So if you've been researching how to do
eyelid massage or meibomian gland
expression? Well in today's video I'm
gonna show you the best way to do eyelid
massage so that you can improve your dry
eye symptoms and help heal eyelid stye
faster so let's take a look. hey everyone
welcome back to another episode here on
doctor eye health. I am dr. Joseph Allen and
this channel is about helping people
with the eyes, vision and finding the
best vision product so if you're into
taking care of your eyes and seeing your
best then make sure to subscribe so you
don't miss any of my future videos. also
feel free at any point to check out the
youtube description below for additional
links and information about everything
that I go over. so there are many
benefits of doing an eyelid massage
mainly we're using them to basically
encourage the oil glands of your eyelids
called the my bohmian glands to Express
meaning they're gonna release all the
solidified oils out of those glands so
that they can start producing healthy
new oils again. this is really important
for anybody who's struggling with
evaporative dry eye disease or they're
having problems such as a chalazion
which is basically kind of a cyst of
those meibomian glands those oil glands
and the eyelids are blocked up or you
have something like a stye which is an
infection of one of the oil glands along
the eyelid, but if you're not doing
eyelid massage properly either you're
not gonna get that much benefit from it
or if you're doing it completely
incorrectly you could actually end up
hurting your eyes so this video we're
gonna go over how to do it the right way.
the first thing you should know is that
you'll get more benefit out of doing an
eyelid massage if you are using some
sort of warm compress first. now warm
compresses that heat to the eyelid is
actually going to help melt the
solidified oils in those oil glands so
that when you express them they can
actually come out a lot easier again
getting more benefit from doing the warm
compresses and then the live massage. now
my favorite way to do an eyelid compress
there's a couple of different ways to do
it there's a couple at home hacks as
well as some different products that are
on the market that work really well one
of my favorites is same one whether we
offer here at our clinic called the
Bruder eye mask. this one you can pick up
either online or at most eye clinics
they usually run somewhere between 20
and 30 dollars
but there are some updated prices for
those if you want to check them out and
I'll hook that up here in the
description below I also have a whole
other educational video about warm
compresses if you're not really sure how
to do those it'll hook that up here and
you card up above as well as in the
description below if you want to check
that out. otherwise give me a moment I'm
gonna go do a warm compress.
now that we're done doing a warm
compress it's important for you to wash
your hands because you're gonna be
touching your eyelids and you don't want
to give yourself an eye infection. so
there's a couple of ways you can do this
the first way is just close your eyelids
and actually start at the top of the
eyelid and then push down and you're not
gonna be pushing into your eye as much
as it is you kind of kind of just
influence those oil glands just kind of
squeeze out from the top eyelid now if
you notice I'm kind of working my way
around starting in kind of the corner
here and then working my way all the way
through the top portion of the eyelid
and across the far side these oil glands
you have about twenty to thirty of them
on the superior eyelid and so you
actually want to keep moving around
encouraging them to release an
additional way you can do it also is
starting with your finger at the top and
then rolling them down you can again
start here and roll down but I have
personally don't find that as helpful
but some people do like it
then you'll go ahead and repeat on the
lower eyelid same thing you're gonna
kind of push upward this time starting
in the lower corners and pushing upward
now the most of the most important oil
glands that actually end up being
clogged and dying off first are usually
the ones in this lower corner so it's
really important to make sure you get
those lower corners really good and then
you of course repeat not just on one eye
but do that again on the other eye you
can even do them both at the same time
if you're really coordinated now there's
another technique and that's using some
type of either q-tips or cotton-tipped
applicator like the one I have here in
the clinic so this is basically the same
thing as a q-tip and it's important that
if you're using this method make sure
you either wash the q-tip first or you
go ahead and soak it in some sort of
eyelid cleanser like we have here in the
clinic and so I soak the q-tip here in
the eyelid cleanser now I'm actually
gonna again close my eye and this is
kind of the same thing I'm starting on
the top eyelid and basically smoothing
out those oil glands again pushing more
downward rather than in toward my eye
really kind of just massaging those oil
glands to secrete then afterward I
actually like to run the q-tip across
the eyelid margin making sure not to
poke myself in the eye but running
horizontally across the eyelid margin
that will finally encourage that last a
little bit of oil to secrete out
afterward you can again go ahead and
then repeat on the lower eyelid
basically the same technique again you
might have to look upward to do this
better and again really getting the ones
here in the corners and then again
rubbing across right on the margin and
yeah that's how you do an eyelid massage
and then afterward it's best for you to
clean your eyelids with some sort of
forming eyelid cleanser or with maybe
hypochlorous acid spray that's another
thing that can be used to clean the
eyelids you've never heard of
hypochlorous acid I do have a video
explaining what type of chlorous acid is
and how you can get it and I'll hook
that up here in the YouTube card above
as well as in the description below
again if you want to check that out and
one caution is safety for you guys again
when you're pushing on the eyelids after
doing a warm compress it's important not
to push too hard on the eyes themselves
because that's gonna artificially
increase the eye pressure of the eye and
an increased eye pressure can actually
put stress on the optic nerve in the
back of the eye and that can cause
what's called glaucoma or if you already
have risk for something like glaucoma it
may actually put you at a higher risk of
eye damage so make sure that you're not
pushing too hard
additionally warm compresses and eyelid
pressure can actually warp the surface
of the eye the cornea if done too hard
or too frequently so make sure that if
you're doing these on a regular basis
that your doctor has prescribed or
recommended this for you and that's one
of the main reasons why people will
sometimes experience blurry vision after
doing a warm compress and lid massage
because the surface of the eye has been
heated and the cornea can actually
change shape just temporarily for a
little bit also these oils have now
released and are now mixing with your
tears and that oil can cause some
fluctuation of your vision as well
otherwise normal vision usually does
return in just a couple of minutes
afterward so why health question of the
day what do you use in my eyelid massage
for are you doing it for dry eye
symptoms or are you doing it for
something like a sty on your eyelid go
ahead and comment in the section below
let us know what's working for you
everyone thanks so much for watching if
you liked the video give me a thumbs up
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you think it might help if you'd like to
see another cool video in my series
about eyelid hygiene and health go ahead
and click or tap the screen up here to
the side or if you'd like to see another
cool video from dr. eye health just
click or tap the screen down over here
again this is dr. Joe Allen hear from
dr. eye health the channel helps with
the eyes vision and finding the best
vision products keep an eye on it we'll
talk to you soon
