Has anyone with punctal plugs for dry eyes actually made their symptoms worse? have had mine in for about 3 weeks now and the extreme eye redness has progressively gotten worse, it has also made my eye drops which worked well before I got the plugs become ineffective which is strange.
Edit: Thank you for the replies, ended up having them taken out due to inflammation. hopefully others have better luck than I did with them!
Im livinng in Eastern Europe so there are not many treatments I can choose from.
Gor prescribed for Ducressa eyedrops ( dexamethasone/levofloxacin) fot 7 days but I dont think It will help, Otc eyedrops are not working either ( tried them all ).
I bought a heated eye mask, only used it twice, but my doctor told me today to use it lots.
Im going to a private doctor in 2 weeks, thats why im asking(public healht is shit here).
Im already on omega3.
On the restasis website under APPROVED USE it says:
>RESTASIS® and RESTASIS MultiDose® did not increase tear production in patients using anti-inflammatory eye drops or tear duct plugs.
How do you guys interpret this statement? I had punctal plugs put in the bottom and my doc also gave me a prescription for restasis if things don't get better, but reading that makes it sound like I would need the plugs removed before trying restasis?
I had permanent plugs put in a month ago in my lowers, and it sorta helped (not really). This morning my ophthalmologist put in my upper plugs and my eyes are literally overflowing with tears. Doesn't solve everything, but holy hell it feels good to have wet eyeballs. I have lid wiper epitheliopathy and some mild corneal neuralgia as well, so it feels great to have a barrier protecting my nerves. No artificial tear is going to be as nourishing as your own tears. If you haven't had all 4 plugs put in, I highly recommend it.
I had my upper tear ducts plugged a few days ago (already have lower ducts plugged), and my eyes are moderately watery and leaky (not necessarily full tears constantly streaming down my face all the time). Did your eyes adjust to this excessive tearing or did you have to get the upper plugs removed?
Additionally, one of my plugs accidentally went too deep and is now intracanalicular. If you have experience with intracanalicular plugs and later had to get them removed were you able to get them flushed out or did you have to get them surgically removed?
hi, i tried searching but didn't find anything that was relevant in a couple of subreddits.
i have sjogren's and pretty bad dry eye. today my doctor inserted semi-permanent punctal plugs (bottom only).
i don't have discomfort when i look up and down, but if i look to the right or left, there is a slight scratchy feeling against my eye. the doctor was pretty careful choosing sizes, so i don't think they are wildly off or anything. i'm wondering if this is normal or an indication they are too high/wrong sized/something else? if it's something that happens and i'll adjust to i don't mind waiting, but i don't want to be doing damage to my eye waiting it out either.
Feel like I'm living life in this community these days!!! Thank you!
> Basics: PRK w/ monovision, pre-op -6.25 -2.25 x??? +1.25 (around that in both eyes), minor dry eye caused by an auto-immunity pre-op (minor enough to basically do nothing about it...just have it mentioned to me at appointments), punctal plugs put in this week, Retaine ointment at night (about to switch to Soothe), using a plethora of PF drops throughout the day that I won't bother naming...a ton.
In my week post-op, the doc put some punctal plugs in my lower lids and moved my FML drops from 4 to 6x/day for the following 5 days.
In a 10-day post-op (or something last Tuesday), we discussed instability/variability of my vision--seconds/minutes that I have eagle x-ray vision sprinkled within hours of vision somewhere on a blurry scale from ok to really sucky.
During that visit he asked about correlation btwn drops and the eagle vision. Of course. Although my answer was actually more like, "Yes, I def see much more clearly in the 5-10 seconds after drops, but there are also short periods that I see super clear that seem unrelated to drops."
Anyway, long story short-ish...I excitedly agreed/asked for more punctal plugs if that would make any residual dryness go away and potentially heal faster. Work is piling up!
So on Tuesday, I went from:
- one set of punctal plugs on bottom lids
- FML drops 4-6x/day (I'd been doing 6x for about 5 days)
- flooding my eyes with PF drops--essentially using the entire vial each time I opened one--thanks to this community and specifically u/coltsblazers I learned how to use the vials correctly
To:
- TWO sets of punctal plugs on bottom lids
- one set of punctal plugs on upper lids
- FML drops to 2x/day (have done a 3rd application some of those days)
- using a single PF drop in each eye and then recapping it until the next time (but I'm still using probably 2x/hr)
So has anyone experienced this? Normal?
- Is this type of instability/variability typical? Where I had several days of feeling like the clarity was starting to be the dominant experience and now I've had several days feeling like the blurriness is the main experience? I believe this is overall coming from my left dominant/distance eye. It does not feel like sandpaper or gritty, but more like it has a very dry contact suctioned on it tightly also causing a slight cool temp sensation. I cannot get my left eye **to not feel dry even immediately after/during drops
I have really bad dry eyes and I get punctal plugs in my eyes to keep my eye hydrated and to prep for my cross linking. I've had this punctal plug in my right eye since February and my doctor has also noticed that my eye has produced less tears on its own because it's had an excess of tears from the plug and it just got used to it. If my eyes are dry, then I get my surgery rescheduled. My left eye already got done in January and now it's time for my right eye. My doctor has specific pre-op instructions of eating NO VITAMIN C for a week prior to surgery. I literally have my surgery on Thursday this week and my plug fell out saturday night. I was hoping there was an opening to go into the office today, but I could only get an appointment Tuesday. I am going to be so mad if I go in Tuesday and they tell me they have to reschedule my surgery because my right eye is dry. I haven't had real good food in days. I'm putting my oasis tear drops every 30 minutes and hoping they keep my eye hydrated because I just want to be done with this diet and get my surgery.
