HOW TO GET RID OF A STYE

Hey, you beautiful people

Welcome to my website. The style has changed slightly but the information remains of the highest quality.

I’m Danny Dutton and if you’ve landed here, you probably have a stye on your eyelid (or even multiple styes) and want to know how to get rid of it/them fast.

I’m no medical practitioner, but as a sufferer of recurring styes for many years I’ve tried out just about every stye treatment there is available and on this page I’m going to share with you what works and what doesn’t.

First things first…

The first thing you need to know is that most styes will heal on their own within a week or two without you having to do anything. Most doctors will advise between 1 and 3 weeks, but (in my experience) 2 weeks is the maximum you will have to suffer a stye for and most will clear up within 7 days.

Getting rid of a stye in a couple of days

When you are suffering with the pain and discomfort of a stye, even a week can seem like an eternity. The good news is that there is a way to fast-track the healing process with a warm compress.

A warm compress is simply a clean flannel/towel soaked in water from the hot tap in your bathroom, which you then hold firmly against your eye for a period of 3 or 4 minutes. This process should be repeated four times a day (e.g. when you get up in the morning, at lunchtime, after dinner, before you go to bed).

Although I think it goes without saying, for the sake of clarity (and to keep safe), please ensure:

• the water from your hot tap is not so hot that it burns or scalds you
• that you wring any excess water out of the flannel/towel before applying it to your eye (or water will drip onto your chest)

The warm compress aids the healing process by encouraging a stye to release the pus that has built up inside it (effectively ‘popping’ the stye).

This method is extremely effective and will usually cure a stye within 2 days. Some people will find that it gets rid of a stye overnight (literally) and a few may have to wait for 3 days before it is gone.

There is a product available called the Stye Care Kit, which can be used to hold the warm compress in place using an eye patch, whilst you continue with your daily tasks – I’ve not used it myself so cannot comment on it’s usefulness but I’d love to hear from anyone that has tested it.

Personally, I’d prefer to hold the warm compress in place with the heel of my hand because it’s simpler and means I don’t look like a pirate but for anyone interested in the Stye Care Kit, I have a few available at a reasonable price (just three left sorry, sold out) – click here for more details).

What other stye treatments are available?

The warm compress will work for around 95% cases of styes. For the unfortunate 5% that have no luck with this treatment, the next step is to pluck the eyelash closest to the stye and continue with the warm compress.

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If it still hasn’t healed after a couple of weeks, visit your doctor who will be able to advise you on the next step (if it is particularly painful, you should visit your doctor sooner).

After consulting with you, your doctor will offer stye treatment in the form of antibiotics or surgery. In most cases a course of antibiotics will be used initially followed by surgery if the anitibiotics don’t work.

The antibiotics will either be a capsule that you take orally or a cream that you rub on your stye (make sure you wash your hands before applying it).

Although surgery may sound scary, it is a very quick and simple procedure that is quite painless and performed under local anesthetic (your eyelid will be injected with a chemical that will make it numb). Only a very tiny incision is made to remove the stye, so it leaves hardly any visible scarring. You can read more about stye surgery here.

If your doctor advises surgery, they will probably refer you to an ophthalmologist (eye doctor) who will perform the operation.

Stye treatments that don’t work

There are a number of alternative medicines on the market that claim to cure styes. I’ve tried most of them and can categorically say THEY DO NOT WORK! 

Don’t waste your money on these products – at best they will temporarily take the edge off the pain caused by the stye but this is something that can easily (and more cheaply) be achieved with regular painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen.

Another faux stye treatment that I hear regularly is rubbing gold on the infected eyelid. This is an Old Wives Tale that has been handed down for generations and began in a time where magic and monsters were held in higher regard than science. There is no scientific proof (or even scientific theory) that gold does anything to help cure a stye.

You may also have heard of mixing various substances including parsley, coriander and tea tree oil with boiling water then holding your head over it to steam your eyelid. Yes, many people have had success with these methods but be aware that it is the steam that is catalyzing the healing process and not the herb you’ve thrown into the mix with it. You would get the same effect from using boiling water on it’s own – it’s exactly the same method that warm compress uses.

Finally, never ever try to pop a stye by squeezing it; doing so is very painful, can damage the eyelid’s tissue and can spread the infection resulting in more styes.

Stye prevention

Prevention is often better than cure, so what can you do to avoid getting a stye in the first place?

Firstly, make sure you wash your hands and face twice a day. You may need to wash your hands more frequently if they get particularly dirty.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, try to avoid touching your eyes and other areas of your face.  Your hands and fingers pick up all sorts of bacteria during the day as you touch door handles, keyboards etc. and when you touch your face, you can transfer bacteria these regions.

Picking your nose and then rubbing your eyes is a common method of contracting bacteria that causes a stye (staphylococcal aureus) because this bacteria lives naturally within your nasal cavity without causing any ill effects. This is why infants with snotty noses are particularly vulnerable to styes.

If you’re a lady (or even a man) and wear mascara, it’s advisable to wash it off at the end of every day – mascara can clog your eyelash follicles, which can develop into a stye. Also, avoid using someone else’s mascara and mascara applicator as the bacteria that causes styes is quite contagious and can be passed from person to person. If you suffer from recurring styes, changing your fashion and style with regards your make-up may help keep them under control.

So, to recap…

First of all apply a warm compress to the stye four times a day.

If your stye hasn’t healed after three or four days, pluck the eyelash closest to the stye and persevere with the warm compress.

If, after two weeks, the stye still hasn’t disappeared, take a trip to your doctor who will be able to offer you antibiotics or surgery to get rid of it.

Simples

I hope you found this useful. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me at dan@howtogetridofastye.info or use the comments section below.

Danny

Related Articles

• What are styes & what causes them?
• Are styes contagious?
• Should you pop a stye?
• Eye hygiene and eyelid care
• Internal styes & external styes
• Photos of styes
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