Many patients come to my Denver office for chalazion and stye treatment. There are five things that are critical for patients to know. There are many misconceptions about chalazion and stye treatment.

1. You need to use warm compresses for one month

Warm compresses are the initial treatment for styes. The best thing to use for warm compresses is dry rice in a sock warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds. This should be done 4 times a day. 85% of styes will resolve with warm compresses and many surgeons will want to wait atleast one month with warm compresses before performing an excision.

2. It is not an infection

Many patients believe that their stye came from makeup, someone else, or pink eye. A stye is not an infection. I will repeat it. It is not an infection. Antibiotics are not necessary. There are many patients who are concerned about infection but I reassure them that it is not.

3. An excision takes about 15 minutes

An excision of a stye takes about 15 minutes. Usually people are worried that the procedure takes a long time. It does not. Recovery is a couple days. We usually give some numbing medicine. I then excise the stye and watch the patient for a few minutes.

4 .In rare cases it can be eyelid cancer

In rare cases a stye can be sebaceous cell carcinoma, a serious eyelid cancer. I have had patients who have a bump on their eyelid and think it is a stye but it is skin cancer. The key is if the stye is there for a while, atleast get it checked out if it hasn’t gotten better.

5. Fish oil can prevent them

Fish Oil has been shown to prevent the development of styes through placebo controlled studies. I recommend for all patients who have a lots of styes to take 1000mg of Fish oil a day to reduce the number of styes that they get.

The main thing is to get in with an oculoplastic surgeon such as myself or my colleagues in Denver or Colorado so the stye will be managed and excised if needed. My office can usually get people in very quickly if they have an event or some big function planned. Plan atleast two weeks prior to the event for optimal results. The day before your wedding is not good planning to reduce swelling and bruising after stye removal.