Hi everyone,
I am scheduled next week to get punctal plugs put in for dry eye. My tear lake is low, like 1/2mm it should be 2mm I was told. Have a lot of dry eye issues and corneal neuropathic pain, treating that with some special eye drops right now called Regenereyes.
Anybody tried punctal plugs before? Did it help?
I have allergies but I've been taking some natural stuff to help, and it's a lot better this season so far thank God.
I wanted the ones that absorb away after 6 months or 1-2 years etc. Not the "permanent" ones.
I am getting LASIK on Thursday and I mentioned punctal plugs to my doctor. He said he is happy to put them in when I have the surgery. What are the pros / cons of doing this? I have dry eyes, but it's not terrible. Should I just see how it all shakes out or be proactive with the plugs?
Thanks!
I posted a couple days ago complaining about my eyes and went to a optometrist. She said I had incredibly dry eyes with a side of conjunctivitis. First, I am clearing the conjunctivitis, then she wants me to come back and get the plugs. I have never heard of these and I don't know anyone to ask. The internet has limited information on them. Any information, thoughts, opinions?
I've recently read about punctal plugs which help keep your eyes moist. My eyes are chronically dry and while tea tree oil definitely helps, I'd like to try a more permanent solution. Has anybody tried these?
Hi all. Getting surgery this Friday. Ended up getting the Groupon deal and it’s already paid for. Only thing I need now isn’t help deciding whether or not to get the life time assurance, punctal plan,and contoura. All in all it would be $1900. $1000 for lifetime assurance , $500 for contoura, $400 for the plug. Just trying to get some insight and decide what is worth the money before the big day. Thanks in advance!
I'm 29 and was diagnosed with Sjogren's at 27.
My optometrist has offered punctal plugs due to my dry eyes. I'm going to talk it over with my rheumy, but do you all think they are a good idea?
My eyes are very dry but my eyesight is still very good and my eyes are still healthy. I regularly use artificial tears and just discovered Thera Tears which I like even better.
She said there are other options like Restasis which is apparently very expensive and that she prefers to see how the plugs work to save money and hassle.
I am in Texas. 6.5 years ago I had lasik, I remember they put punctal plugs (tear duct plugs) prior to the surgery to help with dryness. I was told they they will be dissolvable . The "eye center" was a large operation where medical professional but not the doctor himself do the "prep work " before the surgery. They had trouble putting one of the punctal plugs and 3 people came in and tried different ones and finally got it in my right tear duct. By then my eye was very irritated. I went into surgery. I could see 20/30 after, not 20/20 but I was eventually OK with it.I had checkup a day after , a week after, 2, weeks after etc until over a year later (15 months) by different doctors at the same business. I would say a total of 6 post surgery visits. About 2.5 year later I started to get eye infections. I had 2 eye infections and went to doctor that did not do my lasik. Last year I went to a different location of my lasik place and had my eye exam 5 years post surgery and got prescription for glasses. The same year I had more eye issue and had to go to eye doctor 2 more times. Finally in September last year, this doctor told me my punctal plug is causing me infection and had to come out. I had no idea I had a silicone plug in my tear duct for 5 years. My tear duct was blocked and had to be flushed. I was told that even if doctor put in the silicone ones they would need to take them out once a year and put in new ones as needed since it would be so dirty. I had an excruciating infection and tear duct blockage again this year. The first antibiotic did not work. I had tear running for 7 days and my face was burning for 2 days. I was told that the infection would be more severe and frequent and will require tear duct surgery (DCR). I am in the process of getting my medical record. Do I have a case ? I would want at least my money back and maybe more for all the additional infection related visits and prescription paid for. Also I would want my surgery paid for since there is always some portion insurance do not cover. On top of that I hate missing work and loss of productivity. What should I do? Contact the doctor who did it ? file a small claim ? get a lawyer ?
I have dry eyes, and I got temporary punctal plugs that lasted 3 months. I do think they helped somewhat; but they did not completely eliminate the problem. I only got my bottom tear ducts plugged.
I am considering whether to get permanent silicone plugs now. Would it be best to get both the upper and lower ducts plugged?
Also, my optometrist previously mentioned that the cause of the dry eye could be the anti-depressants I take (escitalopram = SSRI = Lexapro/Cipralex). However, I am not sure what the exact cause is - it could be anything. Nonetheless, would punctal plugs fix dry eyes caused by the antidepressants?
Any tips or tricks from anyone that has them? I had severe chronic dry eye with no other way to fix it
I have no issues with dry eyes whatsoever and I am getting PRK this week. The plugs are $200 an eye and I've heard that they aren't neccicary unless you have dry eyes prior. They are the temporary kind.
