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If you struggle with eyelid inflammation (aka. blepharitis), crusty eyes in the AM or ocular rosacea, Demodex mites treatment might be in your future thanks to an overgrowth of these little critters!
Demodex mites are a common, naturally-occurring commensal skin parasite that live, feed, poop, and die on your skin and on eyelashes and eyebrow hairs.
While that may sound (really) gross, they are usually not an issue…unless the Demodex mites overgrow.
Eyelid inflammation, irritated eyes, crustiness on your lashes in the morning, and eye discomfort are signs of Demodex mites overgrowth.
Luckily, identifying these frustrating blepharitis symptoms and starting a demodex mites treatment can help save the day (and your eyes). My guest today is sharing a ton of tips to help do this including eyelid washes, natural remedies for demodex mites treatment, and much more!
Dr. Carly Rose is a returning guest to the show. She is a distinguished optometrist who earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Northern Kentucky University. She pursued her optometry studies in Chicago and completed a year-long residency at the Cincinnati VAMC Eye Clinic.
Her unwavering dedication to understanding the complex disease of dry eye, as well as investing in cutting-edge research, has earned her widespread recognition in the industry as a leader in dry eye diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Rose's practice is called Eyecare on the Square in Mariemont, Ohio where she offers the most effective and advanced treatments available to her community.
Did you know that eye inflammation could be a sign of Demodex mites overgrowth? Share your questions, comments + experiences in the comments below!
Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | Subscribe on Android
In This Episode:
- What is blepharitis and what are common blepharitis symptoms?
- Demodex mites: what are they and how are they linked to eye inflammation and ocular rosacea?
- Signs of Demodex blepharitis (caused by Demodex overgrowth)
- Who is at risk for developing an overgrowth of Demodex mites on face?
- How to get checked for Demodex mites overgrowth
- Demodex mites treatment options (conventional vs natural remedies)
- Why AVOID tea tree oil home remedy for demodex mites overgrowth around eyes
- Demodex overgrowth prevention tips
Quotes
“Demodex is a naturally occurring parasite. Most of us have it, anywhere from 30% to 100% prevalence. And it's very, very common. The issue is when it becomes overgrown.”
“…the life cycle [of Demodex mites] is a few weeks long, and they die off and start to decompose in your lash follicles. All of this inflammation can be linked to ocular rosacea, anywhere from 65% to 85%.”
Links
Follow Dr. Rose and her practices on Instagram here, here, and here | TikTok | website
Healthy Skin Show 210: How Steroid Creams Impact Your Eyes w/ Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler
Healthy Skin Show 201: Before You Put Anything Around Your Eyes…w/ Rachael Pontillo
Healthy Skin Show 276: Dupixent Eye Side Effects: What's Going On? {RESEARCH} w/ Dr. Roselie Achten
TikToks
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8U1SuPb/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8U1Ha5V/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8U1f9H7/
Demodex Mites Treatment Product Recommendations
We Love Eyes – All Natural Tee Tree Cleansing Oil
We Love Eyes – Tree Tree Eyelid foaming Cleanser
Zocular ZocuFoam Eyelid Cleanser
Demodex Mites Treatment Prescription Eye Medication
329: Crazy Eye Rash Trigger! Demodex Mites Treatment + Triggers w/ Dr. Carly Rose {FULL TRANSCRIPT}
Jennifer Fugo (00:07.964)
Welcome back to the show, Dr. Rose!
Dr. Carly Rose (00:10.594)
Thank you so much for having me. I was just saying, this is so exciting. I love coming on this show.
Jennifer Fugo (00:15.34)
I know, well, we were talking the last time about castor oil and how it could be helpful to use around the eye area. And then I started asking you after the episode about Demodex mites and you're like, oh, we could do a whole thing on that.
Dr. Carly Rose (00:29.258)
My wheelhouse, right? Yes.
