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Abra & Co

Dry eye clinic · Cheadle · Heald Green · Middleton · Winsford · Heckmondwike

Dry eye clinic in Manchester.

Drops mask the symptom. We treat the cause.

You’ve tried the drops, the warm flannel, the lid wipes. Your eyes still feel gritty, tired and blurry. It isn’t you. Nobody has looked at the cause.

In one 45-minute visit we photograph the oil glands inside your eyelids, show you exactly what’s wrong, and hand you a written plan with every option and price. Then you decide.

Since 2017 · Led by optometrist Sohail Khan, who has dry eye himself · IPL at Cheadle and Middleton

Book EyeRelief · £900Not sure? Free 10-minute call

Do I need an assessment first? No. Every treatment starts with a free consultation with your optometrist, in person at any of our five practices or on the phone. EyeRelief is the one our optometrists recommend most.

Tap Book to see the next free times at your practice · See all treatments and prices

Tried everything but nothing worked?

Does this sound like your eyes?

Tap the ones that are true for you.

Most people with dry eye tick three or four. They feel like different problems. They usually have the same cause.

Perhaps this is what you’ve been told in the past

“Just use drops.”

So you did, for years. It helps for an hour, then you’re back where you started.

“There’s nothing more we can do.”

You were told to live with it, and you believed them. Most of the time, it isn’t true.

“It’s just your age.”

Or the menopause, or the screens, or just how it is now. None of those is a reason to leave it.

Red, sore, tired-looking eyes

People ask if you’re tired. You’re not. Your eyes just look it.

Contact lenses you can’t wear like you used to

Not as long, not as often. Out by lunchtime, or left in the drawer. Nobody told you that was dry eye too. Why lenses dry out →

Giving things up

Reading in the evening. Driving at night. The long walk in the wind. Each one quietly dropped.

None of it is imagined and none of it is permanent. There is a cause, and the cause can be explained, photographed and shown to you.

Book the Essential assessment · £225Not sure? Take the 60-second check

What’s really going on

Why your drops only last an hour.

It’s rarely that you don’t make enough tears. It’s the oil that keeps them on your eye.

Tear film: a thin oil layer on top of water. When the oil is missing, the water evaporates. OILWATERYOUR EYE
Healthy: the oil keeps the water in.Blocked glands: no oil, so the water evaporates. Drops just top it up.

  1. Your tears need a thin layer of oil

    It sits on top of the water and stops it drying out between blinks.

  2. That oil comes from tiny glands in your eyelids

    About thirty in the top lid and twenty-five in the bottom. Every blink squeezes a little out.

  3. When the oil thickens, the glands block

    Long hours on screens mean you blink less. Age, hormones and some medicines thicken the oil too. Without it, your tears dry in seconds. That’s the gritty, burning feeling, and it’s why your eyes then water.

  4. Drops wear off because they can’t reach the glands

    They add water for a few minutes. Clearing the blocked glands is what lasts.

Infrared photographs of the oil glands inside a lower eyelid: healthy, shortened and lost
Real glands, photographed with infrared. Left: healthy. Middle: shortened. Right: lost. At your assessment, we show you yours.
What the research says

  • About 86% of people with dry eye show signs of blocked oil glands.
    Lemp et al., Cornea, 2012
  • Dry eye affects between 5% and 50% of adults, depending on age and where they live.
    TFOS DEWS II Epidemiology Report, The Ocular Surface, 2017
  • On a screen, people blink about a third as often: around 7 times a minute instead of 22.
    Tsubota & Nakamori, New England Journal of Medicine, 1993

The good news: blocked glands can be cleared. Here’s what that looks like.

Book EyeRelief · £900What happens at the assessment

See it for yourself

This is what’s been making your eyes gritty.

Filmed at our Middleton clinic

That thick white paste is the oil that should be in your tears.

It sets like butter in a blocked gland. A warm mask softens it, then gentle pressure clears it. Once it flows again, your tears stop drying out.

Press play if you want to see it. Skip it if you would rather not. Nothing touches the eye itself.

Blocked: oil has set inside the glands
Blocked Oil has set inside the glands
Gentle pressure after a warm mask
Gentle pressure After a warm mask softens it
Cleared: the trapped oil comes out
Cleared The trapped oil comes out
Eyelid margin before treatment: blocked gland openings and debris at the lash baseThe same lash line, clean, after EyeCleanBeforeAfter

The same eyelid, ten minutes later.

Before: crusty debris round the lashes and blocked gland openings. After: one EyeClean session, in the chair. Drag the line to compare.

