Published on: October 7, 2023 || Last Modified: May 21, 2026
By Dr. Kenneth King | Alliance Vision Institute
Dr. King is an ophthalmologist at Alliance Vision Institute in Fort Worth, TX.
You woke up with a painful lump on your eyelid and now you are wondering what it is and whether to squeeze it. The short answer is: do not squeeze it. Here is what you need to know about styes, hordeolums, and chalazions.
A stye is an infected oil gland on your eyelid. The technical term is hordeolum.
Your eyelids contain oil glands called meibomian glands. These glands help lubricate the surface of the eye with every blink. When one of those glands gets clogged or infected, it behaves exactly like a pimple on your face. It swells, turns red, and becomes painful.
The eyelid is thin, sensitive skin. When inflammation builds there, it has nowhere to go. That is why styes hurt so much, especially when you blink.
Styes typically appear overnight. One day your lid feels fine, and the next morning there is a tender, red bump sitting right on the lash line.
A stye and a chalazion start the same way but end differently.
A stye is the active, infected phase. The gland is red, swollen, and inflamed. Your body is fighting off the infection. Sometimes a head forms, just like a pimple. Sometimes it stays as a firm, painful nodule.
A chalazion is what can be left behind after the infection clears. The redness and pain go away, but a firm bump remains. That is scar tissue from the healed stye. It is no longer infected, but it did not fully resolve.
The goal of treatment is to clear the stye completely so that scar tissue never forms. Not every stye turns into a chalazion, but the ones that do often require additional treatment to remove.
Styes happen when bacteria enter the oil glands along the lash line or when a gland becomes blocked by debris. Several things increase that risk:
Some people go through stretches of their life where they get styes repeatedly and then stop. Body chemistry, environment, and skin conditions all play a role.
No. Styes are not contagious.
They are caused by a blocked or infected gland on your own eyelid, not by something you can pass to another person. You do not need to isolate or avoid contact with others because of a stye.
Heat is your best first step.
A warm compress increases blood circulation to the area, which brings your immune response to the infection and helps dilate the clogged gland so it can drain. The key word is warm, not lukewarm.
A regular washcloth cools off in seconds and does not transmit enough heat into the tissue. Instead, use a gel eye mask designed for this purpose. You can find them at most drugstores or online. Heat it in the microwave for about 15 seconds and lay it over the closed eye. It will hold heat for several minutes where a washcloth will not.
Apply the warm compress several times a day. This alone can resolve a stye in its early stages.
Eye drops can help if there is some drainage, but they do not penetrate into the lid tissue very well. Drops work on the eye surface. A stye lives in the eyelid.
See your doctor if:
When swelling spreads across the whole lid, that is called preseptal cellulitis. It is a more serious stage that requires an oral antibiotic. Eye drops alone will not reach the infected tissue at that level. An oral antibiotic gets into the bloodstream and into the lid where the infection actually lives.
If a chalazion forms and does not resolve on its own, a procedure can be done in-office to remove it. The doctor makes a small incision, clears out the hardened material, and allows the area to heal. This is done only after the active infection has settled down.
No. Do not do this.
Standing in front of your bathroom mirror with a needle or your fingernails is not the same as a clinical procedure under a microscope. You are introducing bacteria from your hands into an area that is already infected. You are making the problem worse, not better.
If a stye needs to be drained or excised, let your eye doctor handle it under proper sterile conditions.
Good lid hygiene is the single most effective prevention strategy. Here is what that looks like in practice:
If you have been diagnosed with blepharitis, a daily lid scrub is not optional. It is part of managing the condition.
A stye is an infected oil gland on the eyelid. Treat it early with consistent warm compresses, see your eye doctor if it spreads or does not clear up, and never try to pop it yourself. Good daily lid hygiene is the best way to avoid getting one in the first place.
A persistent bump on your eyelid is worth having looked at. Our doctors can determine whether it is a stye, a chalazion, or something else, and get you on the right treatment plan.
Schedule an appointment at Alliance Vision Institute
This blog is part of the Days of Our Eyes series, featuring Dr. Kenneth King and Dr. Christopher Cha at Alliance Vision Institute in Fort Worth, TX.