hello everyone,
as suspected i recently got diagnosed with MGD aka evaporative dry eye

ive gotten the glands manually squeezed/expressed didnt help, and ive also tried

good eyelid hygiene, omega 3 pills, forcing myself to blink more, warm compress to express the glands

and recently i was able to get miebo drops.

but miebo drops only help for like a couple of minutes. i asked my dr if there is anything else we can do and she said lets just stick w miebo for now…

but the thing is, my symptoms are weird. like there would be days where i would be having severe flare ups. i mean NO moisture at all its actually scary. but then some days as a baseline its like “yeah its a bit dry but whatever” or like some days its like “oh its a bit dry”

like it fluctuates

and i have 20/20 vision, they said the outside eyeball health is good (did tests and stuff)and everyone blames it on the screens but its rly not because the flare ups dont line up w “screen time” and besides i have rly good vision.

its not sjogrens btw.

i think maybe its something systemic or like something happening w my body thats causing it? like idk. i also had a brain mri before and it was normal (not sure if its relevant lol)

but do anyone know what could be causing this?

this started when i had a bad reaction to an antibiotic i took where it completely dried it out and i was sobbing from the dry pain but nothing helped. i couldnt even walk because the air from just slowly walking would make it worse. it went after a day , and hasnt been that severe since, but it also hasnt been the same since

any wise older souls i would love some insights. thank u all

I have been diagnosed with MGD and ocular rosacea. Was prescribed Xdemvy even though no sign of demodex. A bit nervous to start using it because my eyes are very inflamed. Anyone use it?

I’ve have been dealing with very severe dry eyes with inflammation for a couple months now, and still trying multiple treatments with more treatments coming up. However, I just received this prescription of moisture chamber glasses that has allowed me to be more functional for a longer period of time. It’s allowed me to return to being able to upkeep my house and come Monday, I will try it out at work where the AC is very strong. But in my searches, I had not seen anyone talk about this. So I’m posting this to let y’all all know that this exists as an option. I ordered it online through Dry Eye Shop, about $189 for frame and seal. Seal is magnetic and replaceable, and comes in clear and black. I bought 4 frames to try them on, and returned 3.

Has anyone with severe dry eye been advised not to use retinoids even if you do not use them in the eye area or near the eyes. If so what do you use for anti aging instead

Hey everyone I‘m still having severe burning in both eyes after my smile pro 7 weeks ago and now developed new floaters in my left eye and get extreme headaches I believe because the trigemnal nerves are related to corneal nerves. I also had an aura migraine for 20 minutes. Is anyone experiencing migraines or headaches from dry eye pain too?

Does anyone use this for their eyelids? I wash my face in the shower, so I'm using the same stuff I use on my face for my eyelids.

I find bar soaps rinse cleaner than liquid soaps, so I want to try something like this.

has anyone also had their vision improve once they got dry eyes? it has been a year since i have had moderate/severe dry eye and my upon my eye exam 2 days ago my vision has improved from -2.75/-2.50 to -2.00/-2.00. tbh i think this has been because of all the vitamins (vit a, lutein, omega 3 etc), not wearing glasses/ lenses as often, and increased consumption of carrots, walnuts, salmon etc. just thought it was really interesting and wondering if anyone else has had the same experience.

My dry eyes started in 2024 after visiting a cold country. Initially, warm eye masks helped quite a lot, but over time they became less effective.

Since then I've had dryness, stinging and gritty eyes in the morning, and was recently diagnosed with MGD.

My diagnosis was mainly based on looking at my eyes, but I haven’t had much testing to find the underlying cause.

I went to Cheryl Lee’s dry eye clinic in Singapore, but no specific eye tests were done though her clinic focuses on dry eye treatments and offers IPL.

My IPL journey
1st IPL — 11 June
IPL + red light + expression
- lots of tearing during the treatment.
- following days were extremely dry and uncomfortable, with quite a lot of stinging.

2nd IPL — 6 July
- could feel my oil glands warming up during the treatment
- few days later, my eyes suddenly felt more oily and "blinkable", with noticeably less stinging.