Book EyeRelief · £900Ask an optometrist first
Sohail Khan and Abra Arshad, directors of Abra & Co
Sohail Khan, Optometrist and Director · Abra Arshad, Optometrist and Clinical Director

We know what this is like

Because I live with it too.

I’m Sohail. I’m an optometrist, and I’ve had dry eye for years.

I know the mornings when your eyes feel full of sand. Reading the same line twice because the words keep going soft. Putting the drops in again, knowing they’ll last ten minutes.

It cost me things, too. I had to stop wearing contact lenses. And I couldn’t have laser eye surgery, because my eyes were too dry.

And I know what it’s like to be told it’s just your age. Try another drop. Wash your lids with baby shampoo. I was told all of that too, and none of it fixed anything.

It isn’t in your head, and you don’t have to put up with it. So in 2017 I started doing things differently, for myself first and then for my patients. We sit down and listen. We show you your own glands on the screen. And we give you an honest plan, written down, that’s yours to keep.

When you come here, you’ll be seen by someone who has the time, and who knows exactly how it feels.

Book EyeRelief · £900Prefer to talk first? We’ll call you

Our treatment programmes

Three programmes. Pick the one that matches how bad it is.

Built by us since 2017, from the latest research. Your assessment confirms which one fits.

Mild, fairly recent. Gritty eyes or crusty lashesEyeCleanA first step · 3 visits£480
Mild to severe. Burning, red lids, keeps coming back, drops don’t helpEyeRelief (IPL)Most people start hereAbout 3 months£900
Severe or long-standing. Needs care over a longer timeEyeRelief Max (IPL)About 6 months£1,495

Why most people choose EyeRelief

EyeClean clears your blocked glands. EyeRelief does that too, and treats why they keep blocking. Each visit, in one chair:

  1. IPL (intense pulsed light) melts the oil deep in the glands and calms the inflamed vessels along the lid
  2. Low-level light therapy (LLLT), a red light mask that calms inflammation in the lids, helps the glands regenerate and warms them slightly
  3. Blephasteam warm steam goggles soften what’s left
  4. Every gland cleared by hand (gland expression)

A good first step for mild dry eye: gritty or tired eyes and crusty lashes that haven’t been going on for long.

The EyeClean Programme

3 visits, about 30 minutes each

  • Each visit: Blephasteam warm steam goggles soften the hardened oil, your optometrist clears every gland by hand, then a BlephEx deep clean of your lid edges
  • Home kit to keep it going between visits
  • Follow-up: your tests repeated, so you see the change in numbers
  • Add red light at every visit: +£95

£480

or £240 today and £240 at your next visit

Book EyeClean

Book it straight in. Your first visit starts with a free consultation with your optometrist, and if it isn’t right for you, we tell you before anything starts.

Most recommended

For mild to severe dry eye: burning, red lids, eyes that keep going back to how they were, drops that don’t help.

EyeRelief (IPL)

About 3 months

  • 4 IPL visits, two weeks apart, about 75 minutes each
  • Each visit: IPL, then red light therapy (LLLT), then Blephasteam warm steam goggles, then every gland cleared by hand
  • Plus one full EyeClean visit and a home kit
  • Follow-up at the end of treatment

IPL is at Cheadle and Middleton. Heald Green, Winsford and Heckmondwike assess you and book your IPL for you.

£900

or £450 today and £450 at your next visit

Tap Book to see the next free times at your practice

Book EyeRelief

Your first visit starts with a free consultation with your optometrist, and if it isn’t right for you, we tell you before anything starts.

Do I need an assessment first? No. Your first visit starts with a free consultation. Glands that stay blocked shrink, and they don’t grow back, so there’s no reason to wait.

Not sure what you have? Start with the assessment (£225)

For severe or long-standing dry eye that needs care over a longer time, including blepharitis, mites and rosacea.

EyeRelief Max (IPL)

About 6 months

  • 5 IPL visits: IPL, red light therapy (LLLT), Blephasteam and every gland cleared by hand, plus blue light when your optometrist decides it’s needed for bacteria and mites
  • 4 EyeClean visits, one a month, lid edges cleaned each time
  • Home kit and a follow-up at six months

£1,495

or £747 today and £748 at your next visit

Book EyeRelief Max

Your first visit starts with a free consultation with your optometrist, and if it isn’t right for you, we tell you before anything starts.

Or start with the assessment (£225) · talk to an optometrist first

£50 of your assessment comes off whichever programme you choose. As we go, your optometrist may change the mix in your favour, never at extra cost.

