Styes are small, pus-filled bumps that affect the eyelids. They typically appear at the lash line, either inside or outside of the lid. Like boils, these are normally caused by Staphylococcus infections or longstanding irritation of the affected area. Fortunately, they often go away on their own or with minor treatment.
Home Care for Styes
For a normal stye, it is reasonable to wait or use home care to try to speed drainage. Most of them will go away within a week without treatment. Using a compress with warm water can make the skin soft enough to drain a bit sooner. Because of this, there is no need to make an emergency appointment with your eye doctor unless the stye is too painful to wait.
Stye Treatment at an Eye Doctor
If your stye doesn't go away within one week, or if it is too painful to wait a week, you should go to your optometrists for treatment. This way, the accumulated pus can be drained and the eye treated with antibiotics. With this treatment, the pressure will be immediately relieved and the eyelid will quickly heal.
The draining of the stye is typically done by making a small opening in the bump using a needle. Because of this, many people refer to it as having the stye "lanced." Lancing should never be done on your own. Missing the target is easy thanks to reflexes that cause you to blink or turn away from an object that is coming at your eye, and if you end up hitting yourself in the eyeball, you'll be much worse off. Going to a doctor ensures that the proper precautions are taken to prevent this error as well as to keep the procedure pain-free.
If it turns out that you have an infection in a hair follicle, the doctor may remove the eyelash that's growing out of it. This will often be enough to cause this type of stye to drain.
Leaving a stye alone for too long can cause it to solidify into a Meibomian cyst, which happens when the duct of one of the Meibomian glands in your eyelid becomes completely blocked. These often require antibiotics and lancing to clear.
Contact Us Today
If you have a stye that hurts or isn't going away, give us a call here at Eye Gallery. We'll get it taken care of right away.