In this post, I will explain what styes are, the causes of styes and how to treat them. The purpose is to give readers a basic knowledge of what styes are and how to get rid of styes fast.

What is a Stye
A stye is an inflamed lump on your eyelid, caused by an infection of the eyelash follicles or sebaceous (oil) glands in your eyelid. Most people develop a stye at some point in their life but for some unfortunate people, styes keep recurring over and over again. The medical term for a stye is a hordeolum.

Internal and External Styes
Styes can be both external and internal: external styes appear as an abcess pointing outwards from your eyelid whilst internal styes develop inside the flesh of your eyelid and point inwards towards your eye. External styes are the most common and are caused by an infection on the surface of the eyelid. Internal styes are caused by an infection of the meibomian glands, which are beneath the surface of your eyelash.

Stye Symptoms
The main symptoms of a stye are pain, uncomfortableness, redness and a inflammation on your eyelid. It will feel as though you constantly have something in your eye, which can cause a streaming of tears. Although it is possible to have multiple styes, usually only one stye willmanifest at the same time. Your eye may water a lot or feel like there is something in it.

External styes may also develop a yellow/white head similar to a pimple on the outside of your eyelid – resist the urge to pop it as this often causes more harm than good.

Internal styes can develop a similar head but on the inside of your eyelid and can only be seen if you turn your eyelid inside out. Internal styes are usually a lot more painful than external styes.

Other Forms of Styes
Most styes will heal on their own over the course of a few weeks (although there are techniques to speed up recovery – see below). Occasionally, however, a stye can develop further complications such as a Chalazion (blocked meibomian gland), which is a painless cyst on the eylid or a full eyelid infection. If your stye doesn’t clear up in a week, you should seek medical attention from your doctor.

Stye Causes
90% of styes are caused by the staphylococcal bacteria, which is a harmless bacteria that resides on your skin and the inside of your nose – this is why infants with snotty noses are at high risk from styes because they can rub mucus from their nostrils into their eyes. If you suffer from Blepharitis (an inflammation of the eyelid caused by blocked sebaceous glands), you are also more susceptible to styes. More info on how you can get a stye here.

How To Get Rid of Styes Fast
As stated earlier,your body will usually be able to heal your stye infection on its own without any interaction. The healing process usually takes between a few days and a few weeks.

You may be able to fast-track your recovery by using a hot compress on your eyelid. This involves soaking a towel or flannel in warm (not hot) water – water from the hot tap in your home should be of sufficient temperature. Hold the flannel/towel against your eyelid for around five minute – some pressure should also be applied but not somuch that hurts. This warms the fluids that cause the stye and help them to drain faster. Do this around 3 times a day until the stye has gone (click here for the full procedure to curing a stye using this method).

A convenient improvement on the warm compress is EyeEco’s Stye Care Kit.

Maintaining a high degree of personal cleanliness especially around your eyes is also important to aid recovery, as is taking care not to rub the infected area with your fingers. It is a good idea not to wear mascara and eye shadow and any other eye makeup until the stye has gone.

If the stye has not healed within a few weeks, you should seek medical advice. Your doctor will be able to prescribe antibiotics to treat the infection or schedule surgey to lance the stye and help drain the fluids (under local anaesthetic). Your doctor may also refer you to a specialist if he/she deems it necessary.

Alternatively, if you prefer home remedies, check out some of the treatments on the Stye-No-More website or for further info,check out ‘How Do You Get Rid of a Stye?‘.

You can check out more information about how to clear up a stye on my new, updated website.

Related Posts:
Treating a stye

Hey guys,

In this post, I want to share with you a little method for getting rid of a stye overnight. It won’t work in all cases, but if you need an ultra-quick stye remedy, it’s worth a try.

If you’re looking for a more reliable way to get rid of a stye, check out this page – it usually takes a couple of days to get rid of a stye using this method but it has an amazing success rate.

Anyway, back to how to get rid of a stye overnight. This tip was sent to me from my friend John who runs the website Get Rid of Chipmunks. If you have a chipmunk problem, check out his free guide to getting rid of them - there’s a free plug for your website, John

John emailed me to say that when he was a youngster his mother used to check his eyelid to see if the stye was an infected eyelash follicle.

Many styes are caused by an infection of an eyelash follicle but not all of them – some are caused by an infection of one of the glands within the eyelid, so make sure that your stye is an external follicle stye before proceeding.

If a Stye had developed in an eyelash follicle, then John’s mother would pluck the eyelash (which would also pull out the infection 99% of the time) before holding a cotton ball soaked in boiling water against the eyelid to help drain and soak up the fluids.

