Patients who’ve finished a full IPL series for dry eye often come back with the same question a few months later. Their eyes look better on paper, the inflammation has calmed down, and the oil glands are clearer, so why do they still feel dry by evening? IPL treats the root cause of tear evaporation, but it was never designed to control how quickly the eye drains the tears it already has. For some patients, that gap is exactly where symptoms persist.
Lacrifill Canalicular Gel is an FDA-cleared therapy built to close that gap. It works alongside IPL to address tear volume so the improvements IPL delivers actually stay on the eye longer.
Keep reading to learn how Lacrifill works, why it pairs so naturally with IPL, and what adding it to your treatment plan might look like.
What Lacrifill Can Add to Your Dry Eye Treatment Plan
Lacrifill is an injectable gel placed into the tear drainage canal, known as the canaliculus, through a quick in-office procedure.
Lacrifill uses a biocompatible hydrogel that gradually breaks down over several months, giving your eye doctor flexibility to reassess and adjust as your symptoms change. Some patients pair this with LipiFlow thermal pulsation for additional gland clearing, but Lacrifill’s role is specifically about keeping the tears you already have on the eye longer.
A comprehensive eye exam helps determine whether this combination approach fits your specific pattern of symptoms.
Why IPL Alone Doesn’t Address Every Dry Eye Symptom
IPL therapy is highly effective at treating the root cause of evaporative dry eye, calming the chronic inflammation and clearing the meibomian gland blockages that disrupt the tear film’s oil layer. But IPL doesn’t change how much tear film sits on your eye at any given moment. If your tears are draining away too quickly, even a healthy oil layer won’t be enough to keep your eyes comfortable.
How Lacrifill Keeps Tears on the Eye’s Surface Longer
Every eye has small drainage openings called puncta that constantly funnel tears away from the ocular surface and into the nasal cavity. This drainage system works well for healthy eyes, but for someone with dry eye, it can pull tears away faster than the eye can replace them. Lacrifill temporarily blocks this drainage pathway, giving your natural tears, and any artificial tears you use, more time to coat and protect the eye before they’re carried away. Unlike traditional punctal plugs, which sit as a solid device in the duct and can shift, fall out, or cause irritation, Lacrifill’s gel form settles into the canaliculus itself and dissolves gradually over time. That gradual breakdown means there’s no plug to lose and no follow-up procedure required to remove it. For many patients, this translates to longer stretches of relief between office visits.
What to Expect When Lacrifill Is Added to Your Plan
Adding Lacrifill to an existing dry eye protocol is a quick, in-office procedure that typically takes just a few minutes per eye.
Our ocular disease specialists will evaluate your tear production and drainage before recommending it, so you’ll know exactly how it fits alongside any IPL sessions already on your calendar. Most patients return to normal activities the same day.
Dry eye rarely has a single cause, and it often responds best to a treatment plan built around more than one mechanism. If IPL alone hasn’t fully resolved your symptoms, Lacrifill may be the missing piece.
Curious whether Lacrifill could round out your dry eye treatment plan? Schedule an appointment at All Eye Care Doctors in Chestnut Hill, MA today.
