Advanced Dry Eye & Blepharitis Clinic Manchester | The EyeClean™ Programme
Specialist Diagnosis, BlephEx™ Debridement & Manual Gland Expression in Middleton, Cheadle, Heald Green, Winsford & Heckmondwike.
Specialist Dry Eye Clinic · Greater Manchester & West Yorkshire
You've tried everything for your dry eyes. Here's why none of it worked.
The drops. The warm flannel. The baby shampoo. Maybe even expensive treatments at another clinic. And your eyes still burn, sting, and water — every single day.
It’s not that you haven’t tried hard enough. It’s that nobody has treated the actual cause.
We have. Since 2017. And once you understand why your eyes are really dry — which takes about two minutes to read — you’ll understand why we’re the ones who can fix it.
45–60 minute dedicated consultation. £50 credited to treatment if you proceed.
600+
Patients
treated
90%
Report lasting relief
2017
Pioneers
since
What's actually wrong with your eyes
(and why the answer is simpler than you think)
Every time you blink, a thin layer of oil spreads across your eye. This oil is your tear film’s protective seal — it stops your tears from evaporating.
That oil comes from tiny glands inside your eyelids called meibomian glands. You have about thirty in each lid. They’re small, but they’re essential.
When these glands get blocked — and this is extremely common — the oil can’t get out. Without it, your tears evaporate in seconds. Your eyes dry out. They burn. They sting. They feel gritty. They water (yes, watery eyes are actually a sign of dry eye — your body’s panic response to dryness).
This is called Meibomian Gland Dysfunction, or MGD. It’s the cause of roughly 85% of all dry eye cases.
Now here’s the critical part — the thing that explains why nothing has worked for you:
At Our Cheadle Clinic:
Firefly Digital Slit Lamp – An ophthalmology-grade microscope with high-definition digital recording. We can show you your meibomian glands on a large screen, explaining exactly where the blockages are. It’s like having a window into your eyelids—you’ll see the same images your optometrist sees.
And if your vision has been blurry or fuzzy — this is probably why
This is the symptom that catches people off guard. Your vision goes fuzzy, fluctuates throughout the day, or blurs when you’re reading or driving. You think you need new glasses. You get tested. Your prescription hasn’t changed — or you get new glasses and they don’t seem to help.
The cause is your tear film.
When your oil glands are blocked and your tears evaporate too quickly, the surface of your eye becomes uneven. Light no longer passes through a smooth, stable layer — it refracts irregularly. The result is blurred, fuzzy, or fluctuating vision that no pair of glasses can correct, because the problem isn’t your prescription. It’s the quality of your tear film.
You might notice it clears briefly when you blink hard. That’s because blinking temporarily re-spreads whatever tears you have. But within seconds, the film breaks up again — and the blur returns.
Many of our patients come to us thinking they have a vision problem. What they actually have is a dry eye problem that’s distorting their sight. Once we clear the glands and restore a stable tear film, the blurriness resolves — often without any change to their glasses at all.
So whether your main symptom is burning, grittiness, watering, or blurry vision — the underlying cause is the same: blocked oil glands. And the fix requires someone to physically clear them.
That means a trained specialist needs to soften the hardened oil with medical-grade heat, and then manually express it from each gland using precision instruments. There is no drop, no supplement, and no home remedy that can do this.
This is what we do. And we’ve been doing it since 2017 — long before most clinics even acknowledged that drops weren’t enough.
Does this sound familiar?
If you recognise even a few of these, your oil glands may be blocked:
- Your eyes feel gritty or sandy, especially first thing in the morning
- Burning or stinging that gets worse through the day
- Your vision goes blurry or fuzzy, especially after reading, screens, or driving
- You’ve had your glasses updated but your vision still doesn’t feel right
- Eyes that water for no apparent reason
- Crusty or sticky eyelids when you wake up
- Sensitivity to screens, air conditioning, or wind
- You’re using drops several times a day and they barely help
- An optician told you “it’s just dry eye” and suggested drops
- You’ve tried warm flannels or baby shampoo (the old advice)
- Your contact lenses have become uncomfortable or impossible to wear
- It’s been going on for months — or years — and it’s getting worse
If three or more of these describe you, drops alone won’t solve this. The glands need to be cleared. That’s exactly what we specialise in.
Why most dry eye treatments fall short
If you’ve already been to another clinic and it didn’t fully work, this is probably why.
Proper treatment of blocked meibomian glands requires three things, in sequence:
Stage 1
Clean the eyelid surface
Remove the bacterial biofilm and debris that’s fuelling inflammation. This is what BlephEx does. Many clinics offer this. It’s necessary — but it’s only the first step.
