How To Get Rid Of A Stye and Prevent Them

What’s Causing That Painful, Pus-Filled Eyelid Bump on Your Eyelid?

Waking up to a swollen, sore bump on your eyelid is never fun. Especially when it’s accompanied by other aggravating symptoms like eye pain, discharge, redness, light sensitivity, and excessive tearing. If this scenario sounds all too familiar, you’re likely dealing with a hordeolum, more commonly known as a stye.

A stye is essentially an infection of the oil glands along the edge of your eyelid. It shows up as a tender, red lump that looks like a pimple at the base of your eyelashes. Styes form when the oil glands get clogged with a mixture of oil, dead skin cells, makeup residue, and bacteria. The blocked gland becomes inflamed and swells up, causing the trademark bump.

Styes are typically caused by an overgrowth of Staphylococcus bacteria on the skin. This bacteria harmlessly resides on everyone’s skin. But things like poor hygiene, leftover makeup, contact lens use, allergies, hormone changes and stress can allow the bacteria to rapidly multiply. As the stye develops, you’ll experience some classic symptoms including:

• Swollen, painful eyelids that may be red and warm to the touch
• Small, round bumps on the inside or outside of the eyelid filled with pus
• A gritty, scratchy feeling like something is in your eye
• Crusting and matting of the eyelashes
• Redness and irritation of the skin surrounding the eyes
• Increased tear production and discharge
• Sensitivity to light and an urge to squint
• A feeling that your eyes are constantly watering

How To Get Rid of a Stye

It can be tempting to try and pop a stye like a pimple. But this is not recommended, as it can spread the infection to other oil glands and worse to your whole eyelid.

1. Apply a Warm Compress

Apply a warm compress to the affected eyelid for 10-15 minutes, 2-3 times per day. The heat helps loosen up the blocked oil gland contents and draws the stye to a head so it can rupture and drain on its own. Gently massaging the area can also encourage drainage and relief.

2. Clean Your Eyelids

Keep the area around the stye clean by gently wiping the eyelids and lashes with over-the-counter eyelid cleansing wipes or hypochlorous eyelid cleanser.

This helps reduce the amount of bacteria. Wash your hands frequently too, especially before touching the eyes. Most small styes will disappear on their own within 3-5 days as the body’s immune response kicks in.

Since this is an active infection, it’s best to see a doctor, especially if your stye persists for over a week or seems to be worsening. They can properly diagnose the stye and may prescribe antibiotic eye drops or oral antibiotics if needed. Prompt treatment helps prevent the infection from spreading to surrounding oil glands and turning into multiple styes.

To avoid recurring styes in the future, be sure to practice good eyelid hygiene. Always wash hands before touching the eyes and remove eye makeup thoroughly before bedtime. Replace old makeup and mascara to avoid contaminating them with bacteria from a stye. Discard contact lenses and replace with a fresh pair after a stye has resolved.

Regularly clean the eyelids and base of lashes with a gentle wipe or hypochlorous eyelid cleanser. Stay diligent about discarding and replacing items that come into contact with the eyes. With proper care and hygiene, those annoying, painful stye bumps can be prevented from making a repeat appearance.

Drs. Travis and Jenna Zigler, President and VP of Eye Believe Foundation

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The Eye Believe Foundation is an affiliate for some or all of the products on this page.  When you click the link and purchase on Amazon, you help support our ministry in helping end preventable blindness. Additionally we started the companies Eye Love, Heyedrate, and MediViz and really believe in the product. We sold that business in 2021 to focus more on our mission work, but still retain a very small equity stake in it. This page is for entertainment purposes only and you should see your doctor for a diagnosis and treatment.

It is the mission, duty and purpose of the Eye Believe Foundation to address, educate, coordinate, and provide aid and relief to those who have no access to proper eye care on a local and global level.

We believe that everyone deserves great vision. But over ONE BILLION people are functionally blind due to lack of glasses.  

As optometrists, we see it as our duty to be available, when we are capable, to provide one of the most important yet basic human rights to ordinary people by giving them the vision they thought they had lost. This enables them to not only see the faces of their loved ones again, but also provide for themselves and their families through careers they may have lost to poor vision.

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