Jennifer Fugo (00:45.174)
Yes. And I feel like because so many people struggle with issues around their face, but also so many people have rashes around the eyes, and we’ve got people who have ocular rosacea as another potential sign. And sometimes the ocular rosacea will come in conjunction with facial rosacea. I thought this was extremely apropos because I also know with rosacea there's a connection with Demodex mites on face.
Dr. Carly Rose (00:59.214)
Absolutely.
Jennifer Fugo (01:07.904)
So that being said, I want to talk first about blepharitis to basically set the stage. It's one of those weird terms that I assume most people are going to be like, I don't know what that is. So what is blepharitis? And are there any common or uncommon blepharitis symptoms or signs that would help the listeners know whether this might actually be going on?
Dr. Carly Rose (01:24.718)
Absolutely. So to oversimplify, and there are all kinds of different subsets of blepharitis, anterior blepharitis, posterior blepharitis, squamous blepharitis, so we don't need to get into the weeds, but to oversimplify, it's, think of it just like eyelid inflammation. Something is causing your eyelids to be angry and upset, and almost always it's not in isolation as well. So you'll also have ocular surface disease accompanying with that. So the eyelid inflammation then leads to SPK or myobomian gland dysfunction. These are usually diagnostic codes that don't run in isolation. So usually you'll have a few different things going on. But what the patient may experience is eyelid rim redness or irritation, or crusting in the morning when you wake up, or it's almost like you always have this buildup in your lashes. And that's basically a summary of blepharitis. It's eyelid irritation. And I'm sure we're gonna dive into it. There are tons of things we can do about it. And what's really exciting is it's constantly changing. We're getting more and more and more we can do for it than even just a few years ago. So it's a really hot topic right now, and it's really exciting because there's actually a lot we can do for it. From extreme end-stage to mild to preventative, so we can talk all of it.
Jennifer Fugo (02:53.516)
So if someone is experiencing this type of redness around the rim of the eyes or that crusting, I think is it helpful for them to know is that a time when you should probably go get that checked, or is that something to like wait and see on?
Dr. Carly Rose (03:09.846)
Well, it depends. Why don't we, we can go over some kind of preventative and at-home therapies, and then if you're doing these preventative at-home therapies and it clears in like a week or two, perfect. Any chronic condition, always see your eye care provider, especially now because we have very simple things you can do about it. So there's no need to sit on it and wait for it because most of these things in the ocular surface, the front of the eye, they get worse over time. So usually if you sit on it for too long, it becomes a bigger deal, a bigger fire to put out. One thing I say a lot is put the fire out, keep the fire out. The longer you sit on it, the bigger your fire grows, the more we're gonna have to throw on you. That doesn't mean it's impossible to get back to where you were, it's just maybe more steps.
Jennifer Fugo (04:02.152)
Okay, we'll circle back with the preventative stuff closer to the end of this because I think that's a really good point that you make. So now that we know what blepharitis is, I think this is where the conversation the last time stemmed from. I did not realize that there's actually a pretty big connection between blepharitis and Demodex mites on face, which for listeners, you know that we have talked about Demodex mites before, especially in conjunction with rosacea. So what's the connection? How are Demodex mites tied to blepharitis?
Dr. Carly Rose (04:36.982)
So Demodex mites are a naturally occurring parasite. Most of us have it. If you look in the literature, anywhere from 30% to 100% prevalence. And it's very, very common. So when I am talking with my patients about this, I will say, don't get grossed out. You're not an outlier. This is very, very common. The issue is when it becomes overgrown. So Demodex mites look like a bug. I believe it's in the arachnid family. It has these eight little legs, and on the skin and eyelids, there are, I wanna say somewhere around 65 different types of Demodex mites. And in humans, we're really just working with two different types.
