Eyelid Hygiene

Key overview

  • The lid margin is where oil glands open and where debris, bacteria and mites accumulate. Inflamed margins undermine every other treatment.
  • Two minutes daily is more effective than an occasional thorough clean.
  • Scrubbing hard or using soap irritates the surface you are trying to protect.
  • Expect several weeks before anything changes. Stopping at two weeks is the most common reason it appears not to work.

Eyelid hygiene is the least glamorous part of dry eye treatment and frequently the most decisive. The lid margin is where oil glands open, where lashes emerge, and where bacteria, mites and hardened debris accumulate. If that margin is inflamed or clogged, heat therapy has less to work with and supplements have less effect.

Done properly it takes a couple of minutes a day. Done badly — scrubbing hard, using soap, or treating it as an occasional clean-up rather than a daily habit — it irritates the surface it was meant to protect.

What follows covers technique, what to use, and how long to expect it to take before anything changes.

Guides in this section

4 articles, grouped by what they answer.

Where our products fit

LidBoost+ is 100% cold-pressed castor oil for the lid margin. Cold-pressed matters here — the extraction method determines what else ends up in the oil, and the eye is not a forgiving place to find out. LidBoost+.

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