Other treatments, if your plan needs them

Your optometrist adds these when your assessment shows they’ll help.

Not enough tears: punctal plugs or LacrifillTiny plugs or a gel slow the drainage, so your own tears stay on the eye for longer. Added once your lids are calm. At all five practices.Plugs £320 a pair · Lacrifill £520
A damaged eye surface: amniotic membrane lensA soft lens made from natural healing tissue, worn for a few days to help the surface heal.£950
Watery eyes: lacrimal syringingA gentle rinse of the tear drainage channel, to check it’s open and flowing.Ask us
Drops and home careThe right drops for your type, a heat mask, lid wipes and a routine that fits your day.Home Plan kit £65
Prescription drops or an eye doctorWe don’t prescribe ourselves. If you need a prescription drop, we write to your GP with your results. If you need an ophthalmologist, for example for Sjögren’s, we refer you.Part of your assessment
See the full price list

Full price list

Getting started

Free 10-minute callTalk to an optometrist before you book anything.
Free
Essential Dry Eye Assessment, 45 minutesThe complete picture: your tears, eye surface, lashes and lids, every oil gland photographed with infrared, and an inflammation test. You leave with a written plan.
£225
£50 towards your treatmentFrom your assessment fee, if you go ahead now or later.
−£50

Treatment programmes

EyeClean Programme3 EyeClean visits, home kit and follow-up. For mild dry eye and blepharitis.
£480
EyeRelief Programme (most recommended)4 IPL visits with red light and gland clearing, 1 EyeClean, home kit and follow-up. For moderate dry eye, blocked glands and red lids.
£900
EyeRelief Max Programme5 IPL visits with red light (and blue light when needed), 4 EyeClean visits one a month, home kit and a 6-month follow-up. For severe or long-standing dry eye, blepharitis, mites or rosacea.
£1,495
Add red light to EyeCleanLow-level red light at every EyeClean visit, to calm inflammation, help the glands regenerate and warm them slightly.
+£95
Add red and blue light to EyeCleanAlso treats the bacteria and mites of blepharitis.
+£180

Single sessions

EyeClean sessionWarm mask, BlephEx lid clean and every gland cleared. A top-up after a programme.
£195
IPL sessionOne IPL visit with red light and gland clearing. Cheadle and Middleton.
£295
Red and blue light sessionOne visit: low-level red light to calm inflammation and help the glands regenerate, then blue light for the bacteria and mites of blepharitis. About 30 minutes.
£95

Not enough tears, or a damaged eye surface

Lacrifill gel, both eyesSlows tear drainage so your own tears stay on the eye longer.
£520
Punctal plugs, a pairTiny plugs in the tear drains, for the same reason.
£320
Amniotic membrane contact lensNatural healing tissue, worn for a few days to help a damaged surface heal.
£950

At home and afterwards

Home Plan kitHeat mask, lid wipes and the drops that suit your type.
£65
Yearly re-assessment, 45 minutesChecks your eyes are staying well, and catches any change early.
£195

Pay in full, or half today and half at your next visit. Lacrifill and plugs are added to a treatment once your lids are calm.

Not sure which? Book the assessment (£225)Ask an optometrist. We’ll call you

Not sure what you have?

Start with an assessment. We find the cause first.

Dry eye has different causes. Treat the wrong one and you waste time and money. So we find yours first.

  1. 1Book your assessment45 minutes with an optometrist who has the time. £225.
  2. 2See what’s going onWe photograph your oil glands and show you them on the screen. You take home a written report.
  3. 3Treat the root causeIf treatment will help, we recommend one. £50 of your assessment fee comes off it, now or later.

Step 1

Essential Dry Eye Assessment

£225 · 45 minutes with the optometrist

For eyes that are gritty, burning, watery or tired, when drops aren’t helping. We check:

  • how your eyes feel day to day, and what you’ve already tried
  • how fast your tears dry up, and how much tear you make
  • any dry or damaged patches on the surface of your eye
  • your lashes and lid edges, for blepharitis and mites
  • every oil gland in your eyelids, photographed with infrared
  • inflammation, which can keep re-blocking your glands

Book the Essential assessment · £225

Not sure yet? Book a free 10-minute call with an optometrist

Helpful to bring

  • Any eye drops, gels or sprays you use, or a photo of the bottles
  • A list of your medicines, including the pill, HRT and hay fever tablets
  • Your glasses, and your contact lens details if you wear them
  • A note of when it’s worst: mornings, evenings, screens, driving, wind
  • If you wear eye make-up, come without it if you can

Step 2 · Your dry eye report

You leave with answers on paper, not a feeling.