And it's in the skin, it's in the hair follicles, it's in the lashes, it's in the brows. And what usually happens and how the Demodex mites can get so overgrown, a number of different ways, but we've talked a few times, we all have these oil glands in our lid margins, and if those oil glands become dysfunctional, the oil gets stagnant and thicker, and I tell my patients it's almost like it becomes fast food for these bugs. And they get so happy and they're feeding like crazy and then they get overpopulated. And what happens then is the Demodex mites can actually, well, they die off, the life cycle is a few weeks long, and they die off and start to decompose in your lash follicles. And that causes inflammation and their excrement, what they’re putting out of their little bodies, that causes a lot of inflammation. And all of this inflammation can be linked to ocular rosacea, and in fact, anywhere from 65% of rosacea patients, 65 to 85%, a huge portion of rosacea patients also have dry eye.
These things run in circles together, probably because of this little guy, right? He's crawling all over your face and eyes, reproducing, and very, very happy with this inflammatory condition. And so as you can see, this is the reaction a lot of my patients give me, like are you kidding?
Jennifer Fugo (07:06.708)
Well, right, because I'm thinking to myself, this is horrifying to imagine these little tiny critters dying and basically pooping on you. Oh my gosh.
Dr. Carly Rose (07:15.586)
Pooping all over you. And you can imagine that causes a lot of inflammation and uncomfortable eyes. And so we start to have the conversation of what to do about it and how to handle it. The die-off process of Demodex mites on face can also cause some irritation, but it's very, very common and there are lots we can do about it. So it's not something the patient's doing wrong. It's not like you're gross and you have this, you know, parasitic infection because of something you're doing. It's naturally occurring. It just is an opportunistic infection, think of it kind of like that. And it gets really happy with these poor conditions. So getting back to homeostasis hopefully will neutralize the Demodex mites overgrowth.
Jennifer Fugo (07:58.38)
I think that's important to clarify for people, that Demodex mites normally live on the skin. I guess we could call them a commensal, so to speak. But what you clarified for me is that it's really about the level, the amount, and the overgrowth state is the problem. It's not to get to zero, that's not the goal. It's to bring the level down to a place where they're living more in harmony with the rest of the organisms living within the microbiome of, I guess, the skin, we would say.
Dr. Carly Rose (08:34.477)
Absolutely, absolutely. And it's been something we dry eye docs specifically have been talking about for years. And we have a lot we can do about Demodex mites overgrowth, but now we have so many more options now that we're having these conversations so much more frequently. And it is completely in conjunction with rosacea. And so we usually like to address the skin and eyes because if we just take care of the eyes, they're just gonna crawl right back up from the cheeks and the brows, so we really have to take care of the whole overgrowth.
Jennifer Fugo (09:07.472)
Do you have any stats on who potentially is most at risk for developing this type of overgrowth? Are there certain age brackets that you tend to see? Or maybe, we mentioned rosacea quite a bit, but any other conditions that might put you at a greater risk of developing this overgrowth?
Dr. Carly Rose (09:25.422)
Absolutely. Diabetics are going to be at higher risk. Also, 20 and 30-year-olds usually get to escape clean from a lot of the prevalence. Usually 20 and 30-year-olds are very healthy and unmarked by these, but 20 and 30-year-olds are really high because they're producing a lot more meibum. Meibum is the specialized oil and the oil glands. They usually produce a lot more meibum than other demographics, and so the Demodex is gonna really love these patients. And then also it's up to 100% prevalence the older you get as well, over 60, over 70. So 20 and 30, over 60, diabetics, rosacea, and humans. They're in humans, right? Humans.
Jennifer Fugo (10:15.236)
Yes. And so it sounds like, again, we're going to talk about the prevention part of this, so that sounds like that's an important part of what will help keep these organisms in check. So I guess my question is, this is something where, like many of you know, my dad was an ophthalmologist, and I unfortunately don't recall him ever mentioning Demodex mites. So as you were talking, I'm thinking, how do you even discern if this is Demodex blepharitis? Is there a test? What do you do?