Thanks.
Can Sjogrens cause vision loss, or blurriness? I have horrible eye sight to start with, but the last two years, since my diagnosis, I feel like my glasses don't help, or my vision gets worse as the day goes on. Like, some days I can see the tv fine, but other days it's blurry. I'm just curious.
I am a software engineer who used to struggle with debilitating MGD and aqueous deficient dry eye. I was going to leave this as a comment on this post about the one treatment that helped the most, but I decided to post it separately since it's long and covers much more than simply what treatments worked for me.
Four IPL treatments over the course of two months made the night and day difference for me. But the full story is more nuanced.
Before that I had tried the following treatments and didn't see much improvement: LipiFlow, ointments at night, moisture chamber glasses, antibiotics, autologous serum drops, different eyelid cleansers, preservative-free artificial tears, steroid drops, various warm compresses, anti-histamine eye drops, Omega-3 supplements, humidifier, punctal plugs, sublingual immunotherapy and probably some other treatments I'm forgetting.
Now, after years of debilitating dry eye, I have virtually no dry eye symptoms. Two years ago, I genuinely did not think this was possible.
My current treatment schedule and home-care regimen (this is not medical advice):
- Bruder mask twice a day for ~10 minutes (occassionally I use the Etekcity Lasergrip Infrared Thermometer to check that it's ~45 degrees Celsius). I also cover the mask with a tissue and spray it with an ultra-fine mister to get moist heat (which is more effective than dry heat).
- Heyedrate Lid & Lash Cleanser 1-2 times a day (but I liked to use EyeEco's 2% Tea Tree Cleanser when I had worse symptoms)
- Xiidra twice a day
- Paleo diet
- Installed "Time Out" on my computer to take a 20 second break every 20 minutes to do these eye exercises.
- Regener-Eyes Pro Strength every 1-2 nights
- NuLids device every other night
- Only wearing contacts when working out or for social activities
- LipiFlow once a year
- IPL every ~6 months
- Refresh Mega-3 Artificial Tears (if my eyes get dry on very rare occasion)
Everyone is different (it's important to consider what your underlying causes are because different causes require different treatments) but this is what worked for me (I'm a guy in my early 20's). I think the other most important thing to emphasize (and why I think IPL helped me) is the importance of halting the inflammatory cycle. I
... keep reading on reddit ➡I have been suffering from dry eyes for the past 6 years but recently my symptoms have started to interfere with my work and social life which was never the case before. Docs gave me eyedrops which helped before but now they just give relief for 5 mins post which my eyes start burning up again and things on my computer screen start getting blurry. I work in IT and I am afraid if it continues like this I might have to change my job, I am very stressed and anxious currently as Docs don't find anything wrong with my eyes but I am having trouble working.
Also I am afraid If I will go blind due to this chronic dry eyes disease. Literally scared for my life now.
If you are only using eye drops, doing warm eye compresses, or taking omega 3, and your life is still significantly impacted by your dry eyes aka you’re in pain all the time or can’t do your work, etc, you NEED to see an eye doctor. Specifically an ophthalmologist (actual eye doc) NOT an optometrist (eye exams). Optometrists can certainly treat eye emergencies I’d assume but you need someone more specialized in treating dry eyes (check their website to see if their office mentions dry eye disease, punctal plugs, lipiflow, IPL, etc). I personally see a cornea specialist.
I say this because eye drops and warm compresses are extremely basic techniques and if they don’t do enough, your problem is probably worse than you think and you shouldn’t just sit there suffering for months or years on end. Dry eye technology has come a very long way and keeps advancing. There is likely something out there that works for you so you should absolutely advocate for yourself and let your doctors know when something feels like it’s not working for you. Find an actual doctor, seek second opinions if you need to, etc.
After months, have finally figured out a good fit and after switching to nutrifill miraculously can go a few hours without fogging! However, I still can barely wear my sclerals because the surface (between the lens and lid) is bone dry. Have tried Xiidra, Restasis, and currently have both upper and lower punctal plugs. Optometrist says there's no inflammation on the inside upper lid. Obviously have hydrapeg coating too. Have to put drops in every few minutes and even that's not enough. Any tips? I want the lenses to work for me so badly :(
Hi everyone! I'm currently in the process of getting worked up for sjogrens and had a few questions related to punctal plugs. I had my upper tear ducts plugged a few days ago (already have lower ducts plugged), and my eyes are moderately watery and leaky (not necessarily full tears constantly streaming down my face all the time). Did your eyes adjust to this excessive tearing or did you have to get the upper plugs removed?
Additionally, one of my plugs accidentally went too deep and is now intracanalicular. If you have experience with intracanalicular plugs and later had to get them removed were you able to get them flushed out or did you have to get them surgically removed?
Has anyone here tried punctal plugs? I have dry eyes, and my doctor recommended them to me.
What are your experiences with punctal plugs? Specifically:
(1) Can you feel them? (2) How effective are they? Should I have both tear ducts in each eye covered, or only 1? (3) Do they easily come out? (4) How common are infections?
Thank you for your assistance.