  • Every result next to the healthy number, so you can see where you stand.
  • Photographs of your own eyes, explained as we go.
  • What’s causing it, in plain words. Blocked glands, inflamed lids, not enough tears, or a mix.
  • Your routine at home, and the drops that suit your type, not the generic bottle.
  • One recommendation. If treatment would help, which one and why. No pressure on the day.

Your GP, the hospital or any other optician can read it as it stands.

Your dry eye report, page one
Your report, page one
Every result next to the healthy number
Every result next to the healthy number
Your routine at home
Your routine at home

Already know you want treatment?

Go back to our treatment programmes. Every programme starts with a free consultation with your optometrist. If it isn’t the right one for you, we tell you before anything starts.

See our treatment programmes
Prefer to talk first? We’ll call you

The nine things we measure, and why each one matters to you
  1. Your symptoms as a score Six questions about the last month. The number we measure against at every visit, so you can see yourself getting better.
  2. Your days Screen hours, what you have tried, and whether a home routine is realistic for you. A plan you cannot keep is not a plan.
  3. A first look Lids and the surface of your eye under the microscope, before any dye goes in.
  4. How much tear you make The reservoir along your lower lid, to a fraction of a millimetre.
  5. How long your tears last Seconds between blinks before the film breaks up.
  6. What the surface has been through Dye shows every point of damage, including the inner edge of the upper lid.
  7. Your glands Pressed gently to see which still release oil, and the oil itself. Photographed in the Essential assessment.
  8. Inflammation and the lid edge Mites, crusting, rosacea vessels. The swab in the Essential assessment.
  9. How you blink Ten blinks while you talk. Three or more incomplete, and blink exercises go in your plan.

What our patients say

9 in 10of our patients told us their eyes are more comfortable and their symptoms have improved.

“Patience, caring and so much help. It was the best thing ever I decided to have.”Pat Smith, Middleton

Dry eye is personal. It changes how you work, drive, read and sleep, and most people have been told to put up with it. You will not be told that here. These are the words of our patients, exactly as they wrote them.

“I had the blepharitis treatment. Everything was properly explained and great care was taken to carry out the procedure. Plenty of time was taken during my appointment to put me at ease. All the staff are cheerful, helpful and welcoming. Can’t thank them all enough for an excellent experience.”

Stephanie Taylor · Middleton

“Patience, caring and so much help during the time I was having the Dry Eye Treatment Programme. It was the best thing ever I decided to have, in between and after my cataract surgery. I would highly recommend it. With all my treatment from starting to finishing it, wow. Just to say to each and every one of you, a massive thank you. You all were the very best.”

Pat Smith · Middleton

“Everyone is very attentive and caring and I have had positive results from my treatments.”

Tim Baker · Middleton

“Helpful and friendly. I had complete confidence in your actions and guidance.”

Carla Reuben

“Excellent service, extremely helpful staff. Thanks for all you have done for me, I am very grateful. A special thanks to optometrist Lara and dispenser Emily, you are a great team!”

Mr P E Garo-Jones

“I was told by two other opticians that it was just dry eye and there was nothing to be done. The imaging showed me exactly what was wrong. Seeing my blocked glands on the screen made it all make sense.”

Cheadle patient

500+ patients treated. 9 in 10 EyeClean patients improved. 4.9 stars from more than 600 reviews.

Book EyeRelief · £900Talk to us first

Book

Choose your nearest practice.

Book online any time, or call us Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm. Outside those hours, the number offers to ring you back when we open.

Sudden or severe symptoms? Don’t wait for a dry eye appointment.
Severe eye pain, sudden loss of vision, a chemical in your eye or an injury needs help today. Call your nearest practice or see our urgent eye care page. Out of hours, call NHS 111, or go to A&E.

Not sure it’s dry eye?

Take the 60-second check.

Six questions our optometrists use in clinic. You get your score straight away, and can book or ask us to ring you.

Dry eye types

The three types of dry eye, and what we do for each

Most people are told “you’ve got dry eyes” and handed drops. But there are three different causes, and each needs something different. Most people have a mix.

  1. 1

    Blocked oil glands: meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD)

    In one large study, 86% of people with dry eye had signs of this. Along the edge of your eyelids are tiny glands, about 30 in the top lid and 25 in the bottom, that put a thin layer of oil on your tears. When they block, your tears dry up in seconds, however much water your eyes make. It feels gritty, burning and tired, often worse on screens or by evening. Drops help for an hour, because they don’t unblock the glands.