This method can literally get rid of a stye overnight if you go through the procedure before you go to bed.

John also tells me that sometimes his mother would also half-fill a mug with boiling water and have him put his eye over the rim and the steam would also help to clear the infection. If you try this, be very careful not to scold your eye with the boiling water!

Personally, I’ve never tried these methods, so can’t say if they work or not but if anyone tries them out, I’d be very grateful if you could let me know the outcome in the comments section below.

Other methods you can use to get rid of a stye include a hot compress (the best method), rubbing gold against it, antibiotics and surgery.

I’d advise you check out my own method for how to get rid of a stye, which usually takes between 1 and 3 days (but has a very high success rate) or look at some other methods of treating a stye.

Oh, and never ever try to pop a stye.

Danny

Hey Guys,

Note: Click here to find out what I used to get rid of my recurring styes or scroll down for information on how to get rid of styes.

Just a quick post today because the kids and I are visiting relatives in Wales.

I get asked fairly regularly if you can pop a stye by squeezing it and my answer’s always the same:

Never, ever pop a stye!

If you do, the harmful bacteria in the infection will spread around to other vulnerable sebaceous glands in your eye and you risk picking up further infections.

In addition, you can damage the skin around your eyelid and that’s without mentioning the excruciating pain that results from a popped stye (I’ve done it myself, so I know how much it hurts!)

Well, that’s all for today (short an sweet). Bye for now

UPDATE JUNE 2011: Actually, I lied – there is a way to pop a stye, but it’s not what you think. Click here to learn how to pop a stye.

NOTE: Check out my new blogspot blog about how to get rid of styes

Hey guys,

Thanks for visiting my website dedicated to getting rid of and healing styes.

What Are Styes?

Styes are small lumps that develop on the eyelids when a follicle or gland becomes clogged with debris such as dead skin cells. They resemble small pimples and often become infected with the staphylococcal bacteria.

As well as the lump, other symptoms of a stye include inflammation redness and swelling that can lead to discomfort and pain.

How To Heal a Stye

There are a number of methods you can use to heal a stye quickly, but the best method is by using a hot compress, which you can read about on my ‘How To Cure a Stye‘ page. This will get rid of around 90% of styes within two to three days.

If you need an even faster method, check out my article on ‘how to get rid of styes overnight‘, however I do not recommend this method as I have insufficient data about how successful it is. If you do decide to try this method, please let me know if it worked for you or not by leaving a comment below or emailing me at styes@gesweb.co.uk.

Between 5% and 10% of styes are particularly stubborn, because of either a particularly bad infection or a weakened immune system that has trouble combating the infection.

If you’ve tried the hot compress method and you still have a stye after a week, check out my Stye Treatments page to see what your next options are. Here you will find a list of additional stye treatments that you can obtain from your doctor as well as some alternative natural remedies.

A very small percentage of styes (less that 1%) will develop into a chalazion. A chalazion is a lump or cyst on the eyelid similar to a stye but without the associated pain and discomfort. In addition, a chalazion can remain on the eyelid for many months of even years.

If you think you may have a chalazion, take a look at my article on how to get rid of a chalazion and chalazion treatments.

If you require any additional information about styes and how to heal them, use the search function in the top right of the page, leave a comment below or email me at styes@gesweb.co.uk and – time-permitting – I’ll do my best to help

Danny x

Hey guys,

Most of the information on this website is geared towards getting rid of a stye but are there any ways that you can prevent a stye developing in the first place?

Keeping your eyes clean and maintaining a good level personal hygiene helps to prevent infection. This means washing at least twice day with warm water and soap or a mild cleanser.

Keeping your face clean can also prevent other ailments, such as acne, but don’t overdo it -twice-daily is usually sufficient.

A strong immune system can often fight infections before they take hold. This is true for a variety of different illnesses and diseases as well as stye. You can build a strong immune system by staying fit and healthy. This means keeping fit, exercising regularly and abstaining from tobacco, alcohol and other harmful drugs.

Keeping your fingers away from your face can stop a stye infection spreading or becoming worse. The bacteria that causes styes is naturally present within the nasal cavity, so it can develop into a stye if your fingers wander between your nose and eyes.

This can be difficult to control as we often subconsciously touch our faces without realizing we’re doing it. If you catch yourself touching the area around your nose, give your hands and face a wash as soon as you can.

Although keeping clean and healthy can reduce your risk of getting a stye, sometimes they can still develop and there’s not a lot you can do to prevent it.

