Blepharitis, the inflammation of eyelids has been a nagging problem for centuries, affecting in America alone more than 82 million people. Imagine putting up with tired itchy, burning, runny and dry eyes every day? It won’t kill you, nor necessarily blind you but it may drive you crazy. Up until now all we could do is tell patients to use over-the-counter eye drops and clean your eyelids With Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo. Rarely did the problem go away and many times actually got worse! Without treatment a vicious cycle of bacterial overgrowth occurs time and time again, the toxic response from the resulting biofilm of exotoxin exacerbates the symptoms. Fortunately now we have a new treatment option called BlephX. In less than 10 minutes time and for less than $200 this revolutionary new painless treatment can be implemented to precisely and carefully remove, scurf, debris, exfoliate and cleanse the surface between your individual eye lashes. Utilizing a spinning sterile microsurgical grade sponge along the margin between the islands in the base of the lashes. This treatment along with an antibiotic anti-inflammatory drops (for 2 weeks) combined with Restasis therapy and daily home lid cleansing has helped approximately 80% of our patients to live a happier and less bothersome life. Blepharitis tends to get worse with time. Mainly because the antibacterial properties found in our natural tears diminish with age and become less-effective in controlling the population of naturally occurring Staph bacteria on our eyelids.
On occasion, blepharitis is caused not by Staph bacteria overgrowth but by a microscopic mite called Demodex folliculorum, if this is the cause, a second or third treatment may be necessary utilizing a cleansing compound found in tea tree oil. Patients with Demodex Blepharitis will also need to use Cliradex lid cleanser at home.
Rarely, blepharitis and dry eye syndrome can be very serious causing corneal scarring and even blindness. Fortunately these complications only occur in a very small percentage less than 3% of all the patients with dry eyes and blepharitis.