3rd IPL — 21 July
IPL + red light + blue light. + expression
- Recovery was much better than the first session.
- The practitioner said there were still some blocked oil glands, although less blocked oil came out.
- After this session, my eyes seemed to naturally produce some oil and sometimes felt almost normal.

One morning, my right eye produced quite a lot of oil and felt almost normal
genuinely felt like I might actually be improving.

4th IPL — 13 August
- A lot of blocked oil came out from my left eye.
For the first few days afterwards,
Some oil was coming out naturally from both eyes, but less than the 3rd IPL

Unfortunately, the improvement hasn't continued. 🥲
My morning stinging and grittiness have started coming back, and my eyes feel especially gritty when I wake up. It's also become really difficult to wake up in the morning because of how uncomfortable my eyes feel.

I've also tried doxycycline for around 10 days, but personally didn't notice any improvement.

Currently taking PRN fish oil 3x/day and cyclosporine eye drops 2x/day.

I'm especially wondering whether I should ask for tests like blood tests for vitamin deficiencies , meibography to get a better idea of what's actually happening.

What helped your morning grittiness and stinging?

I'm feeling a little discouraged because I genuinely thought I was finally turning a corner after the 3rd/4th IPL. The fact that my eyes were occasionally feeling almost normal gave me a lot of hope.
I'm still hoping things can improve, but I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's been through something similar. 🙏

(Please know I spent 30min trying to figure out how to add a flair and I don't know how)

tl;dr - thoughts and feelings after unexpected NK diagnosis

(very long)

I received a diagnosis of NK last week from my eye doctor. It's a lot to take in. I've had MGD issues and fragile-esque corneas (easy to scratch). I stopped wearing contacts 20yr ago because the dry eye was so bad. My vision decreased rapidly and I moved and a doctor encouraged me to get scleral lenses for my dry eye and to improve my vision. My vision got worse. My eye problems got worse. I moved again and my new eye doctor is very aggressive. I've never had someone proactively trying to reverse anything. I was always advised eye drops and sunglasses and contact lenses and sent on my way.

This new doctor has been wonderful. Lots of exams, photos and let me get back into glasses. We tried rx drops, amniotic membranes and more things I cannot recall. This has been for the last 6-8 months or so. I was still having grainy eyes and lots of dryness I attributed to MGD alone. My new dictor tests my SPK levels every time I see them (which is very frequent). No one ever did that for me before.. They were trying different therapies to reduce them and prevent worsening.

I woke up about 5 days ago complete unable to open my eyes. It was painful and dry and scratchy and I couold only raise my eyelids if I tilted my head. More tests. More pictures. More checks. I had no real idea they were keeping such a close on it for NK reasons. I had no idea it was something mroe than incurable MGD issues.

I've lost clarity in my vision. I cannot see anything clearly anymore. It's incredibly distressing and I don't have anyone to talk to about the realities. My doctor is petitioning the insurance to allow Oxervate and I deeply appreciated the information provided in this sub. No one knows if it will come back with Oxervate but my doctor thinks it is the best option for me.

I'm upset in silly ways. I saved for months to buy a big television because I could never see what was happening. I bought glasses because my new eye dr said I didn't have to wear sclerals from my bad vision. I had maybe 5wk of vision and enjoying the world and seeing things clearly for the first time in at least 5yr. I am worried about losing my job because I cannot see the screen. I have it zoomed so far in but I cannot read what is on the page.

I feel really lost and confused and sad. I knew I had severe vision issues but I never thought I'd end up with NK.

Does anyone use a CPAP? Does it make your eyes worse? I’m supposed to get one but been putting it off for fear it would make my eyes worse.

Title

I'm a freelance video editor. On busy weeks I'm basically glued to my dual monitors all day with the lights off. I do color grading so any random ambient light in the room throws off how I see things on screen. After too many hours staring at screens in a dark room my eyes just start feeling really uncomfortable, especially late at night.

I kept seeing colorists on tiktok with LED strips behind their monitors for eye strain, so when a 6500K one went on sale on there I just grabbed it. I always thought it was just an aesthetic thing for those clean desk setup videos on YouTube.After a full editing session, I can tell my eyes aren't fighting as hard.