If this happens, check out my articles about how to cure a stye in two days, how to get rid of a stye and how to heal a stye.

If you think your stye has developed into a chalazion, check out my article on getting rid of a chalazion (if you’re not sure what a chalazion is, take a look at my article entitled Stye or Chalazion.

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all the questions you’ve sent in. In this post I’m going to hand over to a friend of mine who suffered from recurring styes and he’ll tell you exactly how to get rid of styes and try to answer all your questions at the same time so be prepared for a long(ish) article.

Hi, my name’s Dave.

If you want to find out how I got rid of my stye, click here.

So, What is a Stye?

First of all, lets take a look at what a stye is and why we get them as this holds clues to how we can get treat them.

In essence, a stye is an infection of the oil glands (sebaceous) on and around the eyelid. These glands secrete tiny amounts of oil through a small duct to protect and lubricate your skin, eye and eyelashes. Also, you have meibomian sebaceous or ‘tear ducts’ as they are more commonly known.

If these oil glands become blocked, it can result in a chalazion, which is a small cyst on the eyelid. If the oil glands become infected with bacteria (the most likely culprit being the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus), it can result in a hordeolum or stye. Chalazions are often a lot less painful than styes, however they usually require medical attention to get rid of. Styes, on the other hand, can usually be treated at home (around 98% of the time).

Effects of Eye Sties

Blocked oil glands that are subsequently infected with bacteria form a stye, which is a bump or lump on the surface of the eyelid, with a white or yellow dot at the summit (see the picture above). The stye and the area around it usually becomes puffy, red and inflamed and is often painful to the sufferer. It can also be very itchy and cause irritation because it doesn’t feel comfortable to keep the eyelid open, which can make everyday tasks ten times harder to accomplish.

How to Prevent Styes

Armed with the knowledge of what a stye is, we are now ideally placed to make some educated assumptions about what may prevent styes from developing.

The first thing you need to do is maintain a high level of personal hygiene and cleanliness – in other words, was your hands and face (especially the areas around your eyes) regularly. This helps prevent bacteria from getting into your sebaceous glands.

Also, it is important to maintain a healthy, balanced diet as this helps to build a strong immune system, which can counteract any bacteria that does get into your eyes quickly and effectively.

Finally, try to keep your fingers out of your eyes and try to resist the urge to rub them. During our daily routines, we touch a lot of things and our hands are rife with bacteria, so by keeping them away from our eyes, we reduce the chance of spreading bacteria to that area.

As a sidenote, bacteria that occurs naturally in our nostrils is thought to be a cause of styes, so try not to pick your nose, too

How to Get Rid of Styes

I, myself, suffered from chronic eye styes for many years. I first started to get them in my late teens and this continued for about a decade until I was in my early thirties. Although styes are common in infants, my parents told me I didn’t have them as a child, so I surmised that one of the changes I went through during puberty was perhaps the reason behind me being susceptible to styes in early adulthood.

Although I have no medical training and no proof, I suspect my pores opening up during adolescence coupled with the stress of exams and tiredness caused by late night study sessions all contributed to my stye problems. This continued during my twenties, as I worked long hours in a stressful (but enjoyable) career.

I tried lots of remedies and treatments to get rid of my styes (both from my doctor and at home) but they’d take weeks before they began to work and when the stye did finally disappear, a week or two later I’d develop another one! This became infuriating as I was in a constant, never-ending battle with my styes and, as anyone who has suffered from styes knows well, the pain and irritation they cause greatly reduces your productivity. This, in turn, led to more stress in an already-stressful job and at one point, the stress got so by bad,I considered quitting the job I loved.

I was at my wit’s end!

Then, one day I was surfing the Internet looking for the next stye treatment to try out and I came across Stye No-More, a home remedy guide for stye sufferers. The e-book claimed to offer home remedies to get rid of styes quickly and easily and stop them from coming back for good. I was a little skeptical at first, but as it offered a sixty-day money back guarantee, I decided to give it a shot.

Many of the remedies listed in Stye No-More I had already tried before and had no luck with, however there were a few that were new to me, so I gave them a shot. The first didn’t work for me, however the second changed my life forever. Within a couple of days, my stye had disappeared and, touch wood, I’ve not developed another stye for over 18 months now!

For over a decade, styes had been the bane of my life. Now, I found I could arrange trips and meetings without worrying if I’d develop a stye and, best of all, I wouldn’t have to quit my job.