Dr. Carly Rose (10:46.742)
That's an awesome question. So, Demodex mites leave signs. So, they actually don't love bright light. And to look at eyeballs, we shine bright lights in your eyes, right? And so, what happens is we shine a bright light in your eyes and the Demodex crawls into the lash follicle. So, we don't usually actually see the Demodex mite itself. But we see these, what's called a choleret. If you have those, you have Demodex mites overgrowth. So a choleret, when I look in a microscope, it kind of looks like a cuff of clear buildup around a lash. And so I see that, you have Demodex mites for sure. But what it looks like to the patient is almost like dandruff in your lashes. That's the best way I can describe it. In the microscope, it doesn't look that much like it, but that's a good way to describe it.
And then really just red irritated eyelid margins are also indicators that this might be present and a problem in this patient. Now, a handful of optometrists out there that I know of personally have microscopes in their exam lanes. And what they'll do is pluck a lash if they're suspecting it but they don't see signs of Demodex mites. Pluck a lash, put the lash on a slide in the microscope, and we can actually see them swimming around. So it's fascinating. We can pull them in real-time and observe them. Any more, we don't necessarily need to do that if we see things like cholerets and scurf and different buildup. We know it's there, it's almost just for fun to pluck lashes and watch these little guys dance. But we rarely see them specifically because they don't love bright lights.
Jennifer Fugo (12:39.636)
Interesting, they don't like bright lights. Okay.
Dr. Carly Rose (12:42.166)
They are very happy at night, so they do all their reproduction at night.
Jennifer Fugo (12:46.308)
Is that perhaps why you get that really crusty build-up at night while you sleep?
Dr. Carly Rose (12:51.89)
And in the morning when you wake up. Absolutely.
Jennifer Fugo (12:54.692)
Interesting. All right, so it sounds like number one, your optometrist and even an ophthalmologist could potentially look for this.
Dr. Carly Rose (13:01.782)
Absolutely.
Jennifer Fugo (13:04.655)
So if you have this, what are Demodex mites treatment options? Because I know with rosacea, sometimes they will use topical ivermectin on the face. But I don't know what the eye options would be for that.
Dr. Carly Rose (13:22.978)
I love it. Topical ivermectin, we do, like I said, we would also need to clean up the cheeks and the surrounding area. So we do a decent amount of topical compounded ivermectin here for our dry eye patients, but that's not safe around the eyes. So our hands have been tied. I recommend a lot of lid hygiene. So I'm always talking to everyone about lid hygiene, whether I see signs of it or not. We wanna keep that microbiome in check.
We wanna make sure the makeup debris and allergen debris and anything that the Demodex mites on face like to feed on, we clean it up, get it out of there, we're limiting its food supply. So twice a day, lid wash. Don't just use your typical eye makeup removers. There are specialized products for eyelid hygiene. My favorites have a tea tree oil component in it, because tea tree oil is effective at killing Demodex mites. Now, the tea tree oil needs to be in reduced concentration enough, because obviously that will burn like fire if it's too spicy. Some of my favorites also have an oil-based component, so it's almost like the oil's going to smother it. And we've talked before about castor oil. The research is mixed on castor oil. There hasn't been much specific castor oil Demodex eyeball crossover, but the theory is it's going to suffocate and smother the Demodex mites, so I am happy with that as well. But I love an oil-based tea tree oil eyelid wash, twice a day. And then there are also okra-based cleansing products that you can use at home that kill Demodex.
And then once we get into the in-office Demodex mites treatment options, IPL that we've talked about a bunch for cutting the inflammation, also tackles Demodex because it's literally, it's thermal blasting this Demodex, it's frying it. And we've seen that in real-time. You blast a Demodex with IPL and it just dies almost immediately. Now one thing to think about with IPL is the Demodex has laid eggs while it's in there. So we also have to let the life cycle of the eggs to larva to adult come through to repeat killing off the Demodex mites within the first, I'd say eight weeks is really the timeframe to get the adult Demodex that's there, all the eggs, and continue the treatment through this entire life cycle of a couple of generations or else it's just gonna come right back.
