Welcome to Case of the Day!
Today, we’re going to discuss something that some people might find a little gross, while others might find a little funny and interesting. We’re going to discuss what is called Demodex, which is a tiny organism that’s about 1/3 of a millimeter, semi-clear looking, and has eight legs.
Demodex actually stays around your eyelashes and burrows down into the follicle of the lash, and then, at nighttime, crawls out and can crawl around your face and eyelids. There’s even some evidence that strong>Demodex may be a cause or part of the cause of rosacea; that is, these things crawl across your face and then die, then their body fluids cause a reaction on your skin, which could lead to rosacea. Some studies have shown that as well, but we see in a lot of people who have Demodex that it’s more commonly found around the eyelashes.
Normally, your eyelashes are nice and clean, but in people with blepharitis, there is crusting and mattering around their lashes, and the glands in the lids are infected. It’s a chronic disease in a lot of people; an old term used to be granulated eyelids. Blepharitis is very common, and people sometimes have it for years and just never really do much about getting rid of it.
Demodex occurs in a lot of people who have blepharitis or have red, itchy eyes. Supposedly, they’re still not known for sure, but Demodex feed on either cells or tissue down in the hair follicle. Their life cycle is pretty short, so they reproduce on your skin and then they die, and the body/waste material then causes inflammation.
Demodex are sometimes very difficult to treat. There’s a product on the market that looks like a little drill or pin, and on the end of it is a little sponge that spins around like a drill, and we can use this to clean stuff off your lashes and lids. Then we get all this matter cleaned off so you can get down to the Demodex, and we use an antiseptic soap that can even kill them somewhat. Some treatments include strong>tea tree oil application to the lids to kill the Demodex. Another way you can try to control it is to really goop up your eyelids with an ointment at night and trap them as they come out into the ointment. The main thing is just keeping your lids really clean. We have some cleaning pads called OCuSOFT that are an antiseptic pad that cleans off the lashes as well.
You may not realize it, but a lot of people have this stuff crawling around their lids at night. For some people, it’s pretty gross, but it’s extremely common in some areas.
If you have red, itchy eyes, you may have to get them checked by an eye doctor at the Cataract & Refractive Institute of Florida to make sure you don’t have Demodex in your eyelashes. Otherwise, may God grant you healthy eyes and great vision.
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