New at Eden Eyecare: The Vascular Filter – treating Dry Eye & Rosacea
At Eden Eyecare, we’ve introduced a brand new tool to our IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) toolkit: the vascular filter. It’s designed specifically for treating blood vessels in a very precise, targeted way. An incredibly effective treatment against persistent redness; thread veins, facial flushing and the small clusters of visible blood vessels that tend to gather around the nose and cheeks. While treating these has an obvious aesthetic appeal, that’s not actually the main reason we’re excited about it…
The real story is rosacea, and the surprising link it has to dry eye.
Rosacea is often thought of as a skin condition, something that shows up as flushing or visible redness across the cheeks and nose. The vascular filter is particularly well suited to treating this, calming the redness and giving the skin a noticeably more even tone. What’s less well known is just how many rosacea patients also suffer from associated Dry Eye.
Ocular rosacea is the form of the condition that affects the eyes rather than the skin, and it can occur alongside facial rosacea or on its own. It can make eyes feel gritty, sore or watery, with red, swollen eyelid margins and a tendency towards styes. Over time it can affect the glands that keep the tear film healthy, leading to persistent dry eye. Because it shares the same root cause as facial rosacea, treatments like IPL can be used to address both the visible vessels and the ocular symptoms together, rather than treating the eyes and skin as separate problems.
Recent studies show that around 20% of dry eye patients have an associated form of rosacea linked to Demodex, a microscopic mite that lives in the eyelash follicles and meibomian glands. When Demodex numbers build up, they contribute to inflammation, blocked glands and the kind of chronic dry eye that doesn’t respond well to drops alone.
This is why we’ve adapted and improved our approach for rosacea patients. Where we identify rosacea alongside dry eye symptoms, we can now combine our state-of-the-art OptiLIGHT IPL treatments with the new vascular filter as standard.
The IPL addresses the underlying inflammation and Demodex activity, while the vascular filter targets the visible blood vessels that so often accompany the condition. The result is an approach that treats the whole picture, calming the skin, reducing visible vessels and, most importantly, easing the dry eye symptoms that so often go hand in hand with rosacea.
At Eden Eyecare, we continue to invest in the latest and most effective treatment options for our patients, ensuring we continue to offer exceptional care that goes well beyond a standard eye examination. We are proud that our Penrith practice is among the best-equipped dry eye clinics in the country.
If you’re struggling with dry eye, rosacea, or visible facial vessels, come and talk to us. We’ll assess whether IPL and the vascular filter could help.
