Previously we have talked about treatments for a condition called Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD). We talked about using eye drops, eye ointments, compresses, etc. for these treatments but only glanced over how your doctor knows you have this issue. Symptoms certainly play a part, but how can your doctor see these very small glands?
Eye doctors used to just look at the glands using high magnification using a slit lamp. They also can push on the eyelid to see the oil production of the glands but were never able to look deeper than that. That was until a new form of technology came to be called Lipiscan. Lipiscan is a non-invasive machine that takes high definition images of the Meibomian Glands from 2 different views. One view is with light directly illuminating the eyelid to show the glands and the second view is with transillumination where the light is reflected off of the glands to get another type of view.
With each view the doctor can see if the glands are healthy or if there are areas of truncation or dropout indicating damage. The test takes about a minute and can be billed to insurances. The information given can help your doctor decide the appropriate treatment regimen for you to improve your Meibomian Gland function or to stop the damage from worsening.
Please call (860) 233-2020 to schedule an eye exam with one of our doctors and if you have dryness or eyelid issues your doctor can run a Lipiscan test to see your Meibomian Glands to get the right treatment for you.
