r/Dryeyes

Hi, I know there have been alot of posts about this but I'm glad for some help.
I was diagnosed with MGD, doctor said he sees it in his exam in the slit lamp, and my TBUT is 6-7secs (normal is 10 and above). Shirmer was normal.

He suggested warm compresses, I've been trying them for atleast 2months and they barely help, I feel abit better but not really. I tried all kinds of eyedrops, like systane complete and others, and they barely help. I also tried IPL, it barely helped aswell. Maybe for a little bit.

Whats the next treatment? Do antibiotics help? Anti-inflammation? I have another appointment in a week but is there hope?

Has anyone here developed dry eye from light retinoids despite never applying them near the eyes?

I mean retinAL 0.03% or 0.05%, not tretinoin

I'm curious about people who knew about the risks before starting and who were careful to stay completely outside the orbital area, applying it to the forehead, cheeks, and chin.

I've seen a lot of claims along the lines of "retinoids can travel up to 2 inches laterally, so keep them well away from your eyes" or that topical retinoids can be absorbed systemically and somehow affect the meibomian glands that way. But as far as I read, the science doesn't seem to support those claims.

Here to rant because eyedrops literally enrage me. I recently got diagnosed with dry eyes and have been trying to put in hycosan drops but I cannot do it. I miss my eye completely, poke myself in the eye with the bottle, contaminate the nozzle with my eye or lashes or miss the pocket when I’ve pulled my bottom lash line down. I feel an eye infection incoming with how cack handed I do eyedrops.

What makes it even worse is I’m literally an optom student so in theory I should know how to do this. Fine to put drops in other peoples eyes but my own? Nah.

Advice would be appreciated.

I have been treating my dry eye for about a year now, with IPL. In January I started up with RF in addition to the IPL. This duel treatment works well for me, giving me total symptom relief for 3-4 months. Ive done it about three or four times.

Around June I started to notice the hollows under my eyes have become significantly worse.

My doctor uses the OptiPLUS device at a temperature of approximately 42 degrees celsius / 108 deg fahrenheit. He moves it rapidly around my eye and for only a few minutes each time.

Is this fat loss permanent?

Does anyone get persistent styes that keep coming back and getting infected?

I have been dealing with this issue for many years. I am a very clean person and keep up with very good hygiene. I do not know why this keeps happening. Every doctor/specialist I see just tells me the same nonsense about doing heat compresses and cleaning my eyelids. I do those things regularly on a daily basis but it seems they don’t do much and Canadian healthcare is not much help.

Is there something I am missing that anyone can point me in the right direction to putting a stop to this problem?

It’s just crazy to me that there’s war going on and development of advanced technologies to send people to the moon and on and on but there’s still no public awareness to this incurable disease.

I feel like by the time there’s cure to dry eyes I’d be super old or done with life.

I just feel like venting whenever my eyes are dry asf and realized I will be like this for the rest of my life. Life was so good before dry eyes. Now I can’t even step outside without my eyes feeling dry asf.

Alpine day used to be my favorite event of the year and now I don’t even feel like going anymore because my eyes almost killed itself from dryness. The worst part is I’m only 20 I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with insufferable dryness. Every memory I make from this point on will be mostly dry eyes.

Please if anything that helped you share with me. At least I know I’m not alone in this.

Got glands checked today. looked great and spurt out like olive oil when pressed. I’m also producing enough tears and have healthy osmolarity scores. The only thing was they saw some allergies in my eye. Not sure where to go from here. Can my oil be poor quality? Should I try an allergy drop? Or other tests I should do?

I was diagnosed with MGD and severe dry eyes in April of this year. I have run the full course of all the standard treatments - lipiflow, every preservative free eye drop available, warm compresses, omegas, tea tree eyelid wash, and restasis. The tear production has finally started to improve noticably for me in the last two weeks. There is still a lot of inflammation around my corneas that they cant explain. Since this all started i have done 3 rounds of steroid/antibiotic eye drops for this inflammation spaced out about a month each time. I assumed this was caused by dry eyes so didn’t think much of it. I just went in last week and my eye dr said the tear production looks better and doesn’t understand why there’s still inflammation. It’s mainly above and below the cornea. She asked if I scratched my eyes a lot when taking out my contacts because it looks similar to an abrasion. Has anyone else had lingering inflammation? I’m stressed about starting another round of steroids she prescribed for it because that feels like too much. Should I ask for another opinion or is this just normal for what I’ve been dealing with?

I don’t know what started my dry eyes as I’ve never had any issues before. I got tested for sjorgen and was negative. I cannot think of anything that would be scratching my eyeballs or causing irritation without my knowledge…

I‘m from Germany and I have severe dry eyes. Since I had recurring uveitis it got a lot worse. I wake up every night because my eyes are so painful from being so dry.

My ophthalmologist doesn’t seem to care. She just says I should use regular eye drops. I tried to find doctors specialized in the care of dry eyes but they always charge out of pocket or you need private health insurance.

