subject: What Is Blepharitis? [print this page] Many people have known what its like to have an inflammation on their eyelids, with the rims all swollen and red.
Blepharitis is not a serious disease, but it can be quite bothersome to you. Its most common symptoms include burning or stinging sensation in your eye, itchiness in the eyelids and crusty formations on your eyelashes. Foreign body sensation and high sensitivity to light may also be experienced, as in dry eye syndrome. Blepharitis symptoms feel much worse in the morning.
Types of Blepharitis
An infection of the eyelids by Staphylococcus bacteria can lead to blepharitis. The problem usually begins in the base of the eyelashes, giving rise to a mass of dry, scaly skin. Your eyelid tissues may be hypersensitive to toxic compounds coming from the staph bacteria, leading to inflammation of the inner lining.
The skin problem called seborrhoea, or seborrheic dermatitis, can also cause blepharitis (thus the term seborrheic blepharitis). Seborrheic blepharitis is usually less severe than staphylococcal blepharitis. Seborrheic dermatitis is suspected to induce an over-production of lipids, which irritate sensitive skin tissue as they break up into simpler fatty acids. Seborrhoea located on the eyelids can subsequently become blepharitis.
Another cause of blepharitis derives from meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). These glands are responsible for producing the lipids that form the a part of your tear film. The fatty layer inhibits tear evaporation. The glands get blocked or otherwise cannot secrete the required lipids. On occasion, this leads to inflammation and, as a result, blepharitis. Individuals with blepharitis of MGD and seborrheic origins are more likely to get seborrheic and MGD-related blepharitis.
Treatment
All forms of blepharitis are chronic, with no known cure. The best you can do is to manage the disease, with guidance from your eye care professional.
You must take pains to cleanse the eyelid frequently. You can mix warm water with some baby shampoo and apply it in gentle strokes with a clean cloth. Scrub the lid with the cloth to detach encrusted secretions and crusted debris. You remove breeding ground for bacteria when you scrub away the debris. Scrubbing gives the added benefit of inducing the secretions from the meibomian glands, improving tear quality and slowing down tear evaporation for relief of dry eye symptoms. For good measure, you can apply gentle but firm circular strokes to massage the eyelids to induce more secretions from the affected glands.
If you are still trying to bring the blepharitis outbreak under control, you will need to scrub the eyelid at least twice daily until the symptoms improve. Months of cleansing may be necessary.
In staphylococcal blepharitis, For mild cases of staphylococcal blepharitis, topical antibiotics may be prescribed for application on the eyelids and lid margins. In severe cases, the ophthalmologist may prescribe topical steroids but will warn you about the dangers of long-term steroid use in terms of higher risk of glaucoma and cataract formation.
If you are interested to try alternative treatment, you can check out folk techniques that use castor oil to suppress inflammatory symptoms associated with blepharitis.
Castor oil has considerable amounts of ricinoleic acid, which helps to control the inflammation. For this reason, many medications utilise castor oil in emulsion or in combination with cyclosporine. Higher consumption of omega-3 fatty acids can also reduce inflammation.
