Patent ID: 8600484

Claim:
A method of evaluating and treating dry eye wherein the flow of naturally occurring secretion to an eye is reduced or stopped due to the presence of an obstruction of a meibomian gland in an eyelid having a plurality of meibomian glands comprising: imaging at least one meibomian gland of the plurality of meibomian glands to diagnose a condition of the at least one meibomian gland; treating the at least one meibomian gland to remove an obstruction from at least a portion of a central duct of the at least one meibomian gland located below an orifice of the at least one meibomian gland; re-imaging the at least one meibomian gland, wherein the re-imaging comprises imaging the at least a portion of the central duct of the at least one meibomian gland that is located below the orifice of the at least one meibomian gland to verify that the obstruction has been removed; and applying a force to eyelid; wherein at least one of the imaging and the re-imaging is carried out with the force applied to the eyelid.