You might think I sound a bit crazy and over-excited – after all, I’m only talking about how to get rid of and prevent styes, but it really did have that much of a positive impact on my life. Curing my recurring stye problem reduced the stress in my life ten-fold and with less stress, I learned to enjoy life more and the reason I’m sharing this with you is because I want others to feel the new lease of life that I have had the privilege of feeling. Here’s that link again.

How To Get Rid of Styes with Stye No-More

Hey guys,

Just a quick post today as I’ve got lots of work to do

I’ve received quite a few emails lately from folk asking about the differences between styes and chalazia (chalazions), so I thought I’d take a few moments to clarify the similarities and differences.

After reading, you should be able to take an educated guess as to whether you have a stye or chalazion.

Stye & Chalazia Similarities

The primary symptom of both a stye and a chalazion is a lump or cyst on the eyelid (usually the upper eyelid). Secondary symptoms such as inflammation, redness, soreness, itchiness and discomfort are also present in both conditions.

In addition, both are caused initially by a blocked eyelash follicle or gland that has then become infected.

Stye & Chalazia Differences

Although both a stye and a chalazion can cause varying degrees of discomfort, styes are usually more painful than chalazia. In fact, most chalazia don’t cause the bearer any pain at all (although they can look unsightly to others).

A chalazion will usually last much longer than a stye. Whereas styes will heal within a few days to a few weeks, chalazia can linger for months or even years.

Stye or Chalazion?

If you’ve had a stye for 2 weeks or more and it is no longer causing you pain, it may have developed into a chalazion. Check out my article how to get rid of a chalazion and visit your doctor for further advice.

Occasionally a stye will not hurt too much, so if you’ve have a painless lump on your eyelid anywhere between a day and a week, chances are it is a stye and will be gone soon. Check out my articles on how to heal a stye and stye treatments for further info.

Finally, if you’ve had a stye for over two weeks and it is still causing you pain, you probably have a particularly stubborn stye and should read my article on how to cure a stye.

I hope you’ve found this useful and if you have any questions or queries, please leave a comment below

Danny

Hey guys,

Just a quick post today in response to a number of people that have asked me how to get rid of styes under the eyelid and whether the treatment is different to styes that develop on the eyelid (or on the frontof the eyelid).

Internal and External Styes

Styes under the eyelid are referred to as Internal Styes whereas styes on the outside are referred to as External Styes.

Internal styes have the head pointing inwards towards your eyeball and can only be seen if you turn your eyelid inside out.

External styes are usually caused by an infected eyelash follicle. Internal styes are usually caused by an infected meibomian gland (these are the gland that produces the tear film that covers your eyeball).

Treatment

In essence, the treatments for both internal styes under the eyelid and external styes on top of the eyelid are the same.

Follow the steps on this page for the ultimate stye cure for both internal and external styes. This will get rid of most styes under the eyelid fast (usually within a day or two).

If your stye hasn’t vanished within a few days, take a look at the alternative stye treatments.

Danny

I was just looking at some videos on YouTube and I found a weird stye treatment that I must admit I’d never heard of before.

Debbie Witter’s method forgetting rid of styes involves wetting a gold ring and rubbing it against your stye several times a day. In her experience, this method has worked every single time she’s tried it. As I said, it’s not something I’ve heard of before, so I can’t vouch for it’s effectiveness but if you’ve tried everything else, I guess it’s worth a shot.

Here’s Debbie explaining her methodin her own words:

If any of you guys do give it a go, I’d be very grateful if you could let me know if it got rid of your stye or not. You can either leave me a comment below or send me an email. Thanks in advance

The first thing my grandma (who worked as a nurse before she retired) told me was to make sure I washed my face twice-daily. I’ve always been a real stickler for cleanliness and already washed at least twice a day, so this didn’t really apply to me but it may apply to you.

Secondly, she told me to notice the signs that make styes develop – this is usually at times when you are particularly stressed or particularly tired.  In my case, this was quite often because I am a businessman that works long hours, often into the night.

Grandma advised that when I felt particularly tired or stresses, before I went to bed  (after having a wash) I should soak a flannel in hot water, close my eyes and hold the hot flannel against my eyelids  for 2-5 minutes. The flannel should be held against the eyelid with a bit of force to compress it a little, but not so much that it hurts.

As I said before, this particular remedy didn’t work for me but it has been useful to people I know, so give it a go and if it works I’d love to hear from you

Get further info on getting rid of styes by looking at my ‘how to heal a stye‘ page.

