Blepharitis
What is it?
Blepharitis is an inflammatory condition of the eyelids.
We used to think it was caused by local populations of (staph) bacteria going nuts around the moist eyelids, but now we know it’s usually MITES. Demodex mites are tiny little creatures that walk around on our skin, especially at night.
They have a 2-week life cycle. They have 8 disgusting little legs that carry them around at about 1cm per hour, and they love to eat oily substances. There are a lot of oily substances around our eyelids and in the follicles from which our eyelashes grow.
At our practice we must see Demodex Blepharitis about 8 times a day - it’s ridiculously common. The eyelids get red and a bit swollen, and the nearby oil glands, responsible for producing liquid oil, to stop our thin layers of tears from evaporating off our warm eyes, get chocked up with rubbish, sometimes more like a toothpaste consistency than a nice clear liquid, and we end up with evaporative dry eyes.
People with red, sore eyes will often just assume they have an infection in their eyes and grab some Chlorsig at the chemist. This does NOTHING except to get into your system and kill of some of the good bacteria in your large intestine, which leads to more inflammation.
There are lots of commercial products to help with Demodex Blepharitis, and there are lots of in-practice techniques we can use to annihilate them (temporarily) as well. One of my patients came up with a great concoction in her own home to fix her severe recurrent Demodex Blepharitis - simply QV wash with some tea tree solution mixed in.
Does this sound like you?
Book a 15 minute consult with either of our optometrists, Julie Newport (ABC radio interview) or Andrew Robinson!