A stye is a small, painful bump that forms on or inside your eyelid when one of the tiny oil glands near your eyelashes gets blocked and infected. It looks a lot like a pimple, and it behaves like one too: it swells, fills with fluid, and typically resolves on its own within one to two weeks. The infection is almost always caused by staphylococcus bacteria, the same common type that causes skin infections elsewhere on the body.
What Happens Inside Your Eyelid
Your eyelids contain dozens of small oil glands that help keep your eyes lubricated. When the duct of one of these glands gets clogged, oil backs up and thickens inside it. Bacteria already living on your skin can then multiply in that trapped oil, creating a localized infection and the characteristic red, swollen bump.
There are two types, depending on which gland is affected. An external stye forms at the base of an eyelash, where a small oil gland opens directly into the hair follicle. You’ll see redness and swelling right at the lash line, sometimes with a yellowish-red center. An internal stye forms deeper in the eyelid, in one of the larger oil glands embedded in the eyelid’s inner tissue. Internal styes point toward the inside of the lid, so they’re less visible from the outside but can feel more uncomfortable. They sometimes produce a yellow spot visible when you flip the eyelid.
What a Stye Feels and Looks Like
The first sign is usually tenderness or a gritty sensation along the eyelid margin. Within a day or so, a firm, red bump appears. The skin around it may swell enough to make your eyelid look puffy, and your eye might water more than usual. Most styes are about the size of a pea, though the surrounding swelling can make them look larger.
Pain is the defining feature. A stye stays tender throughout its life, especially when you blink or touch the area. Some people also notice sensitivity to light. Internal styes can occasionally cause more intense inflammation, and in rare cases, a mild fever or chills.
Stye vs. Chalazion
People often confuse styes with chalazia (the plural of chalazion), and the two can look identical in the first day or two. Both start with eyelid redness, swelling, and some discomfort. The difference becomes clear over time. A stye stays painful and stays at the eyelid margin near your lashes. A chalazion, which is a blocked gland without active infection, migrates toward the center of the eyelid and gradually becomes a small, painless, rubbery nodule. If your bump hurts, it’s more likely a stye. If it doesn’t hurt but won’t go away, it’s more likely a chalazion.
Why Some People Get Them Repeatedly
A single stye is common and doesn’t necessarily mean anything is wrong with your eyes. Recurrent styes, though, often point to an underlying condition called blepharitis, a chronic, low-grade inflammation of the eyelid margins. Blepharitis causes the oil glands to produce thicker secretions that clog more easily, creating a cycle of blockages and infections.
Skin conditions like rosacea and dandruff (seborrheic dermatitis) increase the risk of blepharitis and, by extension, styes. Touching or rubbing your eyes with unwashed hands, sleeping in eye makeup, and using expired cosmetics also raise the odds. If you wear contact lenses and skip handwashing before handling them, that’s another common route for bacteria to reach your eyelid glands.
Treating a Stye at Home
Warm compresses are the single most effective home treatment. Soak a clean washcloth in warm water, wring it out, and hold it gently against your closed eye for 5 to 10 minutes. Repeat this 3 to 6 times a day. The heat softens the thickened oil inside the blocked gland, helping it drain naturally. You’ll likely need to reheat the cloth a few times during each session as it cools.
Resist the urge to squeeze or pop a stye. Forcing it open can push the infection deeper into the eyelid tissue and make things significantly worse. Let it drain on its own. You should also avoid wearing contact lenses and eye makeup while the stye is active.
Most styes start improving within a few days and resolve completely in one to two weeks with consistent warm compresses. If you notice that pain and swelling are still increasing after the first two to three days of home treatment rather than plateauing or improving, that’s a sign the infection may need medical attention.
When a Stye Needs Medical Treatment
A stye that doesn’t respond to warm compresses may need a prescription antibiotic ointment or drops to help clear the bacterial infection. If the stye has formed a well-defined pocket of pus that won’t drain, a doctor can perform a small incision and drainage procedure in the office. This sounds more dramatic than it is: the area is numbed first, and relief is usually immediate.
Certain symptoms warrant prompt medical evaluation rather than watchful waiting:
- Vision changes: blurriness or any difficulty seeing out of the affected eye
- Spreading redness: swelling and warmth that extends beyond the bump itself across the eyelid or cheek
- Severe swelling: the eyelid is so puffy it’s hard to open
- Pus draining from the eye itself (not just the bump)
- Fever
These signs can indicate that infection has spread into the surrounding eyelid tissue, a condition called preseptal cellulitis. It’s treatable with oral antibiotics, but it does need to be caught early to prevent the infection from moving deeper toward the eye socket.
Keeping Styes From Coming Back
If you’ve had more than one stye, a daily eyelid hygiene routine can break the cycle. After applying a warm compress for several minutes to loosen any oily debris, gently massage your closed eyelids, then clean along the lash line with a clean washcloth or cotton swab dampened with warm water and a drop of diluted baby shampoo or a store-bought eyelid cleanser. Use a separate cloth for each eye.
This routine is especially important if you have blepharitis, which rarely goes away entirely. Daily lid cleaning keeps the oil glands flowing freely and reduces the bacterial load along your lash line. Treating any related skin conditions like rosacea or dandruff also helps, since controlling inflammation elsewhere on the face tends to calm the eyelid margins as well.
Simple habits make a difference too: wash your hands before touching your face, replace eye makeup every few months, and never share mascara or eyeliner. If you wear contacts, clean them according to schedule and always handle them with freshly washed hands.