What is BlephEx™ treatment?
Professional eye lid cleaning gives you a head start in your lid hygiene routine. We all brush our teeth twice a day but we still see the dentist to have a super clean. This gives us a good starting point to maintain dental hygiene. In the same way, for those with blepharitis and the need for daily lid hygiene, having your eyelids professionally cleaned gives you a good starting point to keep your eyelid hygiene maintained.
You may be advised lid cleaning following a tear-film assessment along with other dry eye regimens and you may also benefit from combined meibomian gland expression and BlephEx
BlephEx treatment involves the use of a device with a rotating micro-surgical sponge. This exfoliates and cleans the dead skin cells and scurf build-up at the base of the eyelashes and the lid margins. The solution used is also mildly antibacterial and anti-demodex, tackling both causes of blepharitis.
What will happen on the day of my treatment?
- We will check your vision with your glasses ( so bring them with you and dont wear any contact lenses)
- We will perform a slit lamp microscope examination of your eyes.
- Anaesthetic drops are place in your eyes which take about 10 second to take effect and last 30 minutes
- The BlephEx™ tip is prepared with a mild medicated solution
- The procedure is performed on each eye lid for about 30-40 seconds. Once one eye is complete the tip is replaced for the other eyes.
- Once both eyes are complete. We Irrigate the eyes using clean saline.
- A slit lamp micropcopic examination with fluorescein dye is then performed.
- You are given some advice about your eye care (this is also emailed to you) and discharged.
How often should I have the treatment?
Everyone is different so you will be advised this once we have examined your eyes. Some need to repeat 6 monthly, some yearly.
Cataracts and blepharitis
Blepharitis can be a source of infection risk during cataract surgery and it is a good idea to bring the blepharitis under control in order to reduce the bacterial populations on the lid margin. The sort of infection caused by surface microflora is called endophthalmitis. This occurs when bacteria enter the inside of the eye through the surgical entry points. It can be devastating to eyes health and in worse cases can cause complete blindness.
If you find it difficult to effectively cleaning your eye lids it is advisable to consider professional cleaning. This can be done with a one off BlephEx™ treatment before your cataract surgery date. After locally anaesthetising your eyes, the eyelids are effectively cleaned using a microsurgical sponge.
You can read more about blepharitis from this blog post.