Stye
Stye in the eye: what it is, how to get rid of it, and when to get it looked at
A stye (hordeolum) is a small, painful, red lump on the edge of the eyelid, caused by an infected oil gland or lash follicle. It looks like a pimple, it feels like there is grit under the lid, and it is one of the most common reasons people phone Rose Optometry in Frankton, Hamilton. Most styes settle on their own within one to two weeks with warm compresses. Some need more than that, and a stye that keeps coming back is telling you something about your eyelid glands.
Need it seen? Call 07 847 3195 and we will fit you in — a person, not a calendar, decides how quickly. If you would rather book online: new to us, New Acute appointment (30 minutes); existing patient, Acute appointment (15 minutes). For a child, please phone rather than booking online.
What a stye looks and feels like
- A tender red bump at the edge of the eyelid, often with a yellow or white head, like a small pimple.
- Swelling of the lid around it — sometimes the whole lid puffs up in the first day or two.
- A gritty, scratchy feeling, as if something is in the eye.
- Watering, crusting on waking, and sensitivity to light.
- Vision is normally unaffected. If it is, or if the swelling is spreading, read the "when to see us" section below.
External and internal styes
An external stye sits at the base of an eyelash, in a lash follicle or one of the small glands beside it, and points outwards with a visible head. An internal stye is an infected meibomian gland deeper in the lid; it is more painful, swells the whole lid, and you may only see it as a red bump on the inside of the lid when it is pulled down. Internal styes take longer to settle and are the ones most likely to leave a firm lump (a chalazion) behind.
Stye or chalazion?
A stye is painful, red and infected, and comes up over a day or two. A chalazion is a painless, firm lump that forms when a gland blocks without infection, and it comes up slowly and stays for weeks. Many chalazia start life as an internal stye. If your "stye" has stopped hurting but is still there after three weeks, it has probably become a chalazion — and it is treated differently.
What causes a stye
Styes are caused by ordinary skin bacteria, usually staphylococcus, getting into a blocked gland or follicle. What makes that likely is a lid margin that is already inflamed or blocked: blepharitis (crusty, inflamed lid edges), meibomian gland dysfunction (thick oil that blocks the glands), old or shared eye makeup, rubbing the eyes with unwashed hands, sleeping in mascara, and contact lens wear with poor hand hygiene. Rosacea, diabetes and being run down make styes more likely too. Styes are not contagious in the everyday sense, but do not share towels, pillowcases or makeup while you have one.
How to get rid of a stye at home
- Warm compresses, properly. A clean flannel or a microwaveable eye mask, warm enough to feel it but not to burn, held on the closed lid for ten minutes, three or four times a day. Warmth softens the blocked oil and helps the stye come to a head and drain. Most flannels go cold in ninety seconds, so reheat, or use a mask that holds its temperature — we stock a heated eye mask for exactly this.
- Gentle lid cleaning. Once or twice a day, clean along the lash line with a purpose-made lid cleanser from our lid hygiene range. This clears the crusting and bacteria that keep the gland blocked.
- Do not squeeze or pop it. Squeezing pushes infection deeper into the lid and is the usual way a simple stye becomes a lid abscess or a long-term chalazion.
- Leave makeup and contact lenses off until it has settled, and throw away the mascara or eyeliner you were using when it started.
- Pain relief such as paracetamol is fine if it is sore.
There is no drop that cures a stye. Antibiotic drops and ointments do not reach the inside of a blocked gland well, which is why the evidence for them is thin and warm compresses remain the first treatment. Lubricating drops can ease the grittiness while it heals.
When to see an optometrist
Come and see us — or phone us the same day — if:
- The stye has not improved after a week of proper warm compresses, or is still there after two weeks.
- The redness and swelling are spreading across the lid or onto the cheek, the lid is hot, or you feel unwell or feverish. This can be preseptal cellulitis, an infection of the lid tissue, and it needs antibiotics promptly.
- Your vision is affected, the eye itself (not just the lid) is red and painful, or you are unusually sensitive to light.
- You keep getting styes. Recurrent styes almost always mean blepharitis or meibomian gland dysfunction that needs treating, not just the stye.
- It is on a child's eyelid and is not settling — children's styes need a gentler, supervised approach.