Jennifer Fugo (16:05.913)
Okay.
Dr. Carly Rose (16:08.306)
And then we also have in-office lid debridement as a Demodex mites treatment. So I explain it to patients kind of like an eyelid facial, to where we're actually doing micro-exfoliation and those okra-based products in a stronger concentration to kill all of the Demodex mites in-office in a one setting treatment. These are usually very comfortable, very relaxing, your eyes feel so clean after. So we have at-home lid wash, we have in-office lid margin cleaning like an eyelid facial, we have IPL. And those have been our mainstays for a few years now. Our hands have been tied beyond that topical ivermectin around the face. But as of just within the last couple of months, we now actually have a pharmaceutical. This is brand new, first of its kind. I believe I'm pronouncing this properly. I'm so sorry if I'm saying it wrong, but it's Lotilaner, is the medication, and it's one drop twice a day for six weeks. And what this is, is it's a parasite-specific, I don't wanna mess this up, a GABA-gated chloride channel inhibitor. So it's selected for these parasites, very low side effects, obviously burning upon installation just like pretty much any eye drop, but it seems to be really effective at taking care of these Demodex mites.
And so what this looks like to me is depending on the spectrum of overgrowth you have, right? If it's mild, we're talking about at-home therapy. If it's moderate, we're doing at-home therapy, IPL, especially if you have concurrent inflammation, which most of the time you do. So we're talking about getting the oil glands back in check with Omega's, hot compresses. There is a lot we can do to restore balance, and then in office cleaning. And then if it's pretty advanced, we're doing all of it. We're doing IPLs and in-office cleaning and home therapy and a medication. But within these two months, we'll get you taken care of, and cleaned up and back to normal. It's a very exciting time to be an ocular surface disease doctor, because we have so many more tools than we ever had before.
Jennifer Fugo (18:31.64)
I can tell you're very enthusiastic about it, which I'm sure is awesome. So I want to, I know just from having been in the rooms with my dad, I know there are some questions as you were talking. So I think they would be helpful to clarify for listeners. So first of all, you should not go out and buy a bottle of tea tree oil and put that on your eyes?
Dr. Carly Rose (18:52.583)
Absolutely not. That will cause a lot of damage. Absolutely not. And honestly, don't try to create one either. There are products on the market that are probably as cheap as if you tried to build it yourself. And it's already made for you and they work very well. So please, please don't. Please don't.
Jennifer Fugo (19:10.208)
Okay, don't do that. And then you were saying there are also okra-based products for Demodex mites treatment as well and are those also available over the counter?
Dr. Carly Rose (19:20.042)
They are, okra-based lid foams, and they're also selective against these parasites.
Jennifer Fugo (19:26.02)
Okay, we can put those in the show notes too when we're done.
Dr. Carly Rose (19:44.374)
Yep, I'll get those products over to you, some of my favorites that I use personally as well. I am a dry eye patient, so I use these. I know the pain. I totally get it. But we were talking about, yes, don't do tea tree directly in the eyes. Yeah, there are lots of options out there, so I'll get those over to you and we can link them out to patients and consumers of this podcast.
Jennifer Fugo (20:01.292)
Awesome. And then you mentioned that IPL, which is a laser, correct? Or a light?
Dr. Carly Rose (20:06.686)
It's not technically a laser, it's intense pulse light. It's a light therapy.
Jennifer Fugo (20:10.084)
Okay. Now you said, I think you said you can fry the Demodex mites. And as I'm listening to this, I can imagine someone might go, is that going to fry my eye or my eyelid?