Hey guys,

I’ve had a few emails asking “are styes contagious?” so in the post I want to give you the definitive answer.

A stye is basically a lump or bump on the eyelid and is caused by an eyelash follicle or oil gland that has become clogged. This results in a build-up of oil behind the gland which is what the lump is composed of. The lump is often infected with bacteria, which causes redness, inflammation and irritability. As a side-note, the medical term for a stye is a hordeolum.

So, back to the question of are “styes contagious?”. Many websites say they are contagious and many websites say they are not, so who’s right? The answer is: all of them.

If a stye is simply a clogged oil gland, then the stye is not contagious, however if it has been infected with bacteria, then it is contagious. It can be quite difficult to see if a stye is infected or not, but in my “expert” opinion, I’d advise to err on the side of caution and assume that an infection exisits.

This means that you should maintain a high level of hygiene to ensure that you don’t contaminate others. This includes washing regularly and keeping your fingers out of your eyes – I know it’s hard to not rub your eyes but doing so increases the risk to others and will worsen the inflammation.

Saying that, although theoretically infected styes are contagious, it is quite rare for you to pass the infection onto someone else because the S. aureus bacteria that causes styes requires direct contact. This can only be achieved if you rub your eye with your finger then rub someone else’s eye with the same finger or if you go around ‘rubbing eyes’ with folk (or some other convoluted method of transferring the infection).

In day-to-day life, these are not the sort of that people will do, so you don’t need to take a day off work or keep your kids off school if they have a stye – simply exercise good hygiene.

So, in summary, although your stye may not be contagious, assume it is and keep your hands and face clean to avoid the slim chance you may infect others.

In my next post, I’ll be looking at how to get rid of styes. You may also be interested in my articles on curing a stye within 2 days and treating a stye.

Thanks for visiting my website. Here at “How to get rid of styes dot net“, you will find lots of information about eyelid styes and treatments, so if you’re a persistent stye sufferer, like I was, you’ll hopefully find something here to remedy your condition.

Styes are very irritating and often painful and they can hinder you from going about your daily life. And in today’s fast-paced life, time is a luxury we seldom have. So, if you want to know how to get rid of a stye fast, I hope my website can be of some help to you.

Danny

Hey guys,

In this post, I’ll be answering the question ‘How exactly do you get a stye?’.

Everyone is vulnerable to getting a stye, although they are most prevalent in infants and middle aged folk.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, styes are caused by the staphylococcal aureus bacteria. This bacteria lives naturally within the body, particularly the nasal cavity, without causing any harm. However, if it manages to infect a gland or follicle on the eyelid it can develop into a stye.

Usually, the bacteria will have a hard time infecting areas of the eyelids because of the body’s natural defences, especially the skin which acts as a barrier to prevent foreign contagions getting underneath the skin. But when a follicle or gland gets clogged with debris such as dead skin or make-up, it can become more susceptible to infection.

So, to get a stye you have to to:

1. Have a blocked follicle or gland on your eyelid
2. Have the staphylococcal aureus bacteria come into contact with your eyelid

Blocked Follicles

Eyelash follicles are tiny holes in the skin that the eyelashes sprout from. Within the cavity are tiny glands that produce oils and other chemicals that keep the skin lubricated and the eyes moist.

They can become blocked if bits of microscopic debris become lodged in the follicle. Prime examples are dead skin cells from the skin’s surface or mascara that hasn’t been removed. When they are clogged with this matter, the glands continue to produce the chemicals, however they are unable exit the gland or follicle because of the blockage. This can lead to a lump forming on the eyelid, but unless it becomes infected the body’s immune system can sort this out very quickly.

To avoid glands and follicles getting blocked, it is important to wash your face and hair every day to clean away any dead skin cells. Also you should remove any make-up you wear every evening.

Staph Infections

Around 95% of styes are caused by the staphylococcal aureus bacteria but it must come into close contact with your eyelids to cause an infection.

Because this bacteria occurs naturally within the nostrils, touching your nostrils followed by touching your eyes can transmit the contagion. In fact, almost all infections occur from you or someone else touching your eyes after getting the bacteria on their fingers – and because the bacteria is so common, it can get onto the fingers in a variety of ways including touching doorknobs, keyboards etc.

To avoid spreading the infection, you should avoid touching your eyes as much as you can. And if you do accidentally touch them, wash your hands and face immediately. For those that get recurring styes, maintaining a high level of personal hygiene is of the utmost importance to preventing infections.

If you have a stye, check out my pages on how to get rid of styes quickly and easily and the best cure for styes.