. Eye health
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