Dr. Carly Rose (20:23.678)
So with IPL, we now have hundreds of peer-reviewed studies and safety protocols and FDA approval. And we don't actually go on the lash line directly because that will get rid of your lashes. But there's this thermal bloom, so we get close to it within a couple of millimeters. And so the heat and the intense light energy that we deliver also kills these Demodex mites off, but very safely. In my clinic we use laser-grade corneal shields. We've been doing, I do eight IPLs a day near the eyes for the last three years. It's been very, very safe, super effective. I will give a caveat. If you do have an intense overgrowth of Demodex mites on face or in the eye region, as we're doing these in-office treatments, you can get this die-off period where the inflammation kind of flares because we're killing them all at once. And so we do have to manage that a little bit. That's where we also do the lid margin debridement and the pharmaceuticals to try to help prevent that. But absolutely, it works very effectively.
Jennifer Fugo (21:34.168)
Okay, and also in regards to the topical ivermectin, I know some people will go online and find things or say that they have something. So again, to be clear, topical ivermectin is not to be put…
Dr. Carly Rose (21:43.371)
Not to go in the eyes.
Jennifer Fugo (21:44.452)
Do we want to stay basically around the circle of the eye?
Dr. Carly Rose (21:54.358)
The orbital rim, yup, the orbital rim, just like retinol, and you wanna stay away from it. And I will get you, we can compound them with our local pharmaceuticals, but I'm also pretty sure there is a pharmacy that has this specialized, almost like a little rosacea blend, that also has a few vitamins in it that are helpful. I'll get that over to you as well.
Jennifer Fugo (21:58.681)
Okay. Awesome, we can put all that.
Dr. Carly Rose (22:21.534)
So then you can ask your, if your doctor is like, I have no idea what you're talking about, then you can say, well, here's a product that I've heard works really well and it makes it easier for them as well. I'll get that over to you.
Jennifer Fugo (22:29.3)
Awesome. I love being able to add different tools to the show notes, especially because you might have somebody who struggles with the okra-based option or maybe the tea tree Demodex mites treatment options. And so they have different options to, like you said, bring to their doctor and get the help that they need. So can we talk a little bit about preventative? Because you mentioned that is really important and maybe doing some of that could help get you to a place where maybe you don't necessarily need to go see the doctor. What would some prevention for this Demodex blepharitis be?
Dr. Carly Rose (23:07.882)
I like to start at the basics and I recommend this for everyone. Hot compresses, blink exercises, a triglyceride-form Omega, and then the lid wash, lid wash, lid wash, lid wash. So wash your eyes. And we think about brushing and flossing twice a day. I know I'm religious about that. And not many people think about washing their eyes and taking care of that as well. And especially if you wear cosmetics, especially if you have allergies, but I like it for everyone, at least once a day, preferably twice a day, doing those things specifically will help a lot. If you also have rosacea, getting that under control and then rebalancing your skin barrier, right? So anything like that will help keep this under control.
Jennifer Fugo (23:57.852)
And when you talk about washing the eyes, I would assume, obviously we're talking about eyelids more specifically, so don't wipe your eyeball itself, it will hurt.
Dr. Carly Rose (24:03.182)
Exactly, exactly. And so, my preference, as long as a patient can tolerate it and there are no tea tree oil allergies, I have my favorite, that we’ll put in the show notes, is a two-step process. It's an oil and a foam. I tell the patient, wash your hands, put a drop or two of the oil on your finger, rub it together, close your eyes, and go into circles in the base of the lash. Remember, these little guys live in the lash follicle. So really go into circles to get to the base of the lash, and I go all the way up to my eyebrow as well, because they're in the brows and the lashes. So this whole area, clean oil, circular, foam, circular, rinse with water. And it's a great makeup remover, so you can eliminate taking off your eye makeup and just do this, and it's a two-step punch. It takes care of the Demodex mites on face and eyes, it cleans the makeup off, and, how do I say this? Anecdotally, a lot of my patients say that their lashes start growing a lot longer too when you do these things.
Jennifer Fugo (25:08.436)
Probably because there's a decrease in inflammation within that hair follicle. I think these are good points to make. So the over-the-counter makeup remover towelettes that I'm sure people use to remove makeup… those are not going to be helpful in removing Demodex mites?
