How to Clean the Crusty Gunk from Your Eyelids – An Overview of Eyelid Scrubs, Wipes, and Foam
Ever have that experience of waking up with crusty stuff on your eyelids? While there are several possible causes of this, the most common is inflammation, a condition often caused by blepharitis. The good news is, you can usually take care of it on your own with simple, low-cost products called eyelid scrubs.
When You Might Need Eyelid Scrubs
Some of the symptoms you can usually treat with eyelid scrubs include dry, itchy, and crusty eyelids, burning, blurred vision, and tired eyes. These symptoms are signs of blepharitis. The inflammation caused by blepharitis can also be caused by things like dandruff in your eyes, eyelash mites, and lice, and can lead to clogged oil glands.
Dry eye is another condition often caused by inflammation that leads to a lower production of tears. Tears help fight infections and keep your eyes smooth and well lubricated.
If you suffer from dry eye, you may be finding it harder to drive at night because lights appear brighter than they should. If you spend too much time staring at screens and are experiencing symptoms that sound like dry eye, try using the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Give your eyes a break.
Your eyes can also get inflamed because of pollen and allergies, bacterial infections, and even old makeup. If you’re still using makeup that is several years old, you might want to throw it away and buy smaller sizes if you don’t use it every day.
The result of all these conditions can feel similar: excess mucus production, especially at night, and crusty eyes in the morning. Itchy eyes. Blurry vision. Sensitivity to light.
Eyelid scrubs are a very good and simple treatment to use for all these conditions.
What Can You Use to Clean Your Eyelids?
There are several types of over-the-counter eyelid scrubs. See the three recommended eyelid scrub varieties.
They generally fall into one of two categories:
- Wet wipes
- Dry wipes that you use along with special foam
The wet wipes get used as is, with no other materials needed. The dry wipes work best along with the spray foam. You can also use the foam by itself in the shower.
The brand we recommend is OCuSOFT, and we do not make this recommendation lightly.
It will not irritate your skin, and is actually 16 times more mild than baby shampoo, a solution others have put forth as an alternative that won’t serve you as well. But the more important reason is that OCuSOFT includes an array of surfactants which dissolve the debris that results from the overproduction of oils – your eye’s attempt to compensate for the inflammation.
Without these surfactants, which baby shampoo and other eyelid cleansers don’t use, you will not resolve the inflammation or the other causes of the crusty material and other discomfort caused by your eyelid’s inflammation.
Another reason we like it is because OCuSOFT was proven in clinical studies to kill 99% of seven strains of bacteria. OCuSOFT is anti-bacterial. Also, as this optometrist describes, it is critical to use non-toxic solutions to resolve eyelid inflammation and the related discomforts, especially when longer-term treatment is necessary.
Other treatments include detergents that can cause their own form of irritation, and they lack the moisturizing agent that helps heal the inflammation, not just relieve symptoms.
Yet another reason we prefer this brand is because it lasts longer. This part can get a bit scientific so we’ll spare you the details, but the bottom line is, OCuSOFT has a shelf life of about 18 months, even after opening the container. One of their competitors lasts only one month after opening.
OCuSOFT is also lint-free – a necessity when putting anything cloth-based near your eyes.
So those are the main reasons we only offer the three OCuSOFT products. We could be like other places and sell a greater selection of products, but we simply don’t believe in any of the other eyelid scrubs on the market enough to stand behind them. To be absolutely clear, OCuSOFT isn’t paying us to say any of this or to only offer their products. We have no relationship with them. We have simply arrived at the conclusion that it’s the best eyelid scrub cleanser on the market.
How to Use an Eyelid Scrub Pad
Using the OCuSOFT eyelid wipes is pretty simple, whether you use the pre-moistened ones or the dry ones along with the foam. Here’s a simple procedure you can follow:
- Wash your hands
- Get the eyelid scrub pad of your choice
- Close the eye you’re going to scrub
- Wipe downward and across, but never upward
- Rinse with warm water
- Use a new pad for the other eye and repeat steps 1-5
You want to use a new pad because if there is bacteria or other undesirables in one eye, you don’t want to transfer them to the other eye. If you want to reduce costs and make your eyelid scrubs last longer, tear one pad in half and use half for each eye.
Watch video showing the use of an eyelid scrub pad
How Often Should We Use Eyelid Wipes?
If you have a more chronic condition such as allergies, and your dry eye and mucus production has been a problem for a while, you will want to use eyelid scrub wipes at least twice per day until the condition improves. Some even recommend three times per day.
You may have to use them for several weeks, again depending on the specific causes and the severity of the inflammation. For spontaneous inflammations, the condition may heal in less time.
If you have a prosthetic eye and your eye continues to produce mucus, you may find eyelid wipes to be quite helpful as a means of keeping your prosthesis clean and reducing the frequency of having to lubricate it.
For more questions about eyelid scrubs, feel free to reach out to our office. We ship eyelid scrub pads and foam direct to you.
