The Best Way to Clean Your Face; The Best Way to Clean Your Eyes: Step By Step

Everyone is busy, so here is the fastest, best way to clean your face and eyes. This particularly addresses those of us who suffer from chronic dry eyes, especially blepharitis, rosacea blepharitis, chalazions, styes.




Most of this can be in a hot/warm shower and adds only a few minutes to your routine. 

The goal here is to melt the oil inside your meibomian glands which are at the base of your eye lid margin to make the oil more liquid and express out easier.
Fast Version:

Step 1:
Wash face with warm/hot water every day: morning & night-forever & always


Step 2:
Warm/Hot Compresses: apply heat to eyelid margin as often as possible (hot shower to eyelids works great also; blink hard couple of times after to allow oily substance to come out of meibomian glands). Research studies say 7-15 minutes is best but even 2 min 2x per day helps. If no improvement, increase time & temperature of compress. Increase to 3x per day if eyes are driving you crazy.


Step 3:
Use Ocusoft Foam (fastest way-> put in shower & use fast) (or diluted baby shampoo) to gently scrub eyelash margin to get bacteria/dirt/mites off eyelashes and away from glands. Wash daily once a day; avoid chafing skin.


Step 4:
As needed: Use Cliradex (or diluted Tea Tree oil [TTO]): I cut a Cliradex packet into 2-4 pieces & put into ziplock bag & use this to clean eyelids whenever I feel my eyes/eyelids [you should not feel anything when you blink; you should not feel your eyelids or lashes]
Close eye: scrub with Cliradex or TTO wipe along eyelashes border; try to let air dry; wash off with warm/hot water before opening eyelids [or it will burn].
I recommend Cliradex every day for 2 wks then every other day for 2 wks. You should not feel your eyes after 2-4wks with this routine above. If you do, let your eyeMD know.
There are many more treatment options/tools, you may need.

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DETAILED VERSION: Plus Ointment if prescribed by your EyeMD




Fast Version:




Step 1:
Wash face with warm/hot water every day: morning & night-forever & always


Step 2:

Warm/Hot Compresses: apply heat to eyelid margin as often as possible (hot shower to eyelids works great also; blink hard couple of times after to allow oily substance to come out of meibomian glands).

a. place a hot towel on your eyelid/lash margin [this is where your meibomian glands are located] (you can use hot water, hot tea bags, rice in a tied off sock in the microwave): make it as hot as you can stand it without burning or damaging skin.

b. put it on eye for as close to 10 minutes in the morning, 10 minutes at night. You can start with less, but the longer, the better and sometimes no improvement is seen till it’s been 10 minutes. Studies have been done to show a high temperature over at least 7 minutes makes the eyelid gland (the meibomian gland or pour) open up and express its lipid material. The heat will open the gland orifice, melt the oil, allow to oil to express itself, and allow you to then clean the bacteria/dirt/mites that are making their way into the gland orifice and glogging the gland to begin with.


Step 3:
Use diluted baby shampoo or Ocusoft Foam (fastest way-> put in shower & use fast) to gently scrub eyelash margin to get bacteria/dirt/mites off eyelashes and away from glands

After you have completed the hot compress, use diluted Baby Shampoo Scrubs (50% water/50% shampoo) or Ocusoft Foam or other eye cleaner to wipe at the base of the eyelash (Q tips are best or tip of hot wet towel: just be careful to not poke your eye and scratch your cornea which is very rare). Do these scrubs initially 2x/day if severe symptoms, 1x/day if mild; 2-3x/week if symptoms start returning after things have improved. Avoid drying out skin around eyelid. Expensive eyelid make up remover is no better than the above, by the way; if you have no time, use what is fastest & works for you: the key issue is consistency in the hot/warm compresses & the cleaning of the lids).




Step 4:
As needed: Use Cliradex (or diluted Tea Tree oil [TTO]): I cut a Cliradex packet into 6 pieces & put into ziplock bag & use this to clean eyelids whenever I feel my eyes/eyelids [you should not feel anything when you blink; you should not feel your eyelids or lashes]
Close eye: scrub with Cliradex or TTO wipe along eyelashes border; try to let air dry; wash off with warm/hot water before opening eyelids [or it will burn]


Step 5: IF:


If prescribed, use Erythromycin or Tobradex ointment at night. This ointment blurs vision as it is thick, so that is why we prescribe it at night. On a clean finger, put about 1/4 inch on your eyelids. It is ok if it goes into your eye, but try to gently massage it into the base of the eyelashes as best you can being careful not to poke into your eyeball. You can place a towel on your pillow. Go to sleep. In the morning, wash it off with hot water as above. If you tend to wake up at night or are a risk of falling if vision is blurred, you can apply the ointment to only one eye on alternating nights. 

Note: If you have been told you might have Demodex inside the eyelash follicle (do not despair, see my posting on Demodex to see how it is part of our skin’s normal flora in most everyone), use the following, to get those critters out of your eyelash follicles! We do not want them there. There are many ways to get rid of them:

(1) Cliradex is fastest, easiest (I have no stock in the company or any of the companies listed in this blog). 
(2) Lid scrub with 50% Tea Tree Oil (TTO) & daily lid scrub with Tea Tree Oil shampoo (1 part in 50 TTO shampoo in warm water). 
(3) There may be other treatments out there but these are the best known. If you know of others that have a proven record, please let me know.
Note:
Burning, itching, redness can occur with TTO: can be allergy or death of demodex mite; decrease frequency; stop any of above if intolerable & let us know.

Remember Step 1 (Lid Hygiene) is key. Continue periodically even if your eyes feel better. The heat opens the meibomian glands to help its Lipid come out to help your tears stick on your eye longer. If you get tired of step 1, look at step 8 Intraductal gland probing, Intense Pulse Light, Lipiflow. These are out of pocket, expenses that do not have a 100% guarantee, so it is best to do the lid hygiene routine every day to avoid scarred meibomian glands!


Remember, once a meibomian gland gets scared (and we all have a limited number of them), it is really hard to make it start working normally again!
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