Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) for Dry Eyes and Meibomian Gland Dysfunction

Are your eyes tired? Does working on the computer make you tired? Are eye drops not helping?

Dry eyes is the one of the most common vision problems in the world, yet it is often misdiagnosed or missed completely. Often doctors simply tell their patients to use eye drops, but eye drops don’t work if your tear making glands are clogged or inflamed. You will still not be able to make and secrete healthy tears until you treat the root of the problem.

There are multiple reasons for dry eyes: medication, stress, allergies age, inflammation, heavy computer use, clogged tear making glands, insufficient tear production, demodex (lid mites) and health problems (such as rheumatoid arthritis and Sjogrens). I am going to cover the most prevalent reason for dry, tired, red or scratchy eyes: meibomian gland dysfunction. This is when the glands in your eyelids, that make the important oily layer of tears, are clogged or inflamed.

The first thing we do is evaluate the lids both outside and inside. To look inside the tear glands, I use a meibographer which is an infrared imaging system. Once I have seen the condition of the inside of your tear making glands, I can recommend the best treatment for you.

The first round of treatment is to usually open the plugged oily tear glands by using a heated massage. This allows what’s inside to come out. It takes several treatments if you’ve had dry eyes for awhile to move out all the layers of oil and bacteria.

If your meibomian glands have been clogged for awhile, they will most likely be inflamed. If any part of your body is plugged up, like your bowels or intestines, they would be unhealthy also. This often leads to ocular rosacea which aggravates the inflammation. For this we use Intense Pulsed Light Therapy called IPL. We use the IPL to treat the inflammation to restore a healthy environment so that the tear making glands can produce healthy tears again. There are prescription medications that also treat inflammation as well as infrared eye masks. Our recommendations are based on the severity of your problem.

Other holistic treatments include tear stimulation drops instead of artificial tears, punctal plugs, amniotic membrane, lid hygiene, healthy diet, and now there are even amniotic membrane drops. I also treat from the inside out using nutraceuticals such as MaxiTears Pro which helps to produce healthy quality and quantity of tears.

Dr. Brisco is a firm believer that stress is the underlying cause for much of dry eyes. She has published several articles about “Stress Induced Dry Eyes” in the Natural Medicine Journal for Naturopathic Doctors, and Primary Care Optometry.

“A Holistic Approach to Treating Dry Eyes”, Natural Medicine Journal, December 28, 2018

“An Integrative Approach to Treating Stress Induced Dry Eyes,” Primary Care Optometry, October 2018

Patients fly in to see Dr. Brisco from all around the United States because she is one of the few optometrists that treats patients combining the best of western medicine and holistic or natural care. Below is the story of one of our patients who suffered from dry eyes and Meibomian Gland Dysfunction since he was 12 years old.

Join @piero_benavides and Dr. Brisco to discuss his journey to wellness. Piero has been examined by many doctors who have prescribed a variety of artificial tears and prescription eye drops which have either not helped or provided little long-term relief. He has also been treated with a thermal eye massage called Mibo Thermaflow which provided some added relief, but not completely. He was also told by one doctor, “Nothing is wrong with you because you are too young to have dry eyes.” Dry eyes increase with age, but as with most medical problems, there are always exceptions to the rule.

Once Piero came to Dr. Brisco, and after a careful integrative optometric exam, she used a cloud-based infrared imaging system called Meibox to view inside his oily tear making glands called the meibomian glands. She found that his glands were damaged because of years of inflammation and physical blockage of his oily tear making glands.  Combined with his history and symptoms, and the telangiectasia (spidery veins) that she found on his lids during the microscopic lid exam, I diagnosed him with Meibomian Gland Dysfunction and Ocular Rosacea.

The missing link to his treatment is to treat the underlying inflammation in his tear glands. Dr. Brisco used Intense Pulse Light (IPL) therapy with the M22 by @lumenisvision which is the global leader in energy-based medical solutions. After his first treatment his eyes felt “normal”. This is after 8 years of many doctor exams and various treatments.

Take home message: if you still feel something is wrong after seeing a doctor, something probably is wrong. Keep searching until you find a treatment because different doctors have different training and philosophies. As an Integrative Optometrist, Dr. Brisco takes a holistic approach to treating patients. She uses non-pharmaceutical options first whenever possible.

Healthy is beautiful, and without health, you cannot have true beauty. So to have beautiful eyes, start with the health of your eyes to keep your eyes looking and feeling their best.

Follow Dr. Brisco on Instagram for daily holistic wellness inspiration @HollywoodEyes