    What we do: photograph your glands so you can see them, warm and clear them in clinic, clean the lid edge, and use IPL or light therapy where it helps. Then we give you a simple routine for home.

  2. 2

    Not enough tears

    Your eyes don’t make enough of the watery part of tears. This is more common with age, some medicines, the menopause, and conditions like Sjögren’s.

    What we do: measure your tear level, choose the right drops for you, and use tiny plugs to keep your own tears in where they help. We’ll write to your GP if something needs checking.

  3. 3

    Inflamed eyelids: blepharitis, often with tiny mites called Demodex

    Crusty, itchy, red lid edges, often worse in the morning.

    What we do: deep-clean the lid edge in clinic, treat the mites, and show you how to keep the lids clean at home.

Not sure which one you have?

That’s what the assessment is for. We look at your glands, tears and lids, and tell you which type, or which mix.

Book a free 10-minute callBook a dry eye assessment

What happens if you leave it

Blocked glands do not stay blocked. They shrink, and they do not grow back.

  • A gland that stays blocked stops being asked for oil. Your body treats it as unused, and an unused gland wastes away from the back. Lose enough of them and dry eye stops being something we can clear and becomes something you manage for life.
  • Each top lid has about thirty oil glands and each bottom lid about twenty-five, so every one you keep matters.
  • The infrared photograph here shows all three stages side by side: a healthy gland running the full depth of the lid, a gland that has shrunk to half its length, and the gaps where glands have gone altogether.
  • Once a gland has gone, no treatment anywhere brings it back. Every gland you still have is one we can get working again.
  • Caught early, that usually means three visits and a routine at home. Left for years, it means more visits for the same result, with fewer glands to work with.
  • This is not a reason to panic. It is the reason we photograph your glands at the assessment and tell you, on the day, how many you have and how they are doing.
Have my glands photographed · £225Start with the Essential assessment, £225
Infrared photographs of the glands inside a lower eyelid: healthy, shortened, and lost
Healthy, shortened, lost.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

My eyes are itchy and gritty. Is that dry eye?

Usually. Itchy, gritty eyes that worsen through the day are the most common sign of blocked oil glands in the lids, and the Essential Dry Eye Assessment shows whether yours are blocked. Gritty, burning eyes →

Why do my eyes water if they are dry?

A dry surface makes the eye pour out thin, watery tears in self-defence. They run off and do nothing for the dryness. Eyes that stream in the wind or the car for no reason are one of the clearest signs of blocked glands. Why dry eyes water →

My eyes changed with the menopause. Is that connected?

Very often. Falling hormones, mainly androgens, thicken the oil in the glands and cut tear production, so dry eye tends to begin or worsen around then. It responds to treatment, and it brings a great many women to us. Dry eyes and the menopause →

Can dry eye make my vision blurry?

Yes, and it is one of the most missed symptoms. An unstable tear film scatters light, so the picture blurs and then clears on a blink. Vision that comes and goes after a spell on the screen is very often dry eye rather than a change in prescription.

Do I need a GP referral?

No. Book online or ring whichever practice is nearest.

What does IPL actually do?

IPL is intense pulsed light flashed across the lower lids and cheeks. It does two things at once. The light energy heats and melts the set oil right at the base of the gland, deeper than any mask reaches, and it closes the leaky, over-active vessels along the lid edge that pour inflammation onto the glands all day. With less inflammation the oil stays liquid, so the glands stay open after we clear them. That is why EyeRelief holds longer than EyeClean alone. Low-level red light at the same visit calms inflammation and helps the glands regenerate, and blue light, when the optometrist sees mites or heavy crusting, treats the lash line.

Is the treatment available at every practice?

Yes. All five practices run the full EyeClean programme with the same equipment and the same protocol. IPL and light therapy are at Middleton and Cheadle, and the other practices refer to them and send your results ahead.

How quickly will I notice a difference?

Many people feel a change after the first EyeClean visit. The course runs three sessions and the improvement builds through it, with an end of treatment follow-up to measure the change; after that most people keep well with a single session now and then.

How do I pay for treatment?

Pay in full, or half today and half at your next visit. Every price is shown before you decide, and £50 of your assessment comes off whichever treatment you choose.

Book the Essential assessment · £225Still have a question? We’ll call you

Comfortable eyes, without living on drops.

I’m ready: book EyeRelief Or leave your number and we’ll call you

Have a question?

We’ll call you back.

Usually within the hour, Monday to Friday 9am to 5:30pm. Asked in the evening? We’ll call from 9am the next working day.

We only use your number to call you about your eyes. No marketing.