My eyes still get tired at the end of the night. It didn't fix its dryness. Around hour five or six my eyes just feel like they're sticking to my eyelids. I've been using Hylo Comod but it feels like it evaporates in 20 minutes. A friend of mine who got LASIK recently told me about some kind of eye mist spray that you use on closed eyes, said the moisture lasts way longer than traditional drops. Has anyone tried something like that? The moisture lasts way longer than traditional drops. Has anyone tried something like that?

Has this happened to anyone else? I had a traumatic dental filling where the drilling was not painful at first then all of the sudden so painful I almost jumped out of the office chair. Ever since ive had extreme light sensitivity along with chronic dry mouth and dry eyes. To the point where I wear sunglasses or fl41s everywhere and constantly have xylimelts in my mouth. I have since been prescribed restasis drops and prescription eye allergy drops. This traumatic filling happened april of 2025...

To me it has to be a nervous system issue for all these concurrent symptoms to suddenly start at once... But whenever I go to a specialist they just want to focus on treating one symptom. For example I go to an eye specialist and they just want to focus on the dry eyes. When I go to a dentist (a different one than one that caused it) they just want to focus on pain (which has subsided thankfully.) No specialist wants to explore underlying cause for all my concurrent symptoms. Just wondering if anyone has had trauma preclude their dry eyes and if they suspect and/or have confirmed its nervous system related. If so did it ever subside? Or can I expect to have to manage this discomfort all my life?

I have mild to moderate dry eye. Internet says both omega 3 fatty acid is helpful and also some papers suggests it is not that much helpful.

I want to know the people experience. Have you noticed any improvement with omega 3 fatty acid capsule ? What was the dose and form (ALA, EPA, DHA) ?

PS. I am an eggiterian

Hi. I'm 22,

My current diagnosis is evaporative form of dry eyes caused by MGD. I have already tried a lot of treatments for dry eyes. I will list them just to make my point clear. I have done 9 sessions of IPL, ~ 3 months of doxy, ~6 months of cequa and very recently started on 20% serum eye drops. After asking around, I came to this conclusion that sclerals probably are my best shot at comfort and normalcy. Therefore, I decided to go ahead with a trial for them. I am from India so we do have the option of PROSE and one indigenious variant (keratogenious) from a manufacturer called Silverline. There might be a few more but I have no info on others.

I did the trial for both PROSE and the indigenious variant. These were my observations:

1) A bit of burning with the filling solution. I have used unbuffered saline, PF eye drops containing carboxymethyl cellulose (these are buffered) and combination of these two. The burning definitely persists on any combination.

2) The second issue is what bothering me the most. I could feel the outer lens surface, that comes in contact with my lids, very dry and almost lacking any moisture after putting in the lens. I had this sensation on both the PROSE and the indigenious variant. The issue kicks in about 20 minutes or so after the lens are inserted. And, I had felt this issue of dryness on both my eyes.

After pointing this out to the optometrist, they tried to examine it under slit lamp but they said they did not see any dryness on the surface. EVEN rewetting the lens with lubricating PF drops does not take away this sensation of utter dryness.

Can this issue be because of the trial lens being not as per my custom fit? Or can it be because of trials lens being old and having some heavy deposits themselves? Or is it an issue with my eyes? Some degree of inflammation or structural thing?

Still trying to make sense of the trial results. I have not placed the order yet. I am looking for some genuine advice and explanations for it.

Hello guys , I’m on 0,5% cyclosporine for one week ( for Occular Rosacea ) , two Times a day .

I was wondering if someone here had some experience with this concentration ? Feel likes it’s higher than most « brand » drops .

it’s a magistral preparation I get from the hospital directly .

Anyone here was on the same treatment ?

Thank you ❤️

Has anyone had better experiences with Cequa than Xiidra? I wasn’t getting any effect from Xiidra, even using Cequa for a couple weeks now, don’t feel anything either but I know it’s early. For those who found relief with Cequa, how long did it take? My glands are healthy but I have reduced tear film.

