Daily Lid Hygiene

How often do you brush your teeth? Daily? Twice daily? Why? Do you do it because your dentist said to? Do you do it to maintain healthy teeth and healthy gums? Do you floss?

Do you clean your eyelids daily? Why not? Have you ever considered that by cleaning your eyelids daily you improve the health of your eyes and improve your vision long term?

Lid hygiene should be just as common as brushing your teeth. Yet, hardly anybody does it. Excuses are easy to come by. Top of the list is: My eye doctor never told me to. Second: My eyes are fine and third: I don’t have time.

Let me tackle each of these in order.

It dawned on me this past week how dentists have done an amazing job at communicating the importance of brushing your teeth twice daily for two minutes each time to maintain healthy teeth. In comparison, have you ever been told by an eye doctor to clean your eyelids daily? Some have, many have not. Why not? For starters, we have not had great cleaning agents that were deemed sufficiently safe to use near the eyes. Historically, we have told patients to use baby shampoo in a ratio of one part shampoo, 9 parts water (in other words, dilute it) so it doesn’t sting, but even then, as a soap, it tends to strip the lids of all its oils which we don’t want to do.

Even some of the common lid wipes that you can purchase in stores are soaps that strip the oils from the skin resulting in dry, irritated skin. Based on this and the difficulty and the time required, only those patients that had a dire need for lid hygiene were given this regimen. With the release of Avenova, which is not a soap, lid hygiene has become SIMPLE and SAFE. Avenova consists of 99% hypochlorous acid which naturally occurs within the white blood cells of your body in fighting bacterial infections. Hypochlorous acid does this by punching holes through bacterial cell walls.

It does not punch holes in mammalian cell walls which is why it is completely safe to us. It is approved for use from birth to death. Not only is it not a soap, but it breaks up the enzyme that can create soapy tears in some dry eye patients. Additionally, it acts to break up inflammatory toxins on the lids which, of course, is why it is effective against lid inflammation. Avenova is the only prescription lid hygiene product available to treat lid hygiene disease. In my mind, as simple as lid hygiene now is, it should be as common as brushing your teeth.

This leads us to the next excuse: My eyes are fine. As an eye doctor, despite all of my training and knowledge, if someone does not experience symptoms, particularly with their eyelids, it’s difficult to get them to believe there is a problem and that they need to spend money to treat that problem. On a daily basis I will see dry eyes or inflamed eyelids, yet, if the patient doesn’t feel the need to do anything, in some future day, they will have symptoms because they didn’t control the issue when it was simple to control.

Consider this: the most feared outcome by a cataract surgeon is called endophthalmitis because it can end in blindness and loss of the eye. In a 1991 report in the Journal of Ophthalmology, the authors demonstrate that bacteria found in the eye was genetically indistinguishable from bacteria recovered from the patient’s eyelids, surface of the eye or nose in 82% of the cases of endophthalmitis. Likewise, most infections that occur after refractive surgery, such as LASIK, are a result of bacteria that are commonly found on the lids and lashes. Surgeons are now beginning to use Avenova pre and post cataract and LASIK surgery in an effort to decrease post-surgical infections. This is because the bacteria build up on the lids is being better controlled. Now you may be saying, “Yea, but that is surgery. What if I have no intention of having eye surgery any time soon? Why should I use Avenova?”

Okay, let’s consider one of the most common medical diagnosis during an eye exam:blepharitis. Blepharitis is an inflamed eyelid typically caused by too many microorganisms on the lids and lashes. Signs and symptoms can include red, irritated, eyes that may have flaky debris on the lashes. Thirty million Americans suffer from Blepharitis. An additional 17 million Americans suffer from Dry Eyes – 80% of which are Meibomium Gland Dysfunction Dry Eye whose underlying cause is associated with too many microorganisms on the lids andlashes.

Both of these conditions damage the tear film which makes the eyes more susceptible to infection and prevents optimal vision. Though most people simply feel that dry eyes are just a nuisance, it can result in red, irritated uncomfortable eyes, corneal infection, corneal scarring and decreased vision if left untreated. In some cases, dry eyes can be devastating resulting in lost days at school, work and even disability.

Do you wear contact lenses? Contact lens wear is also known to increase dry eye symptoms. The longer the lens wear (daily-> weekly-> monthly), the greater number of bacteria that attach to the lens. The longer you use the same contact lens storage case, the more bacterial contamination occurs which increases how easily bacteria will stick to contact lenses. Additionally, the longer a person uses contact lens multipurpose solutions, the more resistant the bacteria on their lids become to disinfectants and antibiotics.

Add to this the fact that the nutrients in the tears needed to protect your eyes from infection are much lower behind the contact lens as it sits on your cornea than the surrounding tears and you’ve created a perfect environment for infection. A simple recommendation to use Avenova for lid hygiene would greatly reduce the risk for infection by lowering the overall number of bacteria on the lids and lashes. Here are some simple suggestions:

• Wipe lids down with Avenova before and after contact lens wear

• Spray Avenova on your finger prior to inserting the contact lens

• Spray Avenova into the lens case

• Spray the back surface of the contact lens with Avenova before insertion.
   

For those contact lens wearing patients who are having problems with protein deposits, Avenova is showing itself to be useful in improving lens wearing comfort by decreasing protein build up and bacterial production on contact lenses. These are simple things that don’t take much time.

This brings us to the third excuse: I don’t have time. The last thing you want to do is spend several minutes a day cleaning your lids. You don’t want to mess with lid wipes or diluting baby shampoo. It’s just not worth the effort for the value you feel you get out of it. I get it. We are all busy. Daily use of Avenova brings the bacteria count on our lids back to normal levels. It’s extremely easy to apply. Simply spray on a cotton pad and wipe your lids or spray directly on the closed lids and leave it. It’s that simple – much simpler to use than other products. It’s so simple it takes less time than brushing teeth. Don’t overlook how significant daily lid hygiene can be for healthy eyes and clear vision because of its simplicity!

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