The EyeBag Company

This is a product we recommend to many of our dry eye patients. Principally it is to naturally treat Blepharitis and Meibomian Gland Dysfunction. MGD.

Research shows 80% of patients suffering with dry eye have underlying blepharitis as a causative agent. The oil from the lid glands, thicken and drys out causing the lid scale so frequently apparent in the mornings.

The idea is that the Eyebag is heated in the microwave for 30 to 40 seconds and placed across the eyes for 8 to 10 minutes, after which the lids (upper and lower) are massaged to push out the thickened meibum (oil) from the glands and allow them to return to their normal oily texture.

This can be done in severe cases twice daily or once in the evening. The Eyebag is filled with flax seeds that are small and dense, good to retain heat and also to dissipate this heat slowly.

The Eyebag has 2 different textures, silk and black velvet allowing for the patient to decide which they prefer.

The silk side does mitigate more heat and is generally preferred by women. If you start with the black velvet side on the eyes, rotating the bag after a while, to this silk side, is advisable as the heat level reduces.

A UK ophthalmologist Teifi James designed and developed the Eyebag in the late 2000. This has been a really successful product due to the clean, easy to use method, and because it retains heat sufficiently long to be effective.

The lids have a series of glands call the meibomian glands running along the inner upper and lower lid margins.

These glands produce fine, fluid oil which lubricates the front of the globe and the eyelid margins with each blink. When these glands malfunction, their oily secretions thicken, often blocking the ducts through which it is released onto the eye.

The common symptom being, the eyes feel gritty and as if there is something irritating them. The body reacts by producing tears from the lacrimal gland that sits above the eyeball under the eyebrow as if to wash out a foreign body from the eye. Patients will complain they have copious amounts of tears and it is excessive tearing is the main problem.

This lacrimal tear is aqueous in nature and make up only part of a normal tear film. The oil from the meibomian glands plays the crucial role of acting as an evaporative barrier to the loss of this aqueous layer.

The Eyebag heats these glands to effectively melts the thickened oil in the affected patient, increasing it’s ability to flow, dilated the ducts through which it travels and often unplugging long standing blockages.

Massaging the lids after each session, particularly initially, is crucial to it’s success and aiding the secretions to flow returning to normal state and function.

Purchase an EyeBag, includes free home delivery throughout Ireland.