Your Stye Eye Relief With A Potato

A stye isn't something that looks worse than it actually is.... but instead, something that often feels much worse than it is.

Luckily, it's usually temporary. And can be dealt with quite effectively at home.

A stye is a local infection of the eyelid – somewhat like a pimple. Although quite benign, styes can be extremely painful. Sometimes you see them on the outside of the eyelid, and other times they can occur beneath the surface.

Most of the time, a stye will not progress, but it can stick around for a while. Because a stye resembles a pimple, people often try to pop the external variety with little to no success.

Funny thing about the way the eye deals with infection...

Because of the eye's proximity to the brain, the eye tends to "overdo it" when it responds to an infection. As a stye develops, the body works hard to immediately build a wall (the bump) around it to prevent the infection from spreading. This wall, unfortunately, also makes the infection difficult to remove. Sometimes, but not always, we can help relieve some of the pressure in the office.

Unfortunately, drops are useless against a stye. The best way to deal with it, if you can't make it into the office, is with a potato.

No, I'm not joking.

A potato compress can provide some relief from discomfort and can help to draw out the infection. To make one, poke some holes in a potato with a fork. Then wrap the potato in some paper towels and microwave for four to six minutes (until it is warm but not too hot to touch).

The rounded shape of the potato fits nicely into the orbit of the eye. And the potato, when warmed, provides soothing, moist heat for up to 20 minutes. This heat allows the local vasculature (blood vessels) to stay open and speeds removal of the infection. (Just make sure is isn't too hot)!

As always, this information isn't intended to serve as a substitute for a visit to the office. If you come in with a stye, we'll certainly do everything we can to help. And if the infection happens to spread (which, fortunately, is rare), we'll need to treat it with oral antibiotics. Keep in mind also that not all lumps on the eyelid are styes. If the situation doesn't begin to improve within a few days, we definitely want to take a look.