Cha­lazions and styes start out with sim­i­lar symp­toms and look alike. Many peo­ple get these two con­fused since they both can ap­pear as a bump near the edge of the eye­lid. The pri­ma­ry dif­fer­ence be­tween the two is the cause.

Stye

A stye or horde­olum is a small, red, painful lump which of­ten ap­pears at the eye­lid’s edge or un­der the eye­lid and is usu­al­ly caused by an in­fect­ed eye­lash root. It might look like a pim­ple. It of­ten swells, some­times af­fect­ing the en­tire eye­lid.

Cha­lazion

A cha­lazion is a swollen bump on the eye­lid that usu­al­ly de­vel­ops far­ther back on the eye­lid than a stye. It is gen­er­al­ly caused by a clogged oil gland. At first, you might not know you have a cha­lazion as there is lit­tle or no pain. But as it grows, your eye­lid may get red, swollen, and some­times ten­der to touch.

SYMP­TOMS

Stye:

• a very painful red bump along the edge of the eye­lid at the base of the eye­lash­es.

• usu­al­ly a small pus spot at the cen­tre of the bump

• feel­ing like some­thing is in your eye

• hav­ing a scratchy feel­ing in the eye

• be­ing sen­si­tive to light

• crusti­ness along the eye­lid mar­gin

• tear­ing in that eye

Cha­lazion:

When there are symp­toms, they can in­clude:

• a bump on the eye­lid, some­times be­com­ing red and swollen Oc­ca­sion­al­ly it can be ten­der

• rarely, an en­tire­ly swollen eye­lid

• blur­ry vi­sion, if the cha­lazion is large enough to press on the eye­ball

TREAT­MENT

Cha­lazions and styes usu­al­ly go away on their own. A sty usu­al­ly goes away in a week or two while cha­lazions gen­er­al­ly take longer, dis­ap­pear­ing af­ter a month or more.

To ease the pain and help them heal:

• Use a clean, warm, wet com­press on your eye­lid for 5 to 10 min­utes, 2 or 3 times a day

• Don’t try to pop it as it could spread the in­fec­tion in­to your eye­lid.

• Don’t use your con­tact lens­es or eye make­up un­til they heal

If your stye doesn’t go away on its own, or is very painful, your doc­tor may:

• Give you an­tibi­otics

• Drain the flu­id

If your cha­lazion lasts longer than eight weeks, your doc­tor may:

• Drain the flu­id

• Give you a cor­ti­cos­teroid shot in your eye­lid to re­duce the swelling

OTH­ER CAUS­ES

• Ble­phar­i­tis

• Cer­tain skin con­di­tions like se­b­or­rhe­ic der­mati­tis or ac­ne rosacea

• Pres­ence of sys­temic con­di­tions like di­a­betes

• Fail­ing to com­plete­ly re­move eye make­up

• Us­ing cos­met­ics that are old or con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed

• Touch­ing eyes with dirty hands

• Im­prop­er dis­in­fec­tion of con­tact lens­es

• Pre­vi­ous styes or cha­lazions

It is im­por­tant to vis­it your eye doc­tor to learn how keep your eyes healthy. For more in­for­ma­tion on car­ing for your eyes, you can vis­it our web­site at www.trinidadeye­hos­pi­tal.org.