Along with medical management of dry eye, Putnoi Eyecare offers in-office treatments to help get at the source of dry eye symptoms for patients. These office based procedures are not covered by insurance but they have been a useful addition to our ability to treat symptomatic dry eye for patients.
IPL (INTENSE PULSED LIGHT)
What is it and how does it work?
IPL is using a spectrum of light to target inflamed blood vessels, coagulates the fine blood vessels thus interfering in the cascade of inflammation. IPL was first used in the dermatology field as a common treatment used to address rosacea, sun damage, and acne scarring of the skin, and is now available to address chronic Dry Eye Disease and its main cause: Meibomian Gland Dysfunction of the eyelids.
In our office, IPL treatment is to treat and improve Dry Eye signs and symptoms, getting at the root cause of inflammation. With Lumenis Optima IPL, Dr. Putnoi can effectively treat eye inflammation with maximum safety, comfort, and customization to your condition. While treating the fine blood vessels around the eye, helping to reduce inflammation and halt the inflammatory process, IPL treatment also heats up and liquefies the oil glands on the lid margin.
IPL is also used for and has been shown to reduce the appearance of erythema (redness) of the lids and skin as well as brown spots.
The intended goal is to treat your ocular surface disease (dry eye, meibomian gland dysfunction, ocular rosacea). Reduction of erythema/discolored spots can be a secondary benefit.
Generally, treatments last 15 minutes, you are given topical anesthesia on your skin prior. Successful protocol calls for 4 treatments approximately 2-4 weeks apart. You should plan on one additional treatment 6-12 months later.
LIPIFLOW
Additionally we also offer Lipiflow as a stand alone procedure or as a complement to the IPL procedure. This 15-minute treatment is another way of getting your oil glands (meibomian glands) better functioning or perceiving the gland structure that remains.
Lipiflow is a comfortable high tech way of heating up your oil glands on the internal surface of your eyelid, then expresses the oils from the glands. If done with IPL, it is usually administered after the third treatment of IPL.
