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A wallet sized package with a rechargeable battery, temperature sensor, and a chamber exactly sized to hold a single-use vial of eyedrops. Insert the vial into the heating chamber and when it snaps in place it turns on the heater. The vial is warmed to 105F - no hotter - and the heater shuts off and
the wallet emits a tone to let you know it's ready.
I almost didn't post this because I did find numerous patents for eyedrop heaters - but couldn't find any on the market and none exactly like this. Anybody seen one before?
Another way to do it
Crazy_20Straw_20Eyedroppe
Especially like the color changing bit. [a1, Oct 18 2023]
Handwarmers - mentioned in passing
https://www.amazon....Packs/dp/B016OA5YK0
Good for a lot of things, not just making hot compresses [a1, Oct 18 2023]
More likely adaptable to heating eyedrop vials
https://www.amazon....tball/dp/B0BJZQ9XTW
Maybe keep one of these in a cloth pouch? [a1, Oct 19 2023]
LipiFlow
https://www.nice.or...technology-overview
delivers heat at a temperature of 42.5°C to the inner eyelid, and pressure to the outer eyelid surfaces simultaneously [a1, Oct 20 2023]
Miebo
https://www.miebo.com/
If you have to ask, you can't afford it [a1, Oct 20 2023]
[link]
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Thank you for the encouragement. Still reviewing existing patents to see if there's enough new in my version to proceed. And there are lots of patents - I'm not sure why there isn't already something on the market like this. |
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Don't the drops warm up just by keeping the vial in your pocket? |
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[21 Quest] pocket temperature isn't hot enough (nor is any body orifice likely to be). Point is to get the drops up to 105F - warm enough to help liquify miebomian secretions. |
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[doc] I did think of a self-warming vial but couldn't find any on the market. Precise temperature control might be tricky. I think a company like Alcon could be convinced lo make a heater though - to only fit their specially made vials. |
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Cross-linked [daseva]'s idea to give credit for this addition: The vials of eyedrops could have one or more beads of thermochromic material embedded in them to let you see the precise temperature of the contents - perhaps a range of a few degrees on either side of 105F. Though my reading suggested 105 as an ideal temperature, some people might not be able to tolerate that, while some conditions might warrant going a little warmer. |
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What do you think of heated eye masks? I found several of those when searching for this. |
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I've tried a couple of the cheaper ones, they didn't work so well. But I have some re-usable "hand warmers" (link) and wrapped in a damp wash cloth they're great. Even so, it's inconvenient to take 15-30 minutes out of my work day to lay back with a hot compress on my eyes. As I'm putting in drops every hour anyhow, heating them up seemed like a good substitute. |
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And THAT'S only convenient for me because I have stuff at my desk I can use to heat them up. The wallet idea was to make it portable, easier - and maybe marketable to others. |
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That means carrying, essentially, two wallets. That's fine because most trousers have two back pockets, but I'd worry about leakage, given how many of us sit on our wallets. Making it stiff enough to prevent the vial from bursting open while soft enough to be comfortable sitting on could be difficult, but that doesn't seem to deter the makers of the Ridge Wallet from selling em like hotcakes so... [+] |
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Shirt pocket then? Wallet was just a convenient description, it could just as easily hang from your belt loop. Unless a galaxy sized cell phone is taking up all of that space too ;) |
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I'd ask insulin users or anyone else who has to carry around daily medications, see what kind of carrier they find convenient. |
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Since it's a relatively small temperature gradient, even more so if you kept it in your pocket, a Peltier element as a heater would get you significant efficiency gains. You could choose a smaller battery/longer run time etc. |
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A small gradient and a very small volume to heat up, yup. |
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I'm gonna try one of those electric/rechargeable "hand warmers" next. But I have my doubts about the advertised specs - I had bought a heated eye mask that had similar advertised temperature settings and it barely got warm. |
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If the object of heating the drops up to 105° is to make sure that they are at, or close to, body temp when used, why not have an armpit-shaped dropper bottle? Sleek modern design and won’t interfere with your wax job. Bwa-ha-ha. |
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[minoradjustments], The object is to get them to significantly ABOVE body temperature. To open the pores and soften the secretions in the miebomian glands, inside the eyelids. |
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Armpits and other bodily orifices won't do, as noted the other day. |
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[Voice], one indicator of miebomian gland dysfunction is if the tear layer evaporates too quickly. They call it tear break up time. Commonly abbreviated TBUT, though you may anagram it any way you like. |
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I may change the target temperature to 108F or even a little hotter - based in the description of the LipiFlow treatment device (link). |
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//The object is to get them to significantly ABOVE body temperature. To open the pores and soften the secretions in the meibomian glands, inside the eyelids. // |
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You're adding a couple of drops, a drop incidentally is around 50 microlitres, it varies with viscosity etc. but that's ball park. That's probably quite a large volume compared to the amount of liquid already there, however, it's all touching stuff. More than that, it's spreading out quite rapidly. I suspect it will not remain above body temperature for very long at all, probably not long enough to do what you want. |
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// around 50 microlitres ... all touching stuff.... spreading out quite rapidly,,, will not remain above body temperature for very long // |
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Believe it or don't, I had already considered that. My guess is that 120F would be safe as long as you carefully control the droplet size. It would cool off for all the reason you pointed out, quickly enough to do no harm. |
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// probably not long enough to do what you want // |
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Only one way to find out, and I still have one eye to experiment on! |
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//and I still have one eye to experiment on!// |
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"Agggh, not my good eye!!!" |
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Pain starts at about 56C, so you have some margin. |
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53C is around 127F... good to know, thanks. I based my guess of 120F from the maximum safe temperature typically given for setting residential water heaters. |
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And if heated eyedrop don't help, I might consider LipiFlow treatment, or try to get a script for Miebo. Both kinda pricey but it depends on what my insurance will pay for. |
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Okay - some interesting notes. To me at least... |
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1) I can tolerate heated eyedrops well above 120F. As [bs0u0155] already noted, the droplets are tiny and cool off as soon as they hit the eye. The point is to dump most of that heat right into the ductwork at the eyelid margins, so that's okay. |
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2) Anecdotally, they do seem to help me a little bit more than unheated drops, but not by much. |
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3) An eye doctor I visited last week made an interesting remark: "There are a lot of treatments for dry eye disease, because none of them work very well." |
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I didn't discuss heated eyedrops to him, but his comment actually encourages me to go forward with developing this one. Not because I think it WILL work, but because the context of his remark was that people will try anything, |
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