Stage 2
Soften the blocked oil with heat
Apply controlled, medical-grade heat at 40–42°C to liquefy the hardened oil inside the glands. Automated machines like LipiFlow and IPL do this well. Some clinics offer this too. Again, necessary — but still not the complete fix.
Stage 3 — Where most clinics stop
Physically extract the blockage
This is the step that actually clears your glands. After the oil is softened, a trained specialist uses precision forceps to gently compress each gland and squeeze out the stagnant, hardened oil.
This is manual meibomian gland expression. It requires real clinical skill, hands-on training, and experience. It can’t be done by a machine. And it’s the step that the majority of dry eye clinics either skip entirely or don’t do thoroughly.
Without this step, the softened oil simply re-hardens. The glands re-block. The symptoms return. And you’re back to square one — wondering why the “treatment” didn’t work.
We do all three. Every time. For every patient.
Manual gland expression is the cornerstone of our EyeClean Programme. It’s not an add-on. It’s not optional. It’s the reason our patients get better — and it’s the reason 90% of them report lasting relief.
Now you can see why nothing else worked
Once you understand the three stages, the pattern becomes obvious:
What you tried | Which stage it covers | What it misses |
| Eye Drops | ❌ None | Replaces tears only. Doesn’t touch the glands at all. |
| Warm Flannel | ⚠️ Partial Stage 2 | Can’t reach 180°C consistently. Without Stage 3, oil re-hardens. |
| BlephEx only | 🔍 Stage 1 only | Cleans the surface but doesn’t heat or express the glands. |
| IPL or LipiFlow | ✅ Stages 1 & 2 | No thorough manual expression; glands aren’t fully cleared. |
| New Glasses | ❌ None | Blurry vision is a tear film problem, not a prescription issue. |
| Our EyeClean Programme | ⭐ All Three Stages | Nothing. This is the complete clinical pathway. |
If three or more of these describe you, drops alone won’t solve this. The glands need to be cleared. That’s exactly what we specialise in.
Since 2017
We didn't follow the trend. We started it.
In 2017, most opticians in the UK were still telling dry eye patients to use warm flannels and baby shampoo. We knew that wasn’t good enough.
Our co-founder Sohail Khan spent years training across Europe — at specialist conferences in Paris and Milan, studying under ophthalmologists and dry eye researchers — to bring interventional, hands-on dry eye treatment to the North of England. At a time when almost nobody in independent practice was offering it.
Eight years and 600+ patients later, our co-founder and Clinical Director Arbra Khan has trained seven additional optometrists in the same techniques, building a standardised programme across five practices with a 90% patient satisfaction rate.
We were doing this before it was fashionable. We’ll be doing it long after the trend-followers move on to the next thing.
The EyeClean Programme
The complete three-stage treatment — delivered over three visits
Now that you understand why the full three stages matter, here’s exactly what happens when you sit in our chair.
Visit 1 · The Deep Clean · Week 0–1
All three stages in one session
Stage 1 — Clean: We use the BlephEx device to exfoliate your eyelid margins, removing bacterial biofilm, debris, and crusting. Professional-grade cleaning that no home routine can replicate.
Stage 2 — Heat: Medical-grade warming at a precise 40–42°C softens the hardened oil inside your blocked glands. Consistent, controlled heat that a flannel simply cannot achieve.
Stage 3 — Express: Your optometrist uses precision forceps to carefully compress each gland and physically extract the stagnant, thickened oil. You’ll see the cloudy material being cleared. This is the step that changes everything — and it’s the step that requires genuine clinical skill and years of experience to do well.
Most patients feel a noticeable difference before they leave.
Visit 2 · Follow-Up · Week 2–4
Building on your progress
We reassess your symptoms, re-image your glands, and perform a second round of heat therapy and expression. This visit is usually quicker — your glands are already partially cleared. We refine your home care based on how you’ve responded.
Visit 3 · Consolidation · Week 6–8
Locking in the results
A final treatment session to ensure all glands are functioning well, followed by your long-term maintenance plan. Most patients then return every 6–12 months for a brief top-up to keep their glands clear.
One more thing you should know
Now that you understand how your meibomian glands work, this will make sense:
Glands that stay blocked for too long don’t just stay blocked. They begin to shrink. And eventually, they die — permanently. This is called gland dropout, and once a gland is gone, no treatment in the world can bring it back.
This typically happens gradually over one to three years of untreated blockage. The longer you wait, the fewer glands you have to work with — and the harder it becomes to restore comfortable, natural tear production.
The good news is that when we catch it early, the results are excellent. We can clear the blockages, restore function, and prevent the permanent damage. Many of our patients from 2017 — our very first — are still under our care today with comfortable, healthy eyes.
If you’ve been living with these symptoms for more than six months, the best time to act is now. The second-best time is before another six months passes.
