Do Eye Drops Help Styes?

I often get questions about the eye drops I add to my patient's eye care routine when treating a stye. In this blog post, I'll share my thoughts on the different eye drops, their limitations, and what additional steps can be taken to effectively manage and treat styes.

 

How Eye Drops Work for Styes

Eye drops can be a useful component in managing eye infections and irritation. Here's my most common types I like to include in my patient's eye care routine:

• OTC Tears:
  • Artificial tears or lubricating eye drops can help soothe irritation, reducing discomfort caused by a stye. It can also help to flush out draining stye debris. Must be preservative free. Visine is a huge NEVER. You can find these at your local CVS, Dwayne Reed, etc.
• Antibiotic Eye Drops:
  • Prescription antibiotic drops because a stye is an infection. If the stye debris is yellow or greenish in color, I pretty much prescribe antibiotic eye drops. I'm worried about more infection, cross-contamination, and healing time.
• Anti-inflammatory Eye Drops:
  • Steroid eye drops are not always needed but when there is pain, swelling and the inflammatory response is getting worse, I do use steroid eye drops. These are prescription only and the eye pressure must be monitored due to secondary glaucoma. In cases where my patient is a known steroid responder, I prescribe an NSAID, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory eye drop in place of the steroid.

 

Limitations and Considerations

While eye drops can help relieve symptoms, there are important factors to consider:

• Symptom Relief Only: Some of my patients think those OTC stye drops get rid of styes. If the stye is mild, maybe. If the stye is more advanced - you're wasting your time.
• Professional Guidance: Sometimes an antibiotic doesn't work the way I thought, so a different one needs to be prescribed.
• Proper Use is Critical: Don't touch the eye dropper tip to the ocular tissue. This contaminates the entire thing. If this happens, toss it out and start a new one. 

 

Complementary Strategies for Stye Management

In addition to using eye drops, a comprehensive approach to stye care includes:

• A Cleansing Routine: I like healthy cleansers formulated specifically for eye care and precision tools to make the clean happen. My patients love this because they can clean a stye and copy the steps I do in the exam room.
• Prescription Medication: Whether it's antibiotics and or steroids - I also love eye ointment and /or oral pills for healing a stye. I have stye cases where patients are on all 3 types: eye drops, eye ointment, and pills.
• Energy Device: No two styes are the same. Intense Pulsed Light and Low Light Therapy are a couple procedures that I do love for the right case. It can cut down the inflammatory response so fast which speeds up the healing time.

 

Enhance Your Eye Care Routine

For a comprehensive approach to managing styes and maintaining healthy eyelids, consider my Stye Cleansing System. This system is the CLEANING portion of a good stye care routine. Explore here: Stye Cleansing System. Read the steps here: TUTORIAL. Want to learn everything there is to know about styes? See all my blog posts about STYES.