Can a specialist (or anything else) help with stye prevention?

March 6, 2019 3:55 AM

After a lifetime of never having them, I've been having near-constant styes and/or chalazia for a number of months, ramping up from my first several a couple of years ago. I've been referred to a specialist, but I'm not sure whether I should go. I'm only interested in prevention and I don't know if there's anything further that can be done on that front.

When I talked to the specialist's office, they said I should make an appointment with their Ocular Plastics person, who deals with lancing, etc. I'm not in need of lancing, and it made me wonder whether there's anything they can do in terms of prevention (presumably along with identifying the cause for the change from zero to near-constant styes/chalazia), which is what I do need.

I already tried a course of antibiotic ointment, and OptiHealth wipes. I wash my face daily with Cetaphil, which is the same routine I've had since long before I had my first stye. I can't think of any product that I've changed (hair care, face/body, detergent, pillowcases, etc.). I don't wear make-up or lotion. I wasn't peri-menopausal yet when I started getting them, though now I am, so I suppose they could have been the first sign. When I get them, I know to use warm compresses and massage the lid. I see online that there are other ways to treat/heal current ones, but if I'd just continue getting more, there wouldn't be much point -- I'd have them near-constantly whether I healed current ones or not.

Got any stye prevention tips and experiences? Accounting for those, would a specialist be able to help any further with prevention, or if that's my focus, is there nothing more to do?

posted by daisyace to Health & Fitness (10 answers total)

I'll be watching this thread as I have the same problem (and the timing was also associated with perio-menopause). I want to recommend the Bruder eye mask as an alternative to a warm, wet cloth compress.
posted by shw at 4:12 AM on March 6, 2019

Do you eat alot of cured meats (salami for me, german, hungarian, etc)/fatty foods or generally have a high-fat diet?

I used to - and used to get styes fairly frequently. But, there was no medical or cosmetic advice - just something I noticed years after that I had stopped getting them. (Googling seems to confirm this can be a thing). Around the same time period I had gotten fatty deposits under my eyes - had them lanced by a cosmetician. Also never came back when I changed my diet. And the pre-gout pains I had started having in my feet also did not come back.
posted by jkaczor at 5:14 AM on March 6, 2019

Moisturising your eyelids with an unscented plain moisturiser and using a micelle solution-based cleanser on cotton wool pads may help. Not sure if the specific products we have in the UK are available in the US, but hopefully equivalents would be - E45 moisturiser and Blephasol micelle solution have been pretty miraculous for me (as long as I use them every day).

Good luck with it.
posted by Otto the Magnificent at 5:51 AM on March 6, 2019

I've had a lot of luck with oral flaxseed oil capsules, which were recommended to me by an ophthalmologist. I take 4000mg a day, which is a lot. If you try it, start with less--it's something you need to work your way up to if you don't want your digestive system to go crazy! Give it a month or two to kick in. I've been taking it for ten years and I don't think I've had more than a couple of sties in all that time.
posted by pangolin party at 6:11 AM on March 6, 2019

My doctor recommended hot compresses for prevention, since it keeps things draining normally. It seems to help me.
posted by medusa at 7:26 AM on March 6, 2019

When I had a similar problem in my teens (a couple of styes in the same eye, a few weeks apart), I spent about a month or so using a mild boric acid eyewash, and then changing my pillowcase, twice a week.
posted by Iris Gambol at 10:06 AM on March 6, 2019

FWIW my eye doctor said I get them because I spend too much time staring at the screen (it's an occupational hazard) and I'm not blinking enough.
posted by each day we work at 12:29 PM on March 6, 2019

This might sound dumb, but do you rub your eyes? Especially if you get them in one eye vs both, it could be as simple as rubbing your eye with your non-dominant hand as a kind of nervous-tic light, or even specifically because the one eye is itchier than the other (itchy is the first sign of a stye or blepharitis? blephariti? for me). I wear glasses so it's obvious to me when I start rubbing my eyes, usually when I'm tired or stressed - maybe fake lenses at home to detect if this is a problem for you would help (non rx glasses on amazon are like $6). These also seem to flare up when i'm under high stress and likely linked to my hormones, but I don't have a specific diagnosis for this. Last thing is very dry weather, especially if this means a >50 degree F difference between two dry environments (indoors vs outdoors in winter where I live) - my opthamologist prescribed eye drops and also suggested OTC eye drops, both of which helped a lot when I could deal with eye drops a few times a day. Humidifier would likely help too but aggravates my asthma. I also try not to sleep on a pillowcase side more than once or twice, I sleep on two pillows and make sure to flip the top one, and then the next night switch the top and bottom pillows, then flip again. 2-3 pillowcases in the wash a week is about as inconvenient as an extra t shirt or pair of socks, eg., not at all inconvenient and a five minute chore to switch them out.

Cetaphil seems like a really mild and overall good cleanser, but since you haven't switched it up in a long long time, maybe it's time?

I'd see the specialist anyways unless it's super expensive or highly inconvenient, they likely do more than lancing (seems weird someone described their job to you as this?) and surely have seen all kinds of reasons for this sort of thing. Plus the thing above about you already having a relationship if you need to get something lanced.
posted by love2potato at 6:15 PM on March 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Do you have other medical issues? My husband had constant styes which the ophthalmologists confidently said was due to overactive tear ducts. He also had symptoms of gout. When we finally identified his gout (after years of doctors misdiagnosing his foot pains as orthopedic issues) and he started taking medication for it, the styes and other symptoms disappeared. Specialists don’t look at the holistic medical history, so it may be worth while finding a really good general physician to help as well.
posted by redlines at 4:05 AM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all -- sounds like there are several approaches that are worth a try (and harmless at worst), and that a specialist is worth seeing, too.
posted by daisyace at 8:27 AM on March 7, 2019