IPL is the abbreviation for Intense Pulsed Light. This type of treatment has historically been used mainly in dermatology, but it has recently been approved by the FDA for the treatment of dry eye disease!
A quick refresher on dry eye: Dry eye disease (DED) affects approximately 16.4 million Americans based on recent studies. Symptoms of dry eyes can include watery eyes, sensitivity to light, a burning sensation in the eyes, eye grittiness, as well as blurred and fluctuating vision.
And one more quick refresher for tears: Our eyelids have little oil glands called meibomian glands which produce meibum oil that mixes with our tears. Not all tears are the same! The tears that we produce when we are crying have a much higher salt content than our regular tears and far less meibum oil. We need our regular tears to have enough meibum oil mixed in to keep the tears from evaporating off of our eyes too quickly.
Specifically there is only one IPL device that has been approved for treatment of dry eye by the FDA and that is Lumenis Stellar M22, or as we like to call it, “Stella”.
Stella treats DED using intense light therapy to penetrate through the skin of the eyelid to the meibomian glands, causing any oil build-up to break down rapidly, making it easier for Dr. Bradbury to express the glands. This also ensures that there are no blockages preventing the extremely important meibum oil from combining with your tears to create the quality tears you need. If a meibomian gland becomes blocked, it can cause permanent damage to the gland and it will not continue to produce oil. That’s why it’s so important to keep the glands clear of any blockages, which is one of the leading causes of DED.
An IPL treatment for dry eye takes only a few minutes to perform, and it is recommended to have 3-4 treatments over the course of several weeks to complete a full treatment plan.
If you would like additional information regarding IPL treatments or to schedule, please contact us at (336) 701-6460!
We are so excited to introduce this new technology to all of our patients, and we can’t wait to help you with your DED management!