What we can do in clinic
Our optometrists are therapeutically qualified, which means we can prescribe as well as examine. At an acute appointment we confirm it is a stye rather than something else (a chalazion, a blocked tear duct, or rarely a growth), check the eye is not involved, and then, depending on what we find: remove the infected eyelash so an external stye can drain (a quick, almost painless procedure), express the blocked gland at the slit lamp, prescribe an antibiotic ointment, arrange oral antibiotics where infection is spreading into the lid, and set up a lid routine so it does not come back. If a stye has turned into a chalazion that will not shift, we refer to an ophthalmologist for a minor procedure and arrange it directly.
Stopping styes coming back
If you get styes repeatedly, the styes are the symptom and the lid margin is the problem. A Dry Eye Evaluation at our dry eye clinic photographs the meibomian glands (meibography) and examines the lids for blepharitis and Demodex mites. Treating that — with a proper home routine, in-clinic BlephEx lid cleaning, and IPL or LipiFlow where the glands are blocked — is what actually stops the cycle.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get rid of a stye overnight?
You cannot reliably clear a stye overnight, and anything that promises to is selling something. What you can do tonight is a ten-minute warm compress, a gentle lid clean, and no makeup or lenses. Most styes are noticeably better within two to three days of doing that properly and gone within one to two weeks.
How long does a stye last?
Usually one to two weeks. An internal stye can take longer. A lump that lingers without pain after that is probably a chalazion.
Is a stye contagious?
Not really — it is caused by bacteria everyone carries on their skin. The sensible precautions are not sharing towels, pillowcases or eye makeup, and washing your hands before touching your eyes.
Can I pop a stye?
No. Squeezing drives the infection deeper and is the commonest reason a small stye turns into a lid abscess or a chalazion. Let warmth bring it to a head, or let us drain it properly.
Should I use antibiotic eye drops for a stye?
Usually not. Drops sit on the surface of the eye and do not penetrate a blocked gland, so they add little to warm compresses for an uncomplicated stye. Antibiotic ointment or tablets are useful when infection is spreading into the lid, and that is a decision for an examination.
Can I wear contact lenses with a stye?
Better not, until it has settled — lenses can carry bacteria across the eye and are uncomfortable on a swollen lid. Glasses for a week or two, and a fresh lens case when you restart.
Why do I keep getting styes?
Because the glands along the lid edge are blocked or inflamed — blepharitis or meibomian gland dysfunction. Treat that and the styes stop. That assessment is what our dry eye clinic is for.
Rose Optometry, 38 Lake Road, Frankton, Hamilton. 07 847 3195
References
- Lindsley K, Nichols JJ, Dickersin K. Non-surgical interventions for acute internal hordeolum. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;1(1):CD007742. PMID 28068454.
- Amescua G, Akpek EK, Farid M, et al. Blepharitis Preferred Practice Pattern. Ophthalmology. 2019;126(1):P56-P93. PMID 30366800.
- Willmann D, Guier CP, Patel BC, Melanson SW. Stye. StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2024.
Rose Optometry's dry eye clinic is led by Jacqueline Rowe — BSc Chemistry, BOptom. Partner Optometrist, Rose Optometry; New Zealand Eye Research Centre. Last reviewed August 2026.
Frequently asked questions
In NZ an optometrist can calculate the prescription for glasses, fit contact lenses, diagnose and treat eye conditions and infections with medication. They can also manage ocular injuries including removing foreign objects. If surgery or specialist treatment is required they can refer to an ophthalmologist (eye surgeon), hospital, or other health care specialist. NZ-trained optometrists must complete a 5-year degree at the University of Auckland before becoming registered.
A dispensing optician has formal training in optical dispensing. They are qualified to help a client choose frames, read a prescription, discuss lens options, take measurements, order and fit glasses.
An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor who has specialised in the treatment of serious eye disease and ocular surgery such as cataract removal. They do not typically prescribe glasses or contact lenses.
While payment is generally required on the day of appointment, we do offer a number of payment options including Afterpay, Genoapay, QCard, and GoCardless.
No. We are closed on public holidays and long weekends as we believe our staff should have the chance to enjoy this time with friends and family.
