IPL Dry Eye treatment in Liverpool area, Sydney
IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light. IPL uses intense pulses of red light lasting for a split second around your eyes as a new, innovative technology to treat dry eyes. IPL as a treatment specifically for dry eye disease, was discovered by an American eye specialist - Dr Rolando Toyos - who disovered that when he treated his acne rosacea patients for their skin - their dry eyes also improved.
Overview of the Benefits of IPL Treatment for Dry Eyes
- Safe and effective
- Reduces symptoms of dry eyes
- Reduces reliance on eye drops
- Requires no down time
Are you suffering from dry eyes?
If so, you're not alone. Millions of people around the world also experience discomfort from dry eyes - which can be very frustrating, umcomfortable and in severe cases, even painful! Symptoms of dry eyes are usually as if your eyes feel burning or gritty like sand is in them. Your eyes may also become a little red from the soreness.
How does IPL work?
Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) treatment for dry eye disease, works by targeting your meibomian glands - the tiny, little oil glands inside your eyelids. These little glands secrete oil into your eyes in order to prevent your tears from evaporating too quickly. When these meibomian glands aren't working too well - your tears evaporate very fast - which can lead to dry eyes.
Is IPL safe?
Yes. Very safe.
IPL has been used by skin specialists for years. Dermatologists use IPL to treat photo damage in skin and to rejuvenate skin in order to make skin look more youthful and beautiful.
However, the energy for the light that we use when we do IPL for the eyes is at a far lower level.
What does the IPL procedure involve?
IPL treatment for dry eyes is typically done in the doctor's office.
The doctor will apply a cooling gel on your face around the eyes and then use a special device to deliver pulses of red light to stimulate the meibomian glands. The intense pulsed light from the device heats up the meibomian glands - which melts the stagnant, blocked oil inside those glands - like how when you heat up butter - it melts into oil.
We then perform meibomian gland expression - which squeezes the newly melted stagnant oil out of those glands - clearing away the blockages. And this allows fresh, healthy, clear liquid oil to flow freely again into your tear film to coat it properly - preventing your tears from evaporating too fast.
The 2 Main Types of Dry eyes
There are 2 main types of dry eyes:
1. Aqueous Deficient dry eye - where you can't produce enough tears
2. Evaporative Dry Eye - where the tears that you do produce, evaporate very fast - much like how water evaporates very fast in a desert.
Most people have a combination of these 2 types of dry eyes - so it's mixed type of dry eye.
IPL treats evaporative dry eye by stimulating the meibomian glands inside the eye lids to improve the quality of the oil that these glands secret, lubricating the oil layer of the tears to prevent the tears from evaporating as fast.
How well does IPL work?
It depends on how severe your dry eyes are. IPL works better for people with more evaporative dry eye and meibomian dysfunction:
- Patients with mild dry eyes may find that their symptoms mostly disappear - so no more need to use eye drops everyday (the problem with eye drops is that people are busy - so often, forget to take them).
- We have a patient who had severe dry eyes for years and was taking some of the best dry eye drops on the market - Hyloforte, Novatears and Systane drops every 2 hours for months but her eyes still felt dry. After her 4 sessions of IPL treatment, she reported an 85% improvement in her dry eye symptoms, giving her significant relief in her dry eye symptoms that she had been suffering from everyday, for years!
How Much Does it Cost?
Dry eye assessment is bulk billed under Medicare.
Other places are charging $800-$1000 for 4 sessions of IPL treatment. We are currently charging $100 per session of IPL treatment - which is half price at least. We recommend 4 sessions to get the full benefit from the treatment.
What Else Do you Offer for Dry Eye Treatment?
IPL is only one tool of how we treat dry eyes. We have several different tool in our arsenal to be able to use against dry eyes. Because sometimes dry eyes are so stubborn that you need to attack it from several different angles and it could take up to a few weeks to 3 months to feel better in extremely severe cases. So we can also give you:
- The latest dry eye drops to help supplement all 3 layers of the tears for a faster recovery
- Lid hygiene
- Removal of meibomian capping
- Debridement of the lid margins
- Warm compresses
- Lid Wiper Epitheliopathy treatment
- Meibomian gland expression
We are one of the few optometrists in Sydney that perform IPL treatment for dry eyes.
If you're interested in IPL as a treatment for dry eyes - talk to Dr Vincent (Optometrist). He can help you determine whether IPL is the right treatment for you.
It depends on how dry your eyes are - we are able tell by performing a dry eye assessment. Call us today to schedule a consultation! Bulk billed under Medicare. 02 9826 6613