Dr. Carly Rose (25:25.174)
Not nearly as helpful. I'll get you a brand, that is gonna be more helpful, of the pre-moistened towelettes. And then another thing I forgot to mention is hypochlorous acid. Hypochlorous acid is great for Demodex mites and rosacea. Over the counter, and what you do, it's the last step in your hygiene. You close your eyes, you spray it on your eyelids, brows, I go all over because it's great for your skin as well. And then you just leave it on, let it dry. So that's a really easy thing to do as well, hypochlorous acid.
Jennifer Fugo (25:56.696)
Okay. And this would also be the reminder to potentially not reuse, like if you wipe your face with a washcloth or something, you should not be reusing the same washcloth multiple times. Would that be an accurate statement?
Dr. Carly Rose (26:12.946)
Absolutely, and you bring up a good point, change your pillowcases frequently too, because these guys are spread through contact. And so change your sheets and pillowcases frequently as well.
Jennifer Fugo (26:26.064)
And if you have this, then what if you wear an eye mask at night?
Dr. Carly Rose (26:30.683)
I wear an eye mask at night. I have multiple and I wash them frequently. So just get a multi-pack and throw it in your laundry.
Jennifer Fugo (26:38.856)
Perfect. I mean, this is, okay, so first of all, I will admit the whole overgrowth thing, it's kinda gross, yes.
Dr. Carly Rose (26:45.966)
It's kind of cringy, it's kind of gross, it makes your skin crawl, I know.
Jennifer Fugo (26:50.304)
It does, but it's good for us to know and to have a nuanced conversation about it because I didn't know a whole lot about this until we started talking about it. I feel like given that there's such a connection between Demodex mites and rosacea and people who have this irritation around their eyes, and we've also talked on the Healthy Skin Show about ocular surface disease for those who may choose to do a biologic like Dupixent where some people, there's a pretty, I think it's like 30 some percent of people who use Dupixent, end up developing some more severe type of…
Dr. Carly Rose (27:23.718)
Ocular complications. Absolutely, that's a huge one.
Jennifer Fugo (27:25.238)
Exactly. So I think this is a really valid conversation to have and I'll make sure too, in the show notes, to put our conversation about castor oil as well around the eyes since it could be a helpful partner in all of this. We're not sure, but it could be a helper. We don't know.
Dr. Carly Rose (27:43.626)
It's gray area, it's gray area. And again, if you try it and it sticks around, go see your eye care provider. There are so many solutions that are now easily accessible, easy to use, low side effects, low risks. There's no reason to sit on this one.
Jennifer Fugo (28:04.45)
Well, Dr. Rose, how can everybody find you?
Dr. Carly Rose (28:06.974)
Oh my gosh, okay, so a lot of different places. I am on TikTok and Instagram. And then if you wanted to check out my med spa, so all of this as we're talking, dry eye cannot be separated from the skin. So because of that, I have developed a dry eye med spa because all of this goes hand in hand, and my patients are consistently impressed with the before and afters not just of their eyeballs, but their skin because as we're taking care of this ocular surface disease, obviously the skin clears up, because we're treating it all. And so it's hard to separate because the skin products you're using matter, and the cosmetics you're using matter, and the eyelid products you're using matter and so that is the clear experience. I am also on YouTube, Dr. Rose Talks, I am on LinkedIn. There's a lot of places you can find me. Anywhere you look.
Jennifer Fugo (29:04.532)
Perfect. That is awesome. Well, I mean, I am so grateful that you have decided to come back to the show. This is now your third interview. I'm so grateful that you're here and I'm excited for everybody to hear this and thank you so much for constantly being so willing to share your knowledge with everyone else.
Dr. Carly Rose (29:14.238)
I love it. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it, and thank you. Feel free to reach out. This is an exciting time to have, it's an exciting time to have dry eye and rosacea because we can do things about it now.
Jennifer Fugo (29:35.888)
Awesome.