What kind of experiences did you have? Did your eye doctor run tests and did public health insurance cover the costs of those? I need some advice. I really need to something against this issue. It’s ruining my sleep.

on the advice of my ophthalmologist recently switched from ketotifen drops, which i used for years, to olopatadine(.2%)(generic pataday) as he said they're more effective for allergic conjunctivitis.

however this has seemed to make my dry eye much worse, though sometimes it's hard to distinguish between allergic conjunctivitis and dry eye symptoms. now, every day is bad from morning to night, as eyes feel gritty as soon as waking up and seem to make no tears. before, if I spent most of the day inside I could go without artificial tears and was mostly ok in the morning. The dry eye symptoms were only bad on days spent mostly out of the house.

now everyday has been bad, even as I supplement with more pf artificial tears. curious if anyone had similar experience with olopatadine? even if they help more for chronic allergic conjunctivitis, seems counterproductive if my eyes feel worse overall.

hiya, i was diagnosed with MGD recently. i got a meibography done and it showed i have about 30% gland loss in both eyes. i also have a history of chalazion in my upper right eye lid (once a year since 2024. chalazions resolved on their own with heated compresses). after MGD diagnosis, i decided to move forward with IPL treatments.

after my second IPL session, my optometrist said there's improvement in the texture of the oils expressed after treatment (yay good news). however, 6 days after my 2nd IPL treatment, i noticed i'm developing a chalazion in my upper right eyelid. i'm curious if anyone has experienced this. i'm unsure if i should continue with my 3rd and 4th IPL treatment or if that will worsen my chalazion. i'm also confused that it seems like my oil quality was improving but here i am with yet another chalazion. any advice/anecdotal evidence appreciated. thanks!

edit: more info about past chalazions

I was prescribed autologous serum tears for corneal neuropathy. After using 1 drop in both eyes my eyes got significantly worse: pain below eyelids, on eye surface, also burning and much more dryness and feeling of sand.

I don’t know the concentration as in germany no one differentiates between them for whatever reason.

Does anyone has advice for me? I feel like it made my eyes significantly worse after 1 application.

PS: I have an autoimmune disease (spondyloarthritis) but the doctor knew this

New sufferer of a couple symptoms and just wondering if there’s anyone I can pm who feels knowledgeable so I can ask questions to about it.

I work in an air conditioned office 3 days per week and need some glasses to help alleviate the dryness it causes.

I am wondering where to start with getting moisture chamber glasses? I would prefer to see an optometrist to ensure they fit correctly but would order online if needed.

About a year ago, I started experiencing extreme eye pain and watering after a few hours of drinking. I was a senior in college and going out a lot so it really started to affect me emotionally, as I felt I was missing out on a lot. Also, my eyes get really red when this happens, so often I end up just going home because I’m embarrassed and feel people will think Im high or something (I’ve had to give the “I just have dry eyes” disclaimer so many times). Since then, I saw an ophthalmologist (who basically just said “your eyes are really dry”), tried restasis, and nothing has changed. If anything it’s gotten worse. Every time I’ve gone out to the bars for the past 6 months, I’ve gone home early because of my eyes. It never happens when I’m not drinking so I know the obvious answer is just to not drink, but I enjoy going out with my friends and socially drinking and I would really love a long term solution that doesn’t cost $1000/month out of pocket (this is what some of the prescriptions they’ve recommended cost). Does anyone have experience with this? What do I do???

I've been battling with DED since the beginning of this year. Except for the watering etc, what kind of symptoms do you experience. I have pain in my one eye, feels like someone is pouring acid into that eye. I've tried meibomiam massage etc.

But that feeling of acid being poured into my eye....anyone else experience that?

Thanks

I have a very strange situation going on. I have dry eye with a tbut of 5 in both eyes. It has never bothered me & I use lubricating pf drops to manage.
Anyways, last week I got some hot sauce fumes in my eye from putting my fingers under my eyes. I flushed my eyes as one turned red & burned. The next day, it was still bothering me so I used some “soothing” saline to help which actually made it worse (burning & red) due to the preservative (BAK) so I washed that out immediately as well. 2 days later, I went to the eye doctor due to my eyes feeling way more dry & burning when I blink. My tbut was the SAME with some tiny dry patches & I was told I have papillary conjunctivitis after flipping my lids. Told to use optase allegro drops & cool compresses. Just went to my regular eye doctor yesterday as I’m not feeling better, my eyes feel bone dry even when they’re shut. Was told my lids are lumpy & bumpy & that it’s stemming from an allergy or sensitivity since I don’t wear contacts. Also have demodex. I am now starting a short course of steroids but the thing is, did this happen overnight? Why did hot sauce trigger me? My eyes have felt sort of raw for more than a week. Have the papillae been there the whole time, & that’s what they think is bothering me when in reality it’s something else? I just don’t understand.

*edit to add, my actual eyeballs aren’t red whatsoever, you’d have no idea I’m even going through anything by looking at me

Has anyone here had laser eye surgery when they already had dry eyes beforehand?
I know it can make dry eye worse, especially at first but honestly my thinking is I’d rather have dry eyes and not wear glasses than have dry eyes and still wear them.
Just wondering what people’s experience has actually been. Did your eyes get significantly worse long term or did they eventually settle back to how they were before?
Thank you
EDIT: Wasn’t expecting this many replies 😭 but after reading through them all I’ll probably just not get it tbh. The risk of making my dry eyes significantly worse just doesn’t seem worth it. Thank you everyone for being so honest about your experiences.