Your investment
What's included — and what it costs
Specialist Dry Eye Assessment — £95
A dedicated 45–60 minute consultation focused entirely on understanding your dry eye. This is not a standard eye test with dry eye mentioned in passing — it’s a thorough, specialist assessment.
- Standardised symptom scoring
- Lifestyle, screen use, and environmental assessment
- Advanced imaging of your oil glands
- Tear film quality mapping
- Manual gland function testing
- Severity grading — mild, moderate, or severe
- Personalised written treatment plan, in plain English
- Home care recommendations
- All your questions answered — unhurried
You leave with a complete understanding of why your eyes are dry — and exactly what to do about it.
The EyeClean Programme — £450
If treatment is recommended following your assessment:
Three treatment sessions over six to eight weeks
BlephEx deep-clean at every visit
Medical-grade heat therapy at every visit
Manual gland expression at every visit
Progress imaging and symptom tracking
Home care kit — heat mask, lid wipes, drops
Ongoing support between visits
When you proceed with treatment
We credit £50 from your assessment towards your programme
Your assessment effectively costs £45 — less than a month’s supply of premium eye drops.
For comparison: automated treatments like IPL or LipiFlow elsewhere cost £800–£1,500.
Our programme: £450. Comparable results. Greater precision. A fraction of the price.
Your specialists
Co-Founder & Dry Eye Specialist
Sohail has been at the forefront of dry eye treatment since 2017, when he recognised that patients were suffering unnecessarily because the standard advice simply wasn’t working. He’s since trained extensively across Europe and has personally treated over 500 dry eye patients.
Co-Founder & Clinical Director
Arbra designed the diagnostic protocols and training systems behind the EyeClean Programme. She personally trains and mentors every optometrist who delivers dry eye treatment, ensuring the same exacting standard at every practice.
Plus seven trained optometrists across all five locations — every one personally mentored by Arbra, with regular case reviews and clinical audits.
Five clinics across the North West & West Yorkshire
- Abra & Co — Cheadle
19 Wilmslow Road, SK8 1DW · 0161 527 7355
HD Firefly imaging · Serving Stockport, Wilmslow, Bramhall
- Abra & Co - Middleton
36 Long Street, M24 6UQ · 0161 653 0771
Ocufy diagnostic imaging · Serving North Manchester, Rochdale, Oldham
- Ashworth Opticians - Heald Green
214 Finney Lane, SK8 3QA · 0161 527 7356
Serving Heald Green, Wythenshawe, Gatley
- Winsford Eyecare - Winsford
27 Delamere Street, CW7 2LX · 01606 599030
Serving Winsford, Northwich, Middlewich, Mid-Cheshire
- Armitage Opticians - Heckmondwike
14 Market Street, WF16 0JU · 01924 669649
Serving Dewsbury, Batley, Cleckheaton, Spen Valley
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The expression involves pressure on the eyelids — a little unusual, but rarely painful. We apply heat beforehand to soften everything, making the process much smoother. Most patients say the immediate relief afterwards makes it entirely worthwhile.
Many patients feel improvement after the first session. The full programme runs over six to eight weeks with three visits, and results build at each stage. Most patients then maintain with one visit every six to twelve months.
Yes — it’s one of the most common and least understood symptoms. When your tear film is unstable, light refracts unevenly across the surface of your eye, causing vision to blur or fluctuate. Many patients are told they need new glasses when the real issue is their tear film. Once the glands are cleared, the blurriness often resolves completely.
We don’t use automated machines that cost clinics £50,000+. Our hands-on approach achieves comparable — often superior — results without passing on the equipment markup. We believe effective dry eye treatment should be accessible.
With a 90% satisfaction rate, the vast majority of patients improve significantly. But dry eye can be complex — if you don’t respond as expected, we’ll work with you on alternatives including prescription medications or ophthalmology referral. We don’t give up.
Yes — and many patients who had to give up lenses due to dryness find they can wear them comfortably again. We also offer specialist lens fitting for dry eyes.
BlephEx cleans the outside of your eyelids — that’s Stage 1 of a three-stage treatment. The critical step many practices miss is Stage 3: the manual gland expression that physically clears the hardened oil from inside the glands. That’s usually the missing piece.
Assessment: 45–60 minutes. Treatment sessions: 40–60 minutes each. Total commitment: about three hours spread over six to eight weeks. We never rush.
Ready to find out what's causing your dry eyes?
Book your £95 specialist assessment. 45–60 minutes, dedicated entirely to you.
£50 credited to your treatment if you proceed.
Cheadle: 0161 527 7355 · Middleton: 0161 653 0771 · Heald Green: 0161 527 7356
Winsford: 01606 599030 · Heckmondwike: 01924 669649
GOC Registered · College of Optometrists · Association of Optometrists · BlephEx Certified
Abra & Co — Independent, Family-Owned Eye Care Since 2017