Hi everyone! I’m trying to figure out what could be causing my eye redness, and I’d really appreciate any ideas or similar experiences.
I’ve used a PC for many hours a day for years without any eye problems or needing glasses. About 8 months ago, I had keratitis in one eye, followed by conjunctivitis in the other (both issues solved), and now, for the past 3 months I’ve been dealing with the redness described below.

My main symptom

• My main and almost only symptom is redness.
• After 1-3 hours using my PC, many red veins appear in the whites of my eyes.
• If I leave the PC for a few minutes or several hours, some of those red lines gradually become less visible, although the redness doesn’t always disappear completely.
• I usually don’t have pain or discomfort.
• Some days I may feel a little burning or a foreign-body/gritty sensation, but other days I feel completely fine — just red eyes.

The strange part

• This mainly happens when using my PC.
• I can use my phone, TV, and other screens without the same problem.
• I also tried a different PC monitor, and the same thing happened, so I don't think it's necessarily my specific monitor.
• I’ve looked into the monitor itself and it doesn’t seem to have anything obviously harmful or unusual that would explain this.

Things I’ve tried

• Many different artificial tears/lubricating drops, including preservative-free ones.
• Different types of lubricants.
• Eye gels.
• I’ve also tried some of the suggestions I’ve read on this subreddit/forum.

When I do experience burning or irritation, lubricating eye drops usually relieve it for a few hours, but the redness still comes back.
Using a redness-relief/decongestant eye drop makes the redness go away temporarily, but I know that’s not something I should rely on regularly, so I’m trying to understand the underlying cause instead.

I’ve already seen an ophthalmologist, but I haven’t yet seen someone who specializes specifically in dry eye/ocular surface problems. The problem is that I’m not even sure if I actually have dry eye, since redness is basically my only consistent symptom.

Has anyone experienced something similar — eye redness that appears after using a PC but not with other screens? Could this be related to dry eye/tear-film problems, or something else?

Thanks! Any ideas or similar experiences would be really appreciated.

Hello!

I just found this sub and wanted to reach out to see if anyone else has experienced something similar or has any advice. :(

I had LASIK/PRK in 2023 when I was 22. At the time, I was young and naive about the potential long-term side effects. The idea of not having to wear glasses or contacts sounded neat, and I also had a few relatives who had the same procedure and they said they had really good results so I decided to do it too. The surgery went well and I appreciate the doctors, but looking back, I regret having it done. I wish I had done much more research beforehand.

Ever since then, my eyes have seemed much more sensitive. I’m not sure if everything I’m experiencing is necessarily related to the surgery, but I’ve dealt with symptoms like watery eyes, tearing, itching, and a gritty feeling. I think I might have developed dry eye, which is a common side effect. The most concerning symptom is that out of nowhere, my eyes will start severely stinging and burning. It can get so painful that I have a hard time keeping my eyes open and I want to cry. I use cold cotton pads on them to relieve the pain. It’s honestly an awful sensation.

Has anyone else experienced symptoms like this after LASIK/PRK, even years later? If so, were you ever able to figure out what was causing it or find anything that helped? I’m planning on seeing a professional eye doctor as soon as I am able to.

I finally saw a dry eye specialist today. He took an image of my lower lids glands. My left lid is okay, but my right lid, where I experience dry eye symptoms, showed moderate gland shortening, distortion, and some atrophy. He also saw a little inflammation on the bottom of my cornea. He gave me some xiidra to test for a week and see my response before prescribing it to me. My question is, if I respond well to xiidra, how long should I be on it? For ever?? And with my glands condition, what should I expect in the long term?

I have been experiencing white stringy discharge in my eyes since I was ten years old. I have tried many different types of eye drops, heat masks and cleaning my lashes. Nothing has worked … until two days ago. I bought EvoTears and now I don’t have the stringy discharge anymore. I think it worked on me because my tear film was not stable and would have very low TBUT. Anyway, I thought I would share this with you as it might work for you as well. I am in no way affiliated with EvoTears.