It all sounds a bit gross but did you know that many of us have a small mite living and thriving in our eye lashes?

The Demodex mite lives in the glands at the base of our eyelashes and usually doesn’t cause any trouble at all. But every now and then, especially in the elderly, the mites can breed up to larger numbers and start to cause Blepharitis. Blepharitis in an inflammatory disease of the lids and affects over 70% of my patients over the age of 65. It causes sore, red, itchy, thickened lids and can often be seen as crustiness along the lash line. The damage that Blepharitis does to your lids can then further damage your tear function…so dry eye follows closely behind.

In the past, all we could advise our poor Blepharitis patients to do was scrub their lids at home and use tear supplements for their dry eye. Now there is a treatment for Demodex infestation and Blepharitis. The new Blephex device, allows we optometrists to very effectively clean up the lids and to kill the Demodex mites. The procedure is done every six months or so and provides enormous relief to those chronic Blepharitis sufferers. In between visits, patients can use a Blephadex eyelid cleaning foam or Blephadex wipes to keep the infestations at bay.

So if you have a mum or a dad with sore, red, thickened and crusty lids, help them find some relief and book them in to Wodonga Eyecare for a Blephex treatment. We’ll see if we can knock their Demodex mites on the head!