If your eyes are straightforward, almost any good optometrist can look after you well, and we would rather say that than pretend otherwise. Come to us when something is not straightforward: a prescription that will not settle, a cornea that has changed shape, a child whose short-sightedness is moving faster than it should, an eye surface that has stopped being comfortable, or a diagnosis you have been given but do not understand. Those problems are decided by measurement, and measuring them properly needs instruments most practices do not have.
Yes, and you do not need to justify it. A second opinion is not a criticism of whoever saw you first — very often they were right, and what you actually needed was the finding explained and the numbers put in front of you. What we can add is measurement. We can image the layers of your cornea and retina, map the epithelium, quantify how far your cornea sits from normal, measure the length of your eye and check your tear film objectively. That turns “something is not right” into a number, and a number either explains the problem or rules it out. Bring any previous scans, prescriptions and letters. Comparison against your own past results is often the most valuable thing in the room.
Usually. Complex is what this practice was built around — keratoconus, corneal grafts, irregular corneas after surgery or injury, severe dry eye, high prescriptions, and eyes that have been told they are not fittable with contact lenses. The Rose K lens for keratoconus was designed in this practice, and lenses of that family are now the most frequently prescribed in the world for the irregular cornea. If we cannot help, we will tell you at the first appointment and tell you who can, rather than taking you through a course of treatment that was never going to work.
Waiting is the one thing that cannot be undone. Short-sightedness is axial — the eye is physically growing too long — and that length does not come back. What treatment does is slow the rate of growth, so the earlier it starts the more length is saved. We measure axial length directly on two independent biometers and plot it against normal growth curves, which means we can see a child drifting off their expected curve before the prescription changes. There is a free 15-minute myopia chat if you want to understand the options before committing to anything. It is worth being precise about what we are all trying to achieve. Myopia control does not stop a child's eyes changing and no practice should tell a parent it will. What it does, reliably and across many published trials, is slow the rate at which the eye lengthens — and because the risk of retinal detachment, myopic maculopathy and glaucoma in later life rises with every extra millimetre, slowing that growth is how a child is kept out of the range where sight is genuinely at risk. After seventeen years of focusing on this, we are now seeing children on customised plans whose axial length is not progressing at all over a monitoring period, and in some cases measurements that come back slightly shorter than the ones before them. That is our own clinical observation in our own patients rather than a trial result, and it has to be read carefully, because the choroid thickens when treatment is working and part of an apparent reduction can be that thickening rather than the eye itself shortening. That is precisely why we measure both. We are not yet able to tell a parent that we can stop myopia in its tracks, and we will not say it until we can.
Two things: we measure it before treating it, and we hold every current treatment technology in one building. Most dry eye is treated on the basis of symptoms, which is why drops so often fail. A tear film can be failing because the oil layer is blocked, because the water layer is short, because the surface is inflamed, or because the lids are the problem, and those need different treatments. We assess the tear film objectively with TearCheck — tear film stability, the oil layer, lid and gland imaging, and an inflammation measure — and measure tear osmolarity, the saltiness of the tears, which is the closest thing to a laboratory number for dry eye. Then we treat the cause. Rose holds intense regulated pulsed light for inflammation and gland function, LipiFlow thermal pulsation to clear blocked meibomian glands from the inner lid surface, Blephasteam controlled-humidity warming, Tixel thermomechanical treatment for the lids, and Rexon-Eye quantum molecular resonance for the more severe and treatment-resistant cases. At the time of writing, and to the best of our knowledge, no other optometrist or ophthalmologist in New Zealand has all of these available under one roof. We say that as a statement of fact rather than a boast, and we would be glad for it to stop being true. Dry eye is one of the most common and most under-treated conditions we see, and there are far more people living with it than one practice can look after. Any practice wanting to build this kind of service has our encouragement and our help — please contact us for co-management, and send us the cases you are not yet set up for. Why holding all of them matters is simple. A practice with one dry eye machine will offer you that machine. Holding all of them means the assessment decides the treatment, rather than the equipment deciding it — and when the first approach does not work, the next one is in the next room rather than in another city.
Yes — from around six weeks of age. Babies and toddlers are tested with Cardiff acuity cards and retinoscopy, neither of which needs the child to read a letter, name a picture or say a word. Most of the findings that matter in a young child cause no symptoms and are invisible to a parent, which is